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Long December	By : DrunkenScotsman Category: +M to R > Rosario Vampire Views: 6725 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I make no money from the writing of this story. All characters and locations of Rosario+Vampire belong to Ikeda Akihisa.

Chapter List
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Chapter 11: We Are Family

“I should have expected such treachery from you, Kokoa,” spat the vampire lord as he stood once more. “No matter – I shall deal with you as well.” He dashed in to attack the redheaded vampire.
Kokoa had always defended poorly, believing instead the adage that the best defense was a good offense. The ferocity of her heedless counterattack therefore forced her father to defend instead. Rather than block, which he knew would ultimately favor her heavy weapon over his arms, Lord Shuzen dodged, artfully avoiding each swing of her club. Both combatants knew she would tire long before him; they both also knew that one solid hit from her could end the fight.
“You’re your mother’s daughter, Kokoa,” noted Lord Shuzen, “all spite, no strategy. Each attack you make wastes energy. Soon, there’ll be an opening –“ When the vampire girl overextended on her next swing, her father capitalized with an uppercut that sent his youngest daughter sprawling. “An opening which will allow an opponent to destroy you,” he finished.
By now, Kokoa’s interference had given Moka enough of a breather for her to return to the fray. While Father’s attention rested on the younger vampire girl, the silver-haired warrior jumped in, landing three crushing kicks in quick succession, two to the still-broken arm and one to the side of the head. Lord Shuzen caromed into the already-damaged pillar, bringing the mass of stone down atop him.
“Father won’t stay down long,” Moka told her sister. She extended a hand to the still-dazed girl to help her to her feet. “I don’t think I can beat him alone,” she admitted, “but together, I think we have a chance.”
The redheaded vampire grinned and grasped her sister’s hand and pulled herself to her feet. “You… want me to fight by your side, Big Sis?” whispered Kokoa, awestruck. “Of course I will!” she cried in jubilation. “It’s only something I’ve wanted to do my whole fucking life!”
Lord Shuzen climbed out of the rubble, looking more than a little peeved at his daughters, and the sisters readied themselves for more. Moka chuckled. “Here’s your chance, then. Kokoa… thank you.”
Kokoa nodded resolutely, understanding the subtext of her sister’s statement. “I love you too, Big Sis.”
“Now my daughters stand in solidarity against me,” observed Lord Shuzen in an utterly unconcerned tone. “Although I have but one good arm at the moment, you must understand fighting me is a fool’s errand. I should inform you that your elder sisters, Akua and Kahlua, also attempted to fight me together. They failed utterly.”
With a flash of insight from a long-submerged memory now resurfacing, Moka replied, “As I recall, Akua and Kahlua hated each other as much as they hated you, Father. No wonder, then, that their attempt to cooperate imploded.” She smirked. “You’ll find a much greater challenge from me and Kokoa; we’ve been training together since we were little.”
From his vantage point on the floor, Tsukune could only lie on his side and watch the incredible battle that raged throughout the chamber. The three vampires moved far too fast for him to track, rendering them each a colorful blur of motion: scarlet for Kokoa, silver for Moka, and black for their father. The young man desperately wished that the sisters didn’t have to fight on his behalf, but he understood that he would only hamper their efforts, even if he could somehow tap into the remnants of Moka’s blood inside him.
For now, then, Tsukune simply tried to call it forth to repair his broken ribs and cracked vertebrae. After some experimentation, he found that focusing his thoughts on his feelings for the girls hastened the mystical healing properties of his trace vampire blood; unsurprisingly, the acceleration increased fastest when he dwelt on his recently-confessed love for the vampire to whom the blood had originally belonged. Normally, I’d feel bad for taking so long to figure it out, he mused, but Moka herself seemed to be in the same boat. Now I just hope we all make it out of here in one piece, so we can talk about everything.
