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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
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter 8: When All Will Be Revealed

When they arrived at the door to Kokoa’s room, the young vampire glared at the butler for daring to open it for her. “I need to talk to our guest in private,” she bit out, “so buzz off.” Over her shoulder, she barked, “C’mon, loser, what’re you waiting for?”
The butler remained in place, still as a statue, making no move to “buzz off” as Kokoa instructed. “I’m sorry, Mistress, but I’m under strict orders from your father to chaperone either you or Mistress Moka whenever you’re with your guest between sunset and sunrise,” he explained in an appropriately-apologetic tone.
Kokoa snorted, “Typical,” and folded her arms. “Father doesn’t even trust me to behave around a boy I can’t stand.”
“I’m certain he should be relieved to hear of your disinterest,” the butler offered helpfully, earning only a glare from Kokoa.
Tsukune frowned. “If you hate me so much, why did you want to talk to me privately?”
Kokoa, still facing away from the human, tensed. I don’t hate you, moron; I just hate the way you make me feel, she growled to herself. The volatile young vampire wanted to scream that at the clueless young man, but she didn’t think it wise to do so in front of Father’s trusted butler – she might as well scream her confession in front of Father himself and save the trouble.
“You really are a jerk,” mumbled Kokoa under her breath. Louder, she scoffed, “You really can’t figure it out, can you, loser? You didn’t notice the way Father treated you?”
Tsukune blinked in confusion. Only able to see Kokoa’s back, he couldn’t read her face for clues. Finally, he answered, “I mean, your father seemed really intense, like he was looking for even the flimsiest excuse to throw me out or forbid Moka from being my friend.”
Kokoa whirled around, her face a mask of fury. “Idiot! How could you not notice that you got a favored seat, right next to the head of the house?” she yelled, fists clenched at her sides. “Meanwhile, I, one of his daughters, occupied the farthest seat!”
“Right next to a vampire lord, who could easily kill me – that doesn’t quite seem like a ‘favored seat’ to me,” Tsukune argued.
“Besides,” supplied the butler, “you’ve always occupied the seat farthest from Lord Shuzen.”
Kokoa shot him another glare, but decided to speak only to Tsukune. “You’re a guest, dumbass,” she retorted to him. “Father won’t kill you unless you give him a real reason to… like, say, seducing his favorite daughter.”
Her eyes flicked over to the butler for his reaction, but he remained stubbornly stone-faced; so she continued after Tsukune instead, lashing out at him in lieu of the confession she’d planned. “Don’t try to deny it, either. I saw the bite-marks when you two came back from that date in the human world.”
“The other Moka bites me all the time,” Tsukune protested. “Normally she doesn’t leave any mark, but this Moka is so much stronger. She bit really hard.” Absently, the young man rubbed the spot and found that, even after months, the area still felt quite tender.
“Did it ever occur to you that it wasn’t an ordinary bite?” asked Kokoa incredulously.
“… No?”
“Idiot!” Kokoa screamed. “How could Big Sis ever fall for someone so… so… dense!”
Tsukune frowned in thought. “I mean, it happened during… well, while we were… umm, y’know,” he stuttered, awkwardly red-faced from having to discuss a tryst with one girl with that girl’s sister. He also glanced at the butler, who remained as inscrutable as ever.
Kokoa rolled her eyes. “I’m not a little kid,” she insisted. “Just say you were fucking and get it over with.” When Tsukune only sputtered further, the younger vampire huffed, “Geez, if you can’t talk about it, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it.”
“It’s… it’s just… she’s your sister,” blurted Tsukune in his discomfort.
Kokoa glared. “It’s not like I’m jealous or anything,” she lied.
“No… I mean… it’s just…” Tsukune sputtered some more.
“Vampires bite during sex to mark their lovers, so you belong to Big Sis,” Kokoa cut him off, barely hiding the disappointment in her voice. “The love-bite is reserved for a vampire’s true love.”
Tsukune’s eyes widened. “Wait… you mean…?”
“Dolt,” muttered the younger girl with an eye-roll. “You should’ve figured that out anyway. Then again, I had to explain it to Big Sis, too.”
