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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 3: When Everything’s Made to be Broken

The next day, during homeroom, Ms. Nekonome distributed an official-looking school handout to her class. “Alright, everyone, listen up! Starting next week, the information concourse will carry brochures from Japan’s top universities, along with a sample of options from all across the globe!” She smiled and adjusted her glasses. “While primarily targeted towards our graduating third-years, the Headmaster asked me and the other teachers to inform you second-years. It’s never too early to start thinking about life after Yokai Academy!”
Mizore flipped her handout over. On the blank back, she wrote, “Mrs. Mizore Aono, wife of Mr. Tsukune Aono,” and drew a heart around the words. Throughout the morning, the love-struck snow-woman doodled small yet detailed drawings: Tsukune’s proposal to her, their wedding rings on their clasped hands, her wedding bouquet caught by Kurumu, Tsukune rubbing her feet and staring up at her past the swell of her belly, the two of them with their little bundle. Life after Yokai, she thought with a happy sigh.
Kurumu daydreamed. The love-struck succubus pictured herself with Tsukune by her side, the two of them exploring the world and one another in a grand adventure as her modeling career carried them to exotic places: Milan, Paris, London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and hundreds more. Eventually, of course, they’d have to settle down and start a family, but Kurumu found a certain appeal in the quiet life of a housewife – or, if Tsukune married one of the others while keeping his harem intact, the life of a mistress. Life after Yokai, she thought with a smile.
Yukari pursed her lips and thought about her possibilities. The precocious young witch knew, almost for a fact, that she’d graduate at the top of the class; but she’d also stand out at any university as a fifteen-year-old student. Unless Ruby’s spell puts me back into my full-grown body, she realized, life after Yokai will look a lot like life at Yokai, except Tsukune and the others won’t be around anymore. She frowned as her mind whirled with unpleasant contingencies.
Moka ignored the handout entirely. A vampire of the Shuzen clan, even one who didn’t bear the name, would want for nothing in the monster world; and enough connections existed in the human world that she could likely live quite comfortably. The young woman glanced up at the more salient source of any uncertainty: Tsukune Aono, the back of his head directly in front of her showing off his trademark cowlick. Life after Yokai? she wondered. First, I need to figure out life at Yokai.
Tsukune stared at the handout without seeing it, his thoughts buzzing with barely-controlled panic. Life after Yokai? How can I start thinking about that kind of thing now? I just lost one of the women I love, the first one, the one I’ve loved for over a year now. He slumped in his seat. Even if Ruby was right about Moka’s father creating the rosary, why would he make another for her?
What the hell am I supposed to do?

~~~~~

Later that day, Kokoa roamed the halls, searching for a flash of silvery hair. Her familiar Kou fluttered in circles above the young vampire’s head, helping her keep watch as she toted a large bag full of lunch supplies. “Arrgh! Where the hell is she?” she growled in frustration.
“Mistress Kokoa, I can see those freshman fan-girls, whee!” answered the bat. “They worship Moka almost as much as you do, so maybe they’ve seen her, whee!”
Kokoa nodded firmly and approached the blonde, brunette, and redhead, fellow first-years but in a different homeroom, which meant limited interaction with them. Of course, the haughty young vampire hated wasting time on her inferiors, so not having to put up with Big Sis’s drooling fan-girls suited Kokoa just fine. “Have you losers seen my Big Sis lately?”
“Like we know who your ‘Big Sis’ even is,” snorted the brunette.
The blonde folded her arms. “Why should we tell you, anyway?” she huffed.
“Because, if you don’t, I’ll kick your asses!” Kokoa growled through gritted teeth. “My Big Sis is the girl you’ve been drooling all over, idiots!”
The redhead of the group eyed her suspiciously. “You? The little sister of that glorious beauty, Moka Akashiya? Ridiculous!” she scoffed. “You’re not nearly glamorous enough to be related to her!”
Kokoa ground her teeth together. “I’ll give you twerps one last chance,” she bit out, “before I teach you three your place!” Kou landed on her shoulder and nodded emphatically, ready to transform should his mistress require it.
The brunette’s eyes widened. “That’s her catchphrase! You can’t just go around stealing the catchphrase of our goddess!”
“Yeah! Just who do you think you are?” snarked the blonde.
“I bet you just want to hog Our Lady Akashiya’s time and attention all for yourself!” the redhead of the trio piled on.