Unlike his previous battle with his other daughters, Lord Shuzen found himself thoroughly nettled by Moka and Kokoa’s degree of cooperation and coordination. The elder daughter’s kicks were faster and more precise, but weaker, able to be blocked; blocking them, however, would root him in place and leave him open for one of the younger daughter’s powerful, potentially-fight-ending weapon sweeps. Evading Kokoa’s club, on the other hand, left him unable to take the offensive, in addition to leaving gaps for glancing blows from Moka. Further, the vampire lord begrudgingly credited Moka for targeting his weakened arm, preventing it from healing fully and enhancing his disadvantage.
Moka felt her blouse stick to her skin with the sweat she was pouring from every pore; but at least her skirt, usually vexing in its shortness, proved useful in allowing her long legs ample ventilation. Despite the desperate stakes of this battle, a primal part of her vampire psyche thrilled at every strike landed, every near-miss. Nerves sang with exertion and the thrill of battle. Blood rushing in her ears roared a tune of terrifying bloodlust that, if she stopped to think about it, would horrify her and freeze the marrow of that other Moka, were she still around.
Kokoa growled in frustration as she missed yet again. She, too, felt that vampiric bloodlust lighting her every nerve. Unlike her sister, though, she was denied the satisfaction of landing even glancing blows. Adding to her annoyance, the young vampire knew that one more clean, solid hit from her would likely end the fight. Defeating Father was something even Big Sis couldn’t claim, glory which Kokoa’s vampire pride deeply craved.
Fatigue, coupled with eagerness to finally win just once in her life, caused Kokoa to swing too zealously and leave herself slow to recover. Lord Shuzen, seeing the opening, landed a brutal roundhouse kick to his youngest daughter’s jaw. The redhead vampire tumbled three quarters of the way across the chamber, finally stopping beside the still-recovering Tsukune, blood streaming from her mouth. The vampire lord’s blow had, in turn, left him vulnerable, so Moka launched a flurry of kicks to her father’s arm, chest, and midsection, staggering him.
“Kokoa, you’ve got to get up,” urged Tsukune. “I don’t think Moka can keep your dad pinned down much longer.”
The young vampire’s emerald eyes opened a sliver, and – much to the human’s surprise – tears flowed freely. “What’s the damn point?” whimpered Kokoa, sounding more broken than Tsukune had ever heard her. “I’m… I’m useless. Just like you, only I don’t have the excuse of being a lame human.”
Tsukune flinched at the reminder of his own inadequacies. “At least you can fight, Kokoa,” he insisted. “Don’t you think I wish I could join in?” When the vampire girl didn’t budge, he pressed on: “You saved me earlier; I’ll never forget that. It’s all for nothing, though, if you give up now.”
The redhead’s face matched her hair when she heard him say he’d never forget what she did, and her heart ached at her inability to tell him the real reason she’d intervened, the one underlying the others she’d declared aloud. “I can’t,” Kokoa protested. “I can’t make a difference. I can’t help Big Sis protect you. I can’t escape being the weak one.”
“Right now, I’m the weak one,” Tsukune reminded her, somehow firm and gentle all at once. “Usually, Moka’s protection is enough. Today, though, I… I need you too, Kokoa.”
The young vampire’s emerald eyes took on a strange look as Kokoa struggled into a sitting position, a look Tsukune couldn’t begin to identify. “Nobody’s ever said they needed me before,” she muttered as she wiped the blood from her lips.
“Moka and I both need you,” Tsukune urged, “now, before your dad seriously hurts the person we both love. If you don’t help her soon, the chance’ll be gone forever.”
A fierce glint lit Kokoa’s eyes. The young vampire grinned harshly and levered herself back onto her feet. Readying her weapon to rejoin the fray, Kokoa chuckled. “Y’know, loser, I’m starting to understand what Big Sis and those dumb bitches see in you,” she sassed him over her shoulder as she departed.
Meanwhile, Moka and her father had traded blows as the daughter’s initial advantage evaporated. Her lip bled, more an annoying trickle than anything. Her insides ached from the body blows she’d absorbed, and her hands and feet were growing numb from the hits she landed and those she’d blocked. Without her sister’s assistance, the proud silver-haired vampire knew she couldn’t last much longer.
