Disclaimer: I do NOT own the copyrights to either DC Comics or the Rosario + Vampire franchise. Superman and DC Comics are a subsidiaries of Warner Brothers Entertainment, and Rosario + Vampire is copyrighted by Akihisa Ikeda, Funimation Entertainment, and Gonzo Entertainment. The only copyrights that I can claim ownership of are original characters, original themes, and original plot lines. I wrote this piece of fiction for entertainment purposes only, and have made no form of monetary gain off this piece of work. Please do not sue me.

Superman + Vampire

A DC Comics and Rosario + Vampire Fanfiction

By

Man, Or Superman?

Episode 1

Kryptonian and a Vampire

DC+RV

A couple of school girls rode by, giggling while glancing enticingly the way that they had come. The boy they were eying was obviously foreign, his physical height impressive for his apparent age, at just over six feet in height, and with the wide shoulders and strong frame of a laborer. His skin was decently tanned, suggesting a life in the sun, and his face was handsome despite his foreign nature, with a strong jaw and inquisitive blue eyes. To top it off, the quiet, awkwardness of his body language and the subtle, partially boyish angst brooding in his stormy gaze spoke invitingly to the schoolgirls. After all, girls their age still thought the depressing, loner archetype was romantic. In that case at least, he seemed the type of boy that a Japanese schoolgirl would just eat up if they were given half the chance.

Soon enough, the schoolgirls peddled away, but not before the boy managed to hear their comments about his appearance despite his best efforts to ignore them. His blush staining his cheeks, the American youth shifted awkwardly on the bus stop, wondering idly where that darn bus was.

Perhaps wary of possibly having misread the pamphlet that had led him here the American teenager retrieved the self same worn packet of papers from his jacket and scanned through them once more for a sense of assurance. As he'd thought, both the location and time were correct, but if so, where was the bus?

As if in answer to his thoughts, he heard the squeal of breaks right in front of him, making his body jump in surprise. Looking up, he was greeted with the sight of a typical Japanese school bus stopping in front of the bench he sat, its doors opening on squeaky hinges.

For a moment, the boy hesitated. He was unused to being surprised by…well, anything really. With his nature, he always had to keep on his toes and be aware of his surroundings, because one misstep could mean a vicious mangling or death, if only not for him but those unfortunate enough to be in his proximity, and would expose the secrets that he and his family had been attempting to keep hidden for twelve years.

But the boy pushed past such thoughts. He didn't want to live his life in paranoid fear, despite how doing so was perhaps his safest option available…and so he was willing to give the strange appearance of the bus the benefit of the doubt.

After all the weirdness of Smallville, it wasn't so unusual an occurrence that a bus could sneak up on a person...it was only unusual that the person that it had snuck up onto this time happened to be him. But even such facts were not suspicious enough to warrant him to flee the country regardless of how strange the situation was that it had happened to him.

"Well, are you going to get on, kid?" the bus driver questioned around a cigar. The boy grimaced against the sight, some part of him feeling as if smoking in a bus was against regulations, but he wasn't all that familiar with Japanese customs and laws. Maybe that was the norm and perfectly accepted in this country?

"Yeah," the boy replied, and climbed immediately to his feet, shrugging his bulging traveler's bag onto his shoulders and his suitcase into the crook of his inner elbow. Where a normal teenager might have waddled, shuffled or stumbled under the weight of the two massive pieces of luggage, the boy's footsteps were sure and strong as he climbed the first step onto the bus, followed by the next with equally as sure footing, and the next, until he was standing beside the bus driver.

The boy heard the squeak of hinges behind him, ignoring the bus driver as he moved into the aisle, noticing that the rest of the bus was empty except for them.

Sitting down in one of the back rows, the boy moved his luggage into the seat beside him and turned to examine the passing countryside.

"We don't get many students from America," the bus driver called into the back, catching the boy's attention. The teenager turned his gaze up front, noticing that the driver was eying him in the mirror, his eyes almost glowing with curiosity underneath the brim of his cap. "Europe is about as far as we usually get students, and sometimes we get some from the United Kingdoms…but this is the first time I've picked up a student from America in a while."

"I see," no, he really didn't. As little as he knew about Japanese culture, he knew that they were serious about their schooling system. Considering that the school that they were now traveling to had a policy of accepting anyone who applied, and he couldn't see why they would seemingly be important or interesting enough to get applicants from other countries, because as far as he knew most, as in every school but the one that he was traveling towards now, required an entrance exam to enter, and he knew for certain that such exams were tough. For a school in Japan not to possess an entrance exam, it pretty much broadcasted to the whole world that they were only a school for the most desperate of students, or delinquents. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, honestly.