Tsukune scratched his head, a mixture of his usual nervous tic and genuine confusion. “She told me it was just, um, curiosity… when we, um, became one.”
Impatient, Kokoa snapped: “Do you love her?”
“Of course I love Moka,” Tsukune replied without hesitation. “Granted, she’s not the easiest person to love, but…” He couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“I knew it,” muttered the vampire girl, feeling her heart sink as the realization slowly sank in: she could never confess to Tsukune, because to do so would betray her beloved sister. Kokoa squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn’t have to look at him just now, while she made the only request she could ask of Tsukune: “I love… I love Big Sis, and I want to see her happy. If you dump all those other lame girls and belong only to Big Sis… I’ll forgive you.”
“Forgive me?” echoed the young man.
“For running around on my amazing sister with that stupid ‘harem’ excuse,” Kokoa growled in answer. “She’s too good for you, but seeing you with those other tramps makes her feel like she’s not good enough. Do you understand now, asshole?”
Tsukune chuckled. “You want her to be happy. I get it. I’ll do my best on that front,” he promised. “Regarding the others, I’ll tell you what I told her: I won’t turn my back on them, because I love them too.”
Hearing the determination in the young man’s words sent a small shiver up Kokoa’s spine. Opening her eyes to meet his, the vampire girl saw an unfamiliar steely resolve in his gaze, which triggered another, stronger shiver. Desperately, she tried to will her heart to stop pounding in her ears and her stomach to cease its intense gymnastics routine; she couldn’t quite tell if she was furious or aroused.
“You’re the worst,” she grumbled. “Why can’t you be satisfied with taking away my Big Sis? Why do you want those other lame-ass girls too?”
Tsukune shrugged. “I don’t really care how strong they are, Kokoa,” he answered under straining patience. “It’s about what they mean to me, about sharing joy and pain.” The young man ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Did that make any sense?”
Kokoa turned her head to one side and sniffed, “Not really.” Despite her desperate yearning for him to see her in that same light, she maintained her gruff façade as she added, “I don’t get into all this lovey-dovey crap.”
The young man sighed. “Maybe, one day, you will; then you’ll understand.” He gave Kokoa a soft smile, one that he didn’t realize made the younger vampire’s heart ache. Tsukune also bowed to her in farewell and addressed the butler: “Would you mind showing me to my room, please?”
“Certainly, my good lad. Good night, Mistress Kokoa,” he added pleasantly as he escorted Tsukune out of the younger vampire’s sight.
Once their footsteps had faded into silence down the hall, Kokoa shut her door and slumped on her bed. “Why did I have to start having feelings for him?” she moaned to herself.

~~~~~

At breakfast the next morning, Tsukune found himself seated across from Moka, who seemed lost in thought. The butler had informed him that Kokoa was sleeping late; and Lord Shuzen had important matters to address this morning, though the butler had remained vague about the details. The silence between Tsukune and Moka reminded him of their rooftop lunches this past week.
“We need to talk,” announced Moka in her usual abrupt manner, startling Tsukune even though he really should’ve been prepared for it. “Father told me quite a lot last night after dinner, things you must hear, even if you won’t like hearing them.”
The young man swallowed the last bite of his breakfast. “About the rosary?” he guessed.
Moka nodded curtly. “And… about that other persona. And about my family more broadly, and why it’s in its current state.” A rueful chuckle shook her shoulders; but the strange, almost wild, gleam in her eyes unsettled Tsukune to no end. “You might even get a better understanding of Kokoa’s whole deal.”
Tsukune whistled softly. “That’s… quite a conversation,” he marveled. “Where do you wanna start?”
Moka, as one might expect, cut right to the chase: “The rosary – it’s the key, of course, to all the rest.” The vampire steeled herself with a deep breath. “For starters, the rosary I wore belonged first to my mother, Akasha Bloodriver, a vampire lord in her own right, powerful enough to retain her own lands, titles, and name. However, she and Father were lovers, not spouses.”