For his part, Lord Shuzen appeared, at worst, a little rumpled from battling his daughters, singly and together, for all this time. Victory drew near; he could smell it. Like his daughters, he’d found this entire exercise most invigorating; but sweeter than the thrill of battle was the thrill of conquest, of asserting his dominance once more.
“On reflection,” he told his daughter as he set up the final blow with a powerful combination of haymakers, “I lied when I claimed I would take no pleasure in punishing your impudence, my dear. Comfort yourself with knowing that lie came unintentionally.” The vampire lord drew back his fist for the knockout blow.
He could never have fathomed that his youngest daughter, the one he’d so often written off, would provide it.
With a home-run swing, Kokoa blasted her father into the wall. The sound of her steel club cracking ribs could, in that moment, substitute for a choir of angels to the young vampire’s ears. A feral, triumphant grin lit her face as Lord Shuzen coughed up blood.
Moka staggered to her feet, staring at the damage Kokoa had inflicted. Gasping for air, she leaned forward, hands on her knees, and willed the room to stop spinning. Once she could stand, she favored her sister with a grateful, impressed smirk.
Lord Shuzen climbed to his feet as well, leaning on the wall for support. Once again, his short, sharp laugh startled – and, in this case, unnerved – the three teens present. “Bat,” he coughed, “how long has this showdown lasted, counting from the moment Kokoa joined?”
“Thirty-one paragraphs, my lord,” answered the familiar in weapon form, foregoing his customary “whee.”
“Enough, then, to declare this Rite of Accession successful,” the vampire lord intoned, “for both of you.”
“What the hell does that mean?” growled Kokoa, still catching her breath but riding high with the delicious, unfamiliar feeling of victory.
Lord Shuzen stood, and several wet pops indicated the return of his ribs to their rightful places. “Vampires must prove themselves worthy of independence from their parents,” he answered, “through combat with said parents. The combat must last for a certain period, and the young vampires must either withstand or inflict a great deal of damage, though the latter is preferred.” He gestured to his daughters, a glimmer of pride in his eyes. “Between you, you accomplished both.”
Moka’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t recall this being discussed.”
“Me neither!” added Kokoa sourly.
“The Rite is secret, neither discussed nor announced beforehand,” replied their father with a shrug, nonchalant as if he and his daughters hadn’t just been engaged in ferocious combat.
Wary of a possible ruse, Moka remained in a fighting stance, grateful for the chance to repair the damage she’d received. “What’s this ritual combat mean for us, since we succeeded?”
The vampire lord’s eyes flicked briefly to Tsukune before returning to his beloved daughter. “It means you’re old enough to make your own decisions,” he answered wistfully, “including whom you wish to date. I don’t particularly approve of Mr. Aono still, but I won’t disown you for seeing him, since he has at least demonstrated no small degree of courage and fortitude.” He smirked with a quirked eyebrow. “One day, I may learn to tolerate him.”
Moka chuckled, though some residual pain accompanied the movement of her insides. “In that case, since that other Moka was a piece of Mother and that girl also loved Tsukune, consider it Mother’s last request of you to get along with him. It is, after all, the culmination of her dream: harmony between human and monster.”
“As you wish,” sighed Lord Shuzen, “for her sake, and yours.”
Tsukune clambered to his feet and stumbled over to his girlfriend, clutching his still mending ribs. “If I may, sir, I still have one question,” the young man managed, his voice pained. “How come I was the only one who could remove that rosary?”
“I honestly don’t know,” responded the vampire lord with the air of someone who’d spent the better part of a decade pondering a particular puzzle fruitlessly. “My hypothesis is that your human status and your love for my daughter resonated with the embedded fragment of Akasha’s soul, since she loved Moka and dreamt of peace between our peoples.”