Seeing his skeptical look, the bus driver grinned, his eyes glinting with what seemed an inside joke.

"Oh? Don't give me that look, kid. You'll see soon enough. In fact," the bus driver's eyes returned to the road and the boy saw that they were coming on to a dark tunnel set into a hillside. "When we pass through this long, long tunnel, you'll see Yokai Academy for yourself…and might not see anything else ever again!"

With those ominous words, they passed into the tunnel's pitch black interior …

DC+RV

"Weird, it's like completely different world," the teenager wondered aloud, blue eyes taking in the drastically different world beyond the tunnel.

"Hehe…welcome to your new school…son. You take care now," the bus driver warned, before the bus's doors shut with another squeak of gears and hinges, and then rode back into the tunnel, and left the American teenager stranded on that lonely hillside.

The boy barely noticed the bus's departure, though a part of his subconscious brain cataloged the bus driver's words and exit from the Cliffside. Instead, the teenager was more consumed by the sight of a vibrantly red ocean that stretched towards the horizon underneath an equally vibrant and quite blue sky. All this was illuminated by the lonely, bright sun that shone its light onto the cliff face.

"Weird," the boy commented, his eyes drifting to the bus stop, which happened to be a scarecrow of all things. The scarecrow was positioned next to a tall, gnarled tree, and they both were the only two real things of note on that lonely Cliffside.

Picking up his traveling bag and his suitcase, the boy marched off in the direction that the bus stop's sign had indicated where said academy was. There was a large forest between the bus stop and the academy, but he could see a massive silhouette on distant cliff beyond the forest, so he assumed that was where the academy was placed. Strange, yeah, but he wasn't going to get any answers standing there.

Only a short ways into the forest though, he came upon a distracting sight. For reasons that escaped him, someone had built a graveyard in the middle of the forest, and glancing over the tombs and gravestones, he noticed the startling abundance of bats and crows and owls all peering out of the shadows suspiciously.

"Pa was right…there's something really strange about this school," the boy murmured, before moving on. He'd flown halfway across the planet to enter the school…at the very least he could give it a whirl before writing it off as either a threat or an absolute waste of time…

Admittedly, he was a little anxious. Experience said that this would be the point that someone decided to drop a bomb on him and force him into a situation where he had to rely on his powers and play the role of a hero. He had a lot of experience with those kinds of situations, though this was no Smallville, and none of his research of Japan had claimed any hint of with alien involvement or local meteor showers. Hopefully he was just being paranoid…

Chi-ching!

"AAAAA! Look out!" cried a feminine voice.

The boy turned, blinking at the speeding form of a young girl on a bicycle. At her speed it'd be beyond human ability to avoid it; maybe if he hadn't turned towards the voice he'd have that split second needed to pass himself off as a human. Instead, he knew that he'd need to take the blow like a human, and let the bicycle run him over. It wasn't exactly pleasant, forcing him to allow the bike to hit him and go rolling with it and the rider. But he was durable, and was quick of mind and body enough that he could subtly catch the girl in his arms and protect her with his bigger frame as they went rolling.

All this he saw in the split second before the bike hit him. Curiously though, despite the short time between when the girl had shouted and when he made his decision, to him it appeared almost as if the girl had stopped in mid air. Indeed, for a moment it almost seemed as if time had stopped. It was moments like these that he was thankful for his abilities; in that moment of frantic thought and dilated perception of time, he was able to put the horrified girl's face to memory before making his decision. It was only after his decision was made that time suddenly picked back up.

He allowed his body to fold underneath the bike's tire, the force of impact sending both rider and victim toppling across the ground. In the midst of that scrambling chaos, the boy slipped back into that state of mind once more, seemingly blurring towards the girl while her awareness was scattered, and folded his arms over her body and pressed her protectively into his bigger frame.

He once more allowed his grip of that awareness to slip, and they continued their tumble, with the girl held safely in his arms. It wasn't exactly a dangerous tumble, even for a human, but humans were so fragile that even a seemingly safe crash like this one could end up breaking their neck and killing them.

They came to a stop just a few mere feet from the crash site, the girl's bicycle at the feet of the tree and relatively undamaged. He was lying on his back, debating what the proper reaction would be in such a situation. Eventually he decided for the usual.

"Ouch," he grouched, sitting up slowly, and turning an eye upon the girl he'd protected with his own body.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly, since it seemed that the girl hadn't realized that they'd stopped rolling, as she'd pressed her face into his shoulder and was clenching her hands to his arms tightly.

