Adult-FanFiction.org : Anime

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
- 8
- 9
- 10
Chapter 9: Three Steps Toward the Door

Once Tsukune had spent his tears, he weakly struggled to his feet, a brittle smile on his face as his eyes met Moka’s. “Sorry… I think I really needed that,” he thanked her in a hoarse whisper. “It might still take a while for me to fully say goodbye to the other Moka, but this… this was a good first step.”
“For what it’s worth, Tsukune, I’ll miss her too,” Moka told her boyfriend gently.
Tsukune took one of Moka’s hands and looked intently into her eyes. “Please understand, Moka,” he pled. “When I grieve for that other girl, it’s not because I don’t like you or that I want you around less. Even if she wasn’t ‘real,’ outer Moka… well, she was the first woman I ever loved.”
The silver-haired Moka in front of him swallowed a lump in her throat. Questions swirled through her thoughts: Am I the second? Do you even love me? If so, why haven’t you told me, like you have the others? Shall I now become merely your “replacement Moka”?
Aloud, she managed to keep her voice steady as she replied, “I understand, Tsukune. From what little I’ve heard, moving on from the first love is exceptionally painful, doubly so when one loves a shadow.” Moka silently thanked her absent counterpart for having read some of those romance stories, stories that inner Moka never would’ve chosen to read on her own volition.
Before Tsukune could respond, Moka pulled her hand away, having heard the approach of someone else – likely the butler, whom she knew to treat as Father’s eyes and ears. To clue Tsukune in, and assuage any hurt feelings at the movement, she glanced meaningfully at the doorway to the portrait gallery. Tsukune took the hint and turned.
As if on cue, the butler entered. “Ah, Mistress Moka, Mr. Aono, there you two are,” he greeted them pleasantly. “Lord Shuzen has concluded his morning appointments and has instructed me to retrieve you for an audience,” he informed them.
The two teens exchanged a worried look, but they followed the butler down the corridor, which suddenly felt a lot more intimidating.

~~~~~

In the infirmary of Yokai Academy, Kurumu bolted upright, crying out the name of her Destined Mate as a creeping disquiet settled over her. Additionally, the succubus felt a dull ache permeate her body, as if the night’s sleep hadn’t been particularly restful. When she looked around, she noted her surroundings, and a puzzled expression knotted her otherwise lovely features.
From her spot reclining on a nearby sofa, Mizore cracked one eyelid open to regard her busty companion with no small degree of annoyance. “Could you chill the fuck out?” she groused. “I wanted to sleep in this morning.”
“What’s this all about, Frosty?” demanded Kurumu. “Why are we in the infirmary?” The succubus gestured emphatically at the room around them and realized the movements transmitted a certain inertia to the region of her bosom. “Where’s my bra?!” she yelped as she started buttoning up her open blouse.
“Where to start?” teased Mizore. “I took off your bra because it looked uncomfortable to sleep in, and I draped it over those bars at the head of the bed. Also, though, I just wanted to stare at your tits.” She smirked and wiggled her eyebrows.
Kurumu glowered at the smirking ice-demon. “I hate it when I can’t tell if you’re trolling or creeping,” the succubus grumbled.
“Anyway, don’t you remember anything about Ruby’s ritual?” prompted Mizore.
Gradually, the haze lifted from Kurumu’s mind. Ruby had concocted a ritual to transfer some of her succubus energy into Yukari to jump-start the young witch’s growth spurt; the spell had knocked all three of them out for… “How long?”
“Only a day,” answered Mizore. “Less, actually – maybe sixteen hours. Long, boring ones for me to just watch you three sleeping,” she added mischievously, “which is why I took off your bra. I needed something to break up the monotony.”
Kurumu flushed in anger. “Don’t ever do that again without asking, snow-skank. I know you’ve seen them plenty of times, but I choose who sees my melons, and when. Got it?”
Mizore stared blankly at her rival-turned-friend-turned-sometimes lover. “Sorry – I didn’t realize it was such a big deal for you,” she apologized softly. “For what it’s worth, I’m exaggerating how much I stared.”
With a noise somewhere between a huff and a sigh, Kurumu relented. “Apology accepted, Frosty. I must’ve been out cold if you could get my bra off without waking me.”