“I want that too,” Tsukune assured him. “I’m still figuring out what I want to do with my life, but I know I’ll work towards that goal, sir.” He glanced over at Moka, and the two teens shared a smile.
“Believe it or not, I supported Akasha’s aim. Now that she is truly gone, that goal belongs to you now, daughter.” Lord Shuzen brushed himself off. “Mr. Aono, my daughter’s happiness is now in your care, young man. See to it she never has reason to regret her choice.”
Tsukune scratched his head at the implicit threat. “I certainly don’t intend to, sir,” he promised with a brief bow.
Lord Shuzen turned smartly for the doors to his audience chamber. “Now, daughters, I have other business to attend this evening, so I will be unable to join you for dinner. However, I shall see you off in the morning after breakfast.”
“Father,” Moka called after him, triggering a pause in his stride. “I trust our next visit shall prove less adversarial?”
The vampire lord turned his head to look over his shoulder. “That depends,” he answered, “on which guests you choose to bring with you.” Nobody could tell if he was joking.
Once Lord Shuzen had departed, the three teens let out a collective breath none of them knew they’d been holding. Moka and Tsukune’s hands found each other, and the silver-haired vampire resisted the urge to kiss her boyfriend senseless. For his part, Tsukune looked like something still weighed on his mind.
“My, my, Tsukune, that’s hardly the face of someone who just survived a deadly encounter with his girlfriend’s father who happens to be a vampire lord,” Moka teased.
The young man scratched the back of his head again, his eyes traveling back and forth between the two vampire sisters. Moka’s curious gaze and raised eyebrow contrasted with Kokoa’s gruff yet pained expression. On impulse, he bowed deeply at the waist, just as he had for Lord Shuzen yesterday. “I know you don’t like me, Kokoa, so I owe you a great debt for helping Moka protect me. I give you my word that I’ll treat your sister well, so you never regret what you did today,” he vowed.
Kokoa didn’t respond for a long moment. “Dumbass,” she finally scolded him, though Tsukune couldn’t see her cheeks igniting, betraying her tone. “I told you a moment ago: I get what Big Sis and the others see in you now." After her sister leveled a withering glare at her, she added hastily, "Not that I wanna join your stupid harem or anything!”
“What I mean is…” she sputtered, not wanting to reveal her crush on her sister’s boyfriend. “The way Big Sis feels about you, and you feel about her… I got a glimpse of that when you said you needed me. One day… I want what you two have.”
Moka smiled softly at her sister and extended a hand. The younger vampire took the opening to hug her sister fiercely. Tsukune stood upright and embraced both girls. After several long moments’ deliberating hesitation, Kokoa rose on her tiptoes and placed a chaste kiss on Tsukune’s cheek, despite a deep-seated yearning to aim the kiss elsewhere, crank up the passion, and damn the consequences.
“It’s official then,” Moka announced with a chuckle. “Welcome to the family, Tsukune.”

~~~~~

The trio spent the afternoon recuperating from their ordeal in their separate rooms. Tsukune ached to be so far from the woman he loved, but he managed to distract himself with some of the homework he’d brought along. The vampires napped, allowing their monstrous regenerative powers to repair the damage their father inflicted.
When she awoke, Moka strode with purpose next door into Kokoa’s room, strolling right in without knocking. Her crimson eyes widened in shock and embarrassment at the sight that greeted her: the younger vampire stretched out on her bed, spread-legged, skirt flipped up, panties around her ankles, eyes squeezed shut, one hand holding a pillow to her mouth to bite down on, the other hand manipulating a steely cylinder between her thighs. Muffled grunts and growls accompanied the working of her hand.
Moka spun on her heel, face blanching in discomfiture. She slammed the door shut to get her sister’s attention. A confused noise came from the bed behind her, followed by a frenzied rustle of cloth as Kokoa composed herself. If Moka didn’t feel such intense chagrin at barging in on her sister, she would’ve laughed.
“What the hell, Big Sis?” yelled a mortified Kokoa. “You definitely haven’t been locked away so long you forgot what knocking is! Geez!”