She pulled away, blinking her eyes open in confusion, looking around them with a sort of mystified expression.

"I'm…alright," she said, turning back to him and pausing as she drank in his features. It allowed him to get a good look at her when she was relatively calm, and he had to admit to himself that she was very attractive.

The girl was a strawberry blond, which actually seemed pink in the dull sunlight that managed to get through the thick branches of the trees overhead. She had distinctively European features, though there was a hint of the typical Asian features of girls in this country. She had almond shaped eyes in an unusual shade of green, and her face was the round of a Japanese schoolgirl. Her mouth was wide an expressive, with pleasant, plump lips. She was very cute, and her voice had alluring, lifting tones that were almost musical. He wondered if she was half Japanese.

She suddenly flushed, and averted her gaze. Hesitantly, she apologized, "I-I'm sorry. I'm anemic, so I sometimes get a little dizzy… are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry, just a few bumps," the boy waved her concern aside. It wouldn't do if she started poking around to see if he was injured. Seeing her hesitance, his bright blue eyes softened, and he pressed again, "Really, I'm fine."

"Oh…um…t-that's good," she shifted awkwardly, before flushing further when she noticed where she was sitting. Immediately, she scrambled to her feet, allowing the boy to stand slowly to his own.

"I'm sorry," she said suddenly, grinning as she slapped a fist into an open palm. Her mouth opened into an "O", then she grinned, her tongue poking out of her lips, exposing a curiously pointed canine. "My name's Akashiya, Moka and this will be my first year at Yokai Academy!"

The boy wiped his hands on his pants, a habit inherited from a lifetime living as a farmer. He gave an awkward bow, unused to the Japanese custom, before offering a hand in greeting. "Pleased to meet you, Moka, my name is Kent, Clark, and I'm a new student here, too."

After giving her own awkward bow, Moka took the offered hand, her green eyes shining with excitement as she cried, "Really? Then do you want to be friends, Clark-kun?"

Clark chuckled softly, surprised by the warmth and ready acceptance of the strange girl. His answer was simple, and wouldn't have surprised his parents to hear the bashful agreement, "I-if you want to be...?" he inquired. Moka's own answer was to excitedly jump at the bigger youth and throw her arms around his neck.

"Yes!" she chattered, bouncing against his bigger body. It was a little distracting, honestly. Clark didn't know if she was aware that being pressed so close together while she was bouncing like that was rubbing her body in…interesting ways against his. To stop her before he got too distracted, Clark placed his hands on her own shoulders, and pushed her back, a soft smile on his lips to show that he wasn't mad about being touched.

"I-I'm glad that you're pleased. But we need to head to the academy now, since orientations should start soon," he tapped his wristwatch for explanation. He knew it was just an excuse, just to avoid embarrassing himself by reacting to the pretty girl. However, Moka noticed the time, and quickly raced towards the tree that her bicycle had collapsed against before returning to his side.

"You're right, Clark-kun! We can talk on the way!" Clark chuckled at the girl's bubbly excitement, and fell in step with her as they retreated down the forest path in the direction of the school once more.

"Your Japanese is fantastic, Clark-kun…have you lived your whole life in Japan?" Moka asked a few minutes later, after an expanse of silence as they both tried to think of a way to break the ice. Clark chuckled, eying the pink haired girl from the corner of his eyes.

"No…I'm actually from a town called Smallville, in Kansas, of the United States of America…" he drifted, wondering if the time it took for him to get this good with the Japanese language would be too weird to speak about, so instead decided to give a more vague answer, "I've just always been a little curious about languages…"

"Wow…America…" she said in hushed awe, before turning curious green eyes to his striding form. "You're a long way from home…you must have been practicing your Japanese since childhood…you don't even have an accent…"

Clark's answer was to wince, and shift awkwardly. He'd known that his grasp of the Japanese language would have seemed a little strange, but he hadn't realized just how much it would be… He didn't like lying, but he knew that he'd need to be a little vague with his answers to throw off suspicion from his otherworldliness.

Seeing her eying him still, Clark absently shrugged his shoulder, choosing to adopt a tone of casual indifference as he replied, "I'm a diligent learner."

She nodded, still wearing that half awed, half fascinated expression. Seeing that she'd opened herself to questioning, Clark decided to break the silence.

"What about you? Physically, you seem to be only half Japanese…or am I wrong?" he guessed. She smiled awkwardly.

"You're not wrong…" she laughed softly, but there was a note of melancholy in her tone. "My father is Japanese, but my mother is Romanian…"

"I see," Clark said, since he didn't really have anything else to comment on that subject.