The snow-woman nodded solemnly, her blank expression never wavering. “Yukari didn’t awaken either when I put Ruby on the bed with her,” she explained. “What woke you now, I wonder?”
The sense of dread that had lingered in the back of Kurumu’s mind now announced itself in full force, gnawing at her insides. “Tsukune’s in trouble,” the succubus answered faintly, her gaze distant. “I can feel it.”
Mizore inhaled sharply and whispered, “Shit.” To the confused and concerned succubus, she explained: “He went with Moka to visit her father. They came by yesterday to invite us along, but only after the ritual had already been enacted.”
“Shit!” yelped Kurumu. “We have to go help him!”
“I don’t want to just leave Ruby and Yukari unattended, either,” the snow-demon pointed out. “Besides, neither of us knows where Shuzen Manor is, anyway.”
“Good point,” Kurumu sighed as she drooped. “Even if we did, Ruby and Yukari would only slow us down if we carried them, so we’d probably be too late by the time we arrived.”
Mizore joined Kurumu on the bed and put her hands on the blue-haired girl’s shoulders. “Believe me, if Tsukune’s in trouble, I want to protect him, too,” she sympathized. “This time, though… it looks like we’ll just have to wait for him to return to us.”
Nodding grimly and staring out the window, wishing with all her might that she could instantly appear at her Destined Mate's side, Kurumu added, “We’ll also just have to trust Moka to bring him back in one piece.”

~~~~~

The butler escorted Tsukune and Moka through an enormous pair of double doors into Lord Shuzen’s audience chamber. The chamber itself stretched overhead into obscurity, far beyond the power of the lamps – fashioned into faux torches and ensconced in the twin rows of grand pillars – to illuminate. The pillars naturally formed a walkway leading to Lord Shuzen’s seat of power, a path the vampire lord had chosen to enhance with a long, plush red-purple carpet, perhaps to render the otherwise foreboding chamber a bit more inviting.
The vampire lord himself stood at the foot of the dais upon which his seat rested, clad in a black bespoke suit similar to the one he wore the previous evening. Clasping his hands behind his back, he struck an imposing figure. Kneeling before his stern gaze was Kokoa, which surprised Moka and Tsukune, as they didn’t know she’d also been summoned, and it appeared as if she were in deep trouble. A confused glance passed between them as they neared.
“My dear daughter,” Lord Shuzen greeted, wearing a smile without a milliliter of warmth, “and Mr. Aono. I wonder – how long did you think to deceive me?”
Moka skipped the formalities of greeting her father, while Tsukune froze in place. Both felt the vampire lord’s monstrous aura, even from a distance of twenty paces. Foregoing any attempt at denial, Moka replied, “I didn’t want you to harm him on sight, which I knew you would have if I introduced Tsukune to you as my boyfriend.”
“Nonetheless, I suspected you were closer than mere classmates. Do you think me a dullard, daughter?” Lord Shuzen demanded. “Worse, though, is that I had to hear of the depth of your depravity from another.” He gestured to the butler beside them.
When Moka turned to the butler, her glower weakened by her furious blush, he simply replied, “Mistress Kokoa spoke at length to Mr. Aono regarding the nature of your relationship in my presence. As one hell of a butler, my duty compelled me to share what I heard with your father.”
“I’m sorry, Big Sis!” cried Kokoa, still kneeling. “I forgot he was standing there. I didn’t mean for him to overhear everything.”
“Silence, whelp!” hissed Lord Shuzen, shaking his head. “He has performed his duty as instructed. Now, I require a word alone with my daughters and their ‘guest.’ You may attend your other duties, Sebastien.” The butler bowed and departed; the doors closed behind him with an ominous thud.
Silence reigned. Moka and Lord Shuzen glared at one another. Kokoa remained kneeling, kicking herself for whatever consequences Father would dole out to Big Sis or Tsukune. Tsukune fidgeted, feeling he would soon see Moka’s warnings about her father’s wrath given form.
“I’m disappointed, daughter,” chided the vampire lord. “I thought I’d raised you with more discernment than to defile yourself with such human filth, much less to permit such a pervert to use you so lightly that you’re merely one of many.”
Moka blushed and ground her teeth at the accusation and the gross misreading of their situation. “You misunderstand, Father,” she argued. “Tsukune is no pervert; he’s sweet and gentle and kind. He truly cares for each of us.”
Lord Shuzen scoffed. “If that’s true, why does he have several girlfriends?”