Tsukune could barely restrain a laugh at Moka’s discomfited expression at having to discuss the exact nature of her parents’ relationship, but he managed so as not to upset his girlfriend further. “She sounds pretty awesome,” he offered. “I hope I get a chance to meet her.”
Moka favored him with a strange look, one Tsukune couldn’t begin to decipher. “From what Father told me, you’d like her,” she finally responded. “In addition to her head-turning beauty, she was apparently kind, gentle as the summer rain – unless one managed to surpass her considerable patience, at which point she would readily teach offenders their place.”
Tsukune chuckled. “Is that where you picked up that phrase?”
A mischievous smirk played over Moka’s lips. “So it seems.”
Tsukune leaned forward on his elbows, his interest piqued. “What else did you learn about your mother? I can only guess how great it must be to discover your past,” he enthused with his trademark earnest grin.
Moka felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of that smile, one she couldn’t remember seeing since the Barrier disaster. “Unlike most vampires, Mother advocated peaceful coexistence with other monsters and with humans,” she replied with a small smile of her own. “That’s why, once I was old enough, she wanted to enroll me in a human school.”
Tsukune blinked as a few puzzle pieces fell into place. “So to keep you from causing an incident, you had to wear a rosary,” he realized. Moka nodded, and the young man added, “Kokoa told us she resented how you left her behind, but it wasn’t really your choice, was it?”
The young woman shook her head. “I think she’s finally coming to terms with it, though,” she replied thoughtfully, “and I think it’s thanks to you, for releasing the rosary more often.”
Tsukune scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, she even kinda gave me her blessing to, um, date you, as long as you’re happy,” he admitted. “I think.”
Moka’s eyes widened and her eyebrows rose in surprise. “I would’ve guessed she’d hate you forever,” the older sister acknowledged. “Then again,” she added with a sly smirk, “you do have a way with women.”
Unsure whether to take that comment as a compliment or not, the young man laughed and scratched his head again. “Who’d have guessed?” he asked lamely.
Moka didn’t respond; instead, her face adopted a faraway expression. “As you’re aware, though, applying a rosary seal is no mean feat, requiring a great deal of focus and power, leaving the sealer… vulnerable,” she explained, her voice breaking at that last word.
Tsukune’s brow furrowed as he puzzled over that comment. “Your father looks just fi – oh,” he realized. “Moka, I’m so sorry… your mother?” The young woman merely nodded, glassy-eyed, so the young man prompted, “What happened?”
“Gyokuro, Kokoa’s mother,” Moka replied with an edge in her voice. “According to Father, she’d always envied Mother’s power and prestige, far surpassing her own as merely ‘Lady Shuzen.’” The vampire gave Tsukune a pointed look. “Because of her own status, Mother, a mere mistress, held higher esteem than the wife of a vampire lord; but it didn’t help that Father favored Mother over his supposed wife.”
“C’mon, Moka,” protested the young man at the implied accusation. “I’m not your father. You know me better than that. You know how hard I try to be fair to everyone.”
The young woman sighed. “After last night, I’m not sure what I know anymore.” She shook her head in frustration. “When Father told me what happened, I felt as if… a sort of fog had been lifted from my memory. But now… everything’s murky again.”
Tsukune’s heart practically leapt into his throat on hearing Moka sound so broken, so un-Moka-like. Ignoring the risk of being discovered, he rounded the table to sit beside her and wrap an arm around her shoulder. “Just take it one step at a time, Moka,” he encouraged her.
The vampire nodded and steeled herself to continue. “Gyokuro struck during the sealing, while Mother couldn’t defend herself, and fled. Father was too grief-stricken to immediately order pursuit, and she’s eluded his wrath ever since. Regarding the rosary, Father thinks that the shock of the interruption created an imperfect seal.”
“That’s why you have amnesia?” Tsukune wondered.
“Perhaps… or, more accurately, that’s why that other girl knew more than I did,” Moka answered glumly. “What’s worse, we’ve arrived at the part you’ll hate the most. You must be absolutely certain you wish to hear what I’m about to tell you.”
“Of course I do,” Tsukune promised. “The truth is why we’re here. I can’t – I won’t – back out now,” he resolved.