Moka's sudden, awkward shifting startled the boy, making him turn his head to fix curious blue eyes on the girl's flushing face.

"I'm…sorry, but I wanted to a-ask…do you not like v-vampires?" he was a little worried about the sound of trepidation in her voice, so much in fact that he actually stopped to consider her downcast eyes and her head hanging in depression.

Clark thought about the question. He'd had some experience with vampires in Smallville, albeit, they weren't real vampires. The meteor rock from his home planet had strange effects on the DNA of normal people. The radiation in those little green rocks caused human cells to develop various types of mutations that usually came in the superpower variety.

Clark's experience with vampires came in the guise of a young girl named Buffy Sanders. She'd been attacked by a vampire bat infected by the meteors, and developed her own brand of vampirism. Luckily, excessive exposure to sunlight without sufficient contact to either blood or the meteors caused the virus in her veins to be purged.

Still, he'd never met real vampires, so he honestly couldn't say that he had a problem with them. Considering his own otherworldly nature, he knew that it would be a bit hypocritical of him to judge another species without having gotten to interact with them at least once in his life.

Moka was waiting for his answer, though, curiously fidgeting in anticipation. He wondered what that was about.

"No…I can't say that I do. At least, I've never met a real vampire, and I prefer to base my decisions on fact, not conjecture…" he said simply. Moka's reaction was startling.

"Really?!" she gasped, before lunging at the taller teenager and nearly hanging from his neck, several feet off the ground. Clark arched an eyebrow at the enthusiastic girl, cautiously placing his hands on her hips and leaning his body down so that her feet were planted firmly on the ground.

"Oh, I'm so happy! Because you see…I-I'm…a v-vampire," she admitted, making Clark pause. Moka pulled away, a grin stretching her lips, and exposing a tiny pair of fangs in the place of her canines.

"Oh," Clark responded.

"I'm so glad…because that means that we can be friends," Moka said softly, surprising the Kansas farm boy by leaning back into his frame and pressing her face into his shoulders. "Mmm…you smell good…"

Clark flushed at those words, finding Moka's physically inclined affections to be a bit too intimate to be comfortable with. He didn't know if she was joking, or if she really was serious, but he couldn't concentrate on that when said pink haired girl was almost grinding into his body as she moved her face to press her lips to his neck.

"Mewww….your blood…it smells so good…!" she practically gushed, "Chu!"

Wait, what?

Crunch!

"Owwwie!" Moka whined, pulling away from Clark with tears in her eyes, and poking a finger into the spot where one of her fangs had been seconds prior. "Oh, you have some tough strong skin, Clark-kun!"

Clark twitched, unsure of what to make of this situation. Moka was still poking at her missing fang, and he could see that the other one was chipped and broken.

"Did you just…bite me?" he asked faintly, unsure if he was grasping the situation right.

"I'm sorry," she said bashfully, "I usually wouldn't even try…but I hadn't had any of my tomato juice this morning, and your blood just smelt so good!"

"Oh," Clark said softly, his own voice sounding a little faint to his ears as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that Moka, his new vampire friend had just broken her teeth trying to bite him.

"You're not…mad, are you?" she asked, her face nearly as red as those same tomatoes that she claimed to drink.

Seeing her embarrassed and ashamed expression, Clark let out a sigh, realizing that it was stupid of him to blame her. Moka was just too nice, and he had a feeling that she wouldn't have drained him dry, as Buffy Sanders would have, if she was actually capable of piercing his skin.

"It's okay…you just surprised me, really," Clark remarked, blinking away his surprise and bemusement. "Are you alright?" he gestured to her fractured teeth.

Moka nodded, laughing sheepishly, "Its okay. Vampires heal pretty fast. I'll have new teeth in a few hours, so don't worry." She promised. Clark nodded, and they continued down the path.

After a few minutes, he noticed that Moka was eying him again.

"What is it, Moka?" he inquired. Moka smiled sheepishly at being caught staring.

"I was…just wondering what kind of monster you were…since I've never heard of one with skin as durable as yours before," she explained. Once again they paused as Clark absorbed what she said.

"Oh," he blinked the surprise away, before continuing again. "Well…I'm not sure…"

"Why?" she asked.

He eyed her, twisting his head so that they were both looking at each other while they continued forward.

"I…was adopted, and never really knew my birth parents, you see," Clark knew it was a little strange to be admitting his unusual nature so soon, since he'd been raised his whole life to hide who and what he was, but he had realized that since she'd broken her teeth on his skin that it would have been pointless to hide that he had unusual powers. At least she didn't seem to be freaking out. Of course, this was the same girl who claimed to be a vampire and had tried to bite him, too. So maybe he shouldn't be so surprised about how well she was taking all this…?