Moka narrowed her eyes, not enjoying in the slightest hearing her father wield her own comments to Tsukune against her. She decided to fight dirty: “Why does a vampire lord have a wife and a mistress?” Hypocrite, she added silently.
For the first time since their arrival, the teens saw a flash of genuine fury in Lord Shuzen’s eyes. “You misunderstand, daughter,” he hissed, echoing Moka’s phrasing. “I loved your mother. My marriage to Gyokuro arose from political necessity, nothing more.”
Kokoa looked up at her father, eyes glittering with unshed tears at his denunciation of her mother. Moreover, much of his treatment of her and her older full sisters came into focus. On her shoulder, Kou, sensing her distress, fluttered his wings in agitation.
Moka’s smirk revealed to Lord Shuzen that she’d baited him into a verbal misstep. Glowering, he stepped toward her and her human pet. “I doubt very much that Mr. Aono faces such political considerations, since he’s just a human, and a rather pathetic one at that,” he taunted. “Releasing my daughter from her seal was no small feat, however, and quite a favor to me, Mr. Aono. For that reason, I shall offer you this opportunity.”
He pointed behind them at the gigantic doors to this audience chamber. “Leave, now, while I permit you to do so. Return to that school and the other trollops in your little harem. Never touch my daughter again.”
Tsukune’s eyes widened at the vehemence of Lord Shuzen’s tone, and anger boiled within him at the crass insult of the women he loved. The three vampires present detected the weak flickering of a monster aura, one with a distinctly vampire-like signature. Knowing these words might be his last, the terrified but furious young human replied, as evenly as he could, “I can’t do that, sir. Your daughter means just as much to me as the other girls.” He paused for effect before adding, “Everything.”
Beside him, Moka needed every iota of restraint she could muster to maintain her composure on hearing Tsukune speak those words. It’s not quite a love confession, she realized with a soaring heart, but it’s as close as one can get without saying the exact words. Let’s see what Father has to say about that.
Lord Shuzen eyed the human like a predator about to pounce on unsuspecting prey. “How touching,” he quipped drolly. “Do you honestly believe those absurd excuses not to choose? Do you believe them, daughter?”
“Tsukune has always been honest with me, Father,” replied Moka coolly. “It’s one of the things I like about him.”
A cruel smirk curled the vampire lord’s lips. “Indeed? What about you, daughter? Have you been equally honest, or have you enjoyed stringing Mr. Aono along?”
Hearing her father ask such a question staggered the young woman as if she’d been struck. “I would never –“
“Ah, but you would,” Lord Shuzen interjected. “You brought him here with the false hope of a new rosary returning that other girl, my daughter in the image of my beloved Akasha. Admit it, Moka – you had no intention of returning to that shared life, that prison, even if I could provide you with another rosary.”
Moka glanced over to Tsukune, who looked at her with just the slightest hint of doubt, which tore at her heart. “I told Tsukune I’d support him,” she clarified. “I meant it… though returning to a sealed state wouldn’t have been my preference,” she admitted.
Lord Shuzen’s eyes narrowed. “You would willingly share your life with that phantasm once more?” he whispered in shock, such that the three teens had to strain to hear him. “This worthless human means that much to you?”
Moka smirked, recalling Kokoa making similar comments during their sisterly arguments. “He is; and if I find him worthy, does that not make him so?” That sort of line worked before, she mused wryly.
Lord Shuzen, though, was much cannier than his youngest daughter. A sneer curled the vampire lord’s lip as he spat, “Hardly – you have chosen poorly, daughter, forcing me, as your father, to step in. I will not permit this mistake to continue. You will terminate your relationship with Mr. Aono,” he ordered, “or I will.”
Moka raised her chin and rested a hand on her hip. “Father, without the rosary, my life is mine again, to live in the manner I choose. Do you really think I’ll permit you to dictate to me?”
“You defy me, daughter?” Lord Shuzen asked, a predatory smile forming on his face. “You forget your place.”
_________________________________________________________________
A/N: Aaaaaaannnnd... roll initiative! Tabletop gamers will know what I mean there. For those more inclined to video games: cue boss music (I recommend Ocarina of Time's music for battling Ganon at the end).
Feedback is always welcome, either via review of this story or PM on the forums.
- 8
- 9
- 10
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Long December