Kokoa’s eyes twitched, and she could feel one of the veins in her forehead start to throb. “Fucking morons!” she exploded. Rather than waste any more words on them, the irate vampire grasped her familiar, who dutifully transformed into a ludicrously oversized instrument of blunt trauma – in this case, a tetsubo, a giant studded iron club. With one mighty horizontal swing, Kokoa clobbered the three nuisances and launched them down the hall and, more importantly, out of her sight.
“Useless,” grumbled the young vampire, her temper abating. “Looks like I’ll just have to find her myself. She’s probably hanging out with that worthless panty-waist of a human she calls her boyfriend.” With an exasperated shake of her head, Kokoa resumed her search for her sister.
In weapon form, Kou could still talk. At this juncture, though, he declined to remind his mistress that she, despite her frequent protests about the human boy’s inadequacy, had become quite smitten with her sister’s boyfriend. He didn’t want her to return him to bat form and beat him senseless for his impudence.
Besides, the familiar thought to himself, I really like the other uses Mistress Kokoa has found for me lately, whee!

~~~~~

Up on the school’s rooftop, Tsukune and Moka sat on one of the benches with their lunches in their laps, just like yesterday. Just like yesterday, Tsukune sipped from the straw puncturing his juice box, while Moka drank from a can of tomato juice, something the other Moka had done to curb her cravings for the human boy’s blood. Just like yesterday, neither had spoken a word in the ten minutes they’d spent together thus far.
Like yesterday, Moka’s clear voice pierced the silence: “You seem upset about something, Tsukune – down in the dumps, perhaps. What’s bothering you?” She turned to regard him.
Tsukune couldn’t muster the nerve to meet the vampire’s cool, reptilian gaze. Bracing himself with a deep breath, the young man answered, “I was just… missing that other Moka…”
The silver-haired girl’s eyes narrowed beside him. “Am I not good enough for you?” To Tsukune’s surprise, she sounded hurt rather than angry. “I’ve tried to become part of the group, but the others act as if I’m from another planet. I want to comfort you, as a good girlfriend would, but it seems my mere presence makes you feel worse. I’m trying to grow closer, Tsukune, but you’re keeping me at arm’s length.”
Tsukune gritted his teeth. “How’s that different from the way you’ve always treated me?” he shot back.
For a long moment, Moka sat, stunned, as she considered her response. He’s right, of course, she admitted to herself, but to hear him say it so bluntly stings mightily. At minimum, I owe him an honest explanation.
“Tsukune,” she whispered, “I kept my distance from you because of the rosary. I never dared dream I could be free of its confines, free to live my life, to have friends.” She reached over to take his hand in hers. “To have such an important person like you,” she added, bringing his hand to her cheek.
After what seemed like an interminable wait, the young man turned to face her, his brown eyes filled with a mix of pain, confusion, and genuine affection. He had no idea what to say, so he responded with a guarded smile. Is this the true face of the inner Moka, Tsukune wondered, this lonely, conflicted girl who’s nonetheless capable of kindness and warmth?
A small smile graced the vampire’s lips. “Would you like to do that, then – gaze into each other’s eyes? I’m willing to give it a try.”
Tsukune couldn’t help but chuckle. “Moka,” he whispered, fondness in his voice.
“Tsukune,” replied Moka, her delivery far flatter than she’d have preferred. Forcing it is making me sound unnatural…
“Moka,” the young man repeated, feeling the moment slipping away.
“Tsukune,” echoed the young woman, a little louder but still lacking emotional content. I can’t do this, she realized. This belonged to the other Moka, and it was clearly a mistake to try to force the issue with this.
“Oh, Moka,” Tsukune tried once more, desperately trying to recapture the old magic that this moment used to produce. His eyes focused on the little details of her face: the delicate point of her chin, the way her lips moved when she spoke, the shape of her eyes. In fact, if he looked hard enough, he could see all the features that truly defined Moka’s face…
For a split-second, Tsukune saw the now-departed Moka’s face, with her bubblegum-pink hair and green eyes and bright smile. Pain and shock lanced through his chest as if he’d been stabbed. The young man squeezed his eyes shut to contain his reaction.
Moka sat back on the bench and sighed. “So that’s how it is, then,” she stated, deflated. “Nothing I can do will make you stop thinking about her, about that other girl.”
“I’m sorry,” apologized the young man, with great sincerity as he’d truly had no desire to hurt this Moka’s feelings by pining for the other one. “It’s just… everything happened so quickly that day. She was gone before I could say goodbye or anything.”