Moka inhaled and exhaled slowly, visibly girding herself for the coming revelations. “When Gyokuro struck Mother down, Father thinks that, in addition to my amnesia, the shock or feedback also created that other persona. She got the bulk of my memories, while I got the vampire’s powers.”
Tsukune simply stared in shock. “What… what does that mean?”
“She was my mother, Tsukune – or a piece of her, at least, using my name and memories and… and her face,” Moka replied matter-of-factly. “I know it’s difficult to hear,” she added, more gentle in her tone than Tsukune could remember hearing from the usually-cold vampire.
The young man slumped as the ramifications of what Moka just said sunk in. “A new rosary won’t bring her back, you mean,” he realized. “We need the old one, but it’s powering the Barrier now.” He perked up as an idea occurred to him. “What if we use the new rosary at the school? Y’know, pull your old one out again but replace it immediately?”
With a reluctant voice, Moka vetoed the idea: “There’s no telling if the Barrier could withstand another shock like that. Besides, Father implied that using my rosary shouldn’t have worked in the first place, since seals are apparently custom-crafted for their given purpose – one crafted to limit a vampire’s power usually can’t maintain magical barriers, and vice versa.”
Tsukune looked at Moka, a forlorn sadness settling over his features and – unsettlingly to Moka – into his usually-warm brown eyes. “You think, maybe, the other Moka is making it work?” he whispered.
Moka nodded thoughtfully and answered, “I think so. She wanted to fight hard to protect humans and monsters, remember? That was important to Mother, too; maybe that’s the piece of her that survived.”
The young man took a shaky breath, thoughts of the pink-haired girl lingering in his mind. I guess she really isn’t coming back, is she? While Moka still makes it sound like that other Moka wasn’t real… I’m going to miss her.
Aloud, he asked, “Could I… see her? Your mother, I mean.”
His vampire girlfriend offered a tight, pained smile and stood. “Follow me.”

~~~~~

Moka led Tsukune to a small room in an out-of-the way section of the castle. On each wall hung portraits in a dizzying array of sizes and styles and media, making Tsukune wish he understood art better. Regardless, one portrait, in a more European style, dominated an entire wall, wherein stood a familiar pink-haired person clad in a formal white gown – elegant yet a bit risqué in its cut, showing a bit more skin than outer Moka would’ve ever dared. The bubblegum-pink hair, usually so familiar in its long, uninterrupted cascade, now swept up into an elaborate coiffure, one he knew neither Moka would ever wear. The smirk and the air of infinite, unrelenting confidence, however, looked alien only because they belonged with the aloof silver-haired warrior and not the gentle pink-haired pacifist.
“Tsukune Aono, allow me to introduce Akasha Bloodriver, my mother,” Moka commented in a hushed tone.
After everything Moka had revealed, seeing the face of the first woman he’d ever loved – now lost forever – triggered a surge of emotion the young man couldn’t stop. Bitter tears burned fresh tracks down Tsukune’s cheeks. His knees forsook him, dumping him unceremoniously on all fours, head bowed. “I’m sorry,” he whispered – to Moka or Moka or Akasha, he didn’t know. “I thought I’d be okay.”
For her part, Moka rested a hand lightly on her beloved’s shoulder and assured him, “You don’t need to be strong for us, Tsukune; you just need to be honest about your feelings.”
Tsukune wept.
____________________________________________________________________
A/N: By far the hardest chapter to write, the one I'd been dreading since I started this whole series - an explanation for the rosary and the split personalities. Originally, I intended to shy away from the "Outer Moka is actually Moka's mother" angle, since that's the direction the manga went; instead, based on some of the Mokas' comments in previous installments, I wanted Outer Moka to be the soul of Inner's twin sister. I never could devise a satisfying explanation for how that hypothetical twin got stuck in the rosary, though; so I decided on this instead.
Hopefully, it's an interesting remix of what the manga did, particularly since I wanted to avoid the whole Alucard thing. I also hope what I've presented makes a modicum of sense; let me know in a review or PM on the forums if it doesn't, and I'll try another way of explaining.
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Long December