“I needed to talk to you,” the elder vampire replied simply, “about Tsukune.” Moka turned around to see her sister sitting on the edge of her bed with her legs crossed demurely – though not without an impatient bounce to the upper leg; yet her folded arms, knitted brows, and harsh scowl underscored just how cross the young vampire felt at the interruption and her sister’s rudeness. “You were thinking about him when I entered, weren’t you?”
“Of course not!” shouted Kokoa, even as her fierce blush belied her words. “Tsukune’s your boyfriend, Big Sis! As far as I’m concerned, you can keep him!”
Moka chuckled. “My, my, Kokoa – you’re using his name now? He’s not ‘that worthless human’ anymore?”
“What? Of course he is... why would you think –“
As much as Moka enjoyed the way her sister squirmed as she sputtered, she pressed on: “As much as I owe you for earlier, I won’t share him with you. Just the thought of the man I love with my sister makes my skin crawl.”
“I know it’s weird,” muttered Kokoa morosely. “It’s his stupid fault for being kind and noble and determined and generous… ugh! After the snow-village… that’s when it started,” she admitted, well aware she was babbling but unable to stop herself, “but standing his ground against Father today…” The redhead sighed the sigh of the love-struck. “I’m sorry, Big Sis… I can’t help the way I feel now.”
Moka shook her head, sympathy filling her at her little sister’s plight. Just a few months ago, she’d had a similar conversation with that pink-haired Moka, except she – then “inner” Moka – sat where Kokoa now sat, figuratively speaking. Moka comforted herself with the fact that, while she’d needed the better part of a year to acknowledge her love for Tsukune and treated him brusquely at times, she at least hadn’t outright told him off like Kokoa had. “You told me awhile back that my bite marked Tsukune to ward off other vampires. Does it not work against family or something?” she inquired, bracing herself for more surprising revelations about her own species.
Kokoa shrugged. “Maybe it’s because I love you too, Big Sis. Other vampires would be trying to steal your beloved partner to hurt you, but not me.” Her blush, which had begun to subside, returned in full force. “I’d just be borrowing him for a little while, to enjoy him the way you do.”
Something in her sister’s tone pricked Moka’s ears. “You… you watched us?!” she hissed, simultaneously furious and mortified. At Kokoa’s ashamed nod, the older vampire nearly blew a fuse. “I swear, Kokoa, if you hadn’t just helped me protect him –“
The petite vampire flinched at her sister’s tone, but fought fire with fire in her usual manner: “I was curious, okay? If you hadn’t gone bragging about how good he was –!”
“I never bragged!” Moka shot back
“C’mon, Big Sis, just once! Maybe for my sixteenth birthday?”
“You little hypocrite! After all the grief you gave me about him –“
Arguing soon devolved into shouting, cacophonous enough to echo down the corridors nearby, though the words were thankfully muffled by the shut door. Tempers and vampire auras flared, enough for Tsukune on the other end of the manor to feel. Moka wasn’t about to fight her sister after Kokoa had turned the tide against their father, and they both knew it. Instead, they bickered like siblings anywhere might do, if for a thoroughly unusual reason.
Finally, though, the older sister had had quite enough. “My decision is final, Kokoa,” she declared, folding her arms emphatically. “Tsukune is mine, and I won’t share him with my own sister. End of story.”
Kokoa huffed, “So stingy.” She folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “Fine, I promise I won’t put the moves on your boyfriend or join his stupid harem, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Fine!”
“Good!”
“What about those other tramps?” asked Kokoa with a small yet potent sneer.
Moka started to answer, but instead tossed her head with a smirk. “That’s for me and Tsukune to decide; it’s no concern of yours,” she replied haughtily as she spun to leave.
Once she’d departed, Kokoa fell back onto her bed in a huff. “Just great – now I’m even more jealous of you than before,” she addressed her absent sister. “I just can’t hate you, though, Big Sis. After all… we’re family.”
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