Tsukune sighed. “I wish there were some way I could see her again.” His thoughts drifted to what Ruby had revealed to him, that Moka’s father might have given her the rosary; but he hesitated to mention it since he had no idea how Moka might react to the suggestion.
“I appreciate that you miss her,” replied Moka stiffly, “but you need to understand this, Tsukune.” To emphasize her next words, the vampire withdrew her hand from his and fixed him with her sternest glare. “That girl is gone. The sooner you come to terms with that, the better it’ll be for both of us.”
“The better it’ll be for you,” Tsukune riposted. “Everything you’ve said about this situation has revolved around how it’s benefited you. That’s incredibly selfish of you.”
Moka snorted. “That’s rich, coming from a boy with five girlfriends because he can’t make a simple choice.”
Something inside Tsukune snapped. “I did make a choice: All of the Above,” he insisted, just on the edge of shouting. “In case you hadn’t noticed, that includes you. At least, that’s how I wanted it to be.” The young man shot to his feet. “You don’t want to be one of my girlfriends? Fine – we’re through.”
The young woman stood as well, her temper and monster energy flaring. “You… you’re dumping me?” she snarled. “How dare you! I should teach you —“
“My place,” he interrupted her, “is with my girlfriends.” He turned to leave. Part of him cheered for the discovery of a spine; part of him trembled at the prospect of the imminent shattering of that spine.
Moka ground her teeth together as she watched him walk away. I don’t want to hurt him, she reminded herself, but I’m sorely tempted. At his back, she called, “She’s not real, Tsukune! She never was! I’m the real Moka, not her!”
The human boy stopped in his tracks, shaking with barely-contained fury. With a slight thrill, Moka sensed a whisper of her own monster energy emanating from Tsukune. “I want the other Moka back,” he replied in a harsh tone of voice. “No matter what it takes, I’ll find a way.”
“You’ll need another rosary,” answered Moka with no shortage of venom. “Those don’t grow on trees, you know.”
“I bet your father knows where or how to get another one,” the young man responded resolutely. “For you to be sealed, he must’ve approved it, right?”
That statement shook Moka to her core. I seem to have underestimated his level of despair, she realized, for him to consider going that far. The young woman stepped forward. “If you truly loved the others, you wouldn’t be considering suicide,” she protested.
“Your father couldn’t do anything worse to me than what’s already happened. Living without that other Moka is worse than death,” replied Tsukune with an air of desperate resolve. “She might not have seemed real to you, but she was completely real to me.”
Moka’s eyes filled with tears, but she refused to let them fall. “If you’re going to condemn me to return to that prison, Tsukune,” she uttered in a voice unrecognizably thick with emotion, “you could at least have the decency to look me in the eye when you pronounce sentence.”
“Moka… I know this is hurting you,” replied Tsukune, still not facing her. “If I look you in the eyes, I’ll feel bad and backpedal on my decision.”
The vampire couldn’t fight the small smile that curled her lips. “That would fit your overall pattern,” she quipped. She also took another step closer. Even under these circumstances, Moka wanted to support Tsukune. She didn’t, and couldn’t, hate him.
“No matter what I do,” the young man muttered ruefully, “someone gets hurt.” He sighed. “I just… need to try, y’know? If I don’t, I’ll never get over her. If I try, but nothing can bring her back, I think I could move on.”
Gingerly, Moka placed her hand on Tsukune’s shoulder. “I shouldn’t have said what I said earlier. I didn’t understand your feelings, Tsukune. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
The young man trembled at her touch. As always, his resolve wavered: Maybe I was too hasty to break up with her…
“Regardless,” continued the young woman, “I’ll support you in this endeavor. I’ll contact my father and arrange an audience this weekend.” Moka squeezed the young man’s shoulder reassuringly. “For what it’s worth, I want to ask Father why he sealed me away in the first place, so I’ll be right by your side, Tsukune.”
Tsukune turned partway to look over his shoulder at Moka. He opened his mouth, but the clear ringing of bells signaling the end of lunch interrupted him. The young man shook his head in exasperation.
“I don’t want to leave things here,” Moka stated, her crimson eyes glittering with faint hope. “Let’s skip class together.”
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A/N: Greetings, gentle readers! I hope everyone's enjoying this tale so far - there's plenty more to come! I finished writing the story over the weekend, so I'll be able to maintain my weekly update schedule for the duration. Any feedback you have is encouraged, via review or PM on the forums.
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Long December