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized immediately, one of those social customs that was apparently the same no matter where you lived on the planet. "I wonder if you'll be able to find out what kind of monster you are here at Yokai Academy?" she offered hopefully, though he didn't know why she thought it was possible for him to learn what species he was here in this academy.

"Why do you say that? Will there be more monsters here?" Clark questioned, noticing that they were coming to the edge of the forest. They could see the silhouette of the academy through the dense foliage and tree line.

"Yup!" she exclaimed aggressively, nearly skipping down the path. "Because Yokai Academy is a school for monsters!" she declared.

Clark let her skip ahead of him, his eyes blankly staring at the back of her head as he tried to comprehend what she had just said. After several moments just standing there, he continued on down the path after his new friend.

She must be joking… he hoped, he prayed.

DC+RV

She wasn't joking… Clark hung his head while listening to his homeroom teacher explain the school's rules.

If Clark Kent was asked to describe Miss Shizuka Nekonome in one word with what he knew of her so far, then he might have chosen to describe her as…energetic, or maybe eccentric?

Said woman was a bubbly blond example of her gender. She was excitable, too, delighting in her authority by expositing the rules of the school that he and his peers were to live by for the next three years. As she greeted them with joyous anticipation, declaring the goal of the school itself, Clark felt his heart plummet into his stomach, before rising into his throat. It wasn't a comfortable feeling.

Then there were the…students; one such named Saizo Komiya, whose very existence in the school was contradictory to their goals…

"These rules are so boring. Why can't we just eat all the humans? It's not like they can fight us off since they're so weak. We can even have a little fun with their women…"

Unsurprisingly, Clark was struggling to contain his sudden spike of fury. Komiya sat nearly two rows from him, somewhat in the middle of the room, but even that kind of distance wouldn't be enough of a divide to make him even pause if he was serious about crushing the monster's skull in his hands.

"Ease up there, cutie? It's only the first day…there's no need to pick a fight so early, is there?" Clark's eyes rose, shifting to look at the speaker of those words. It was a girl.

She was…interesting. He wondered if unnatural hair colors were normal for monsters. He'd seen some pretty interesting shades of hair since arriving on school grounds. Of course, he was a little hesitant to actually consider that this girl's hair really was blue.

Clark knew his alien eyes could perceive the visible light spectrum differently than a human. He could see colors and shades in an ordinary person's skin and hair that others couldn't. His mother's hair still looked kind of red to him, despite the amount of gray that was continuing to develop over the years in her luscious locks. But this was the first time he'd ever encountered people whose hair was a solid color…other than him, that is.

To Clark, looking in a mirror revealed that his hair was a solid black, with no differentiation between the grays and browns that a human's hair would be. Moka, this girl speaking to him, and even several of his classmates shared that common normality. He briefly wondered why, though.

Peering at her though, he could see that like his new friend Moka, this blue haired girl was just as attractive a catch. She had more alien features though, less Japanese in her bloodline, probably. She had the soft, dove like innocence in her face and smile, but mischief shined brightly in her lovely violet eyes.

Her chin was in the palm of her hand, and her eyes were watching him with catlike intensity, that soft smile just touching her lips.

Her words caught up with him, though, and introspection done, Clark let his mind return to normal speeds.

He cocked his head back slightly, while at the same time purposely coaxing the tension out of his hands and arms, letting him smooth the opened palms of his own hands onto his desk.

"Thanks," he said just as softly, debating whether to say more, before nodding as he settled with what would be the polite recourse. "My name is Kent, Clark."

Was he just imaging it, or were the girl's eyes shining with touches of amusement and delight.

"Hello, Clark-kun," there was an odd tone to her voice, an almost musical ring as she settled her eyes with his. "My name is Kurono, Kurumu, and I'm very happy to meet you."

Clark debated continuing the conversation any further, but something that Miss Nekonome said had caught his attention, forcing him to his feet and shocking Miss Kurono, going by the way she suddenly flinched in surprise at his abrupt changed in height.

"What do you mean that any humans caught in school grounds are killed immediately?!" Clark thundered in horrified shock. His question only served to make the rest of his classmates laugh, though. Instead of being intimidated by the reaction his question had gotten, the Kansas farmer pursued that line of questioning. "Doesn't that seem a little counterproductive to the goal of this school in the first place?"

"Oh shove off it," Mister Komiya had turned on the spot in his own chair, to affix Clark with a deadpanned stare. He cocked his head back, arching a pierced eyebrow, "What are you, some kind of human lover? You should know as well as the rest of us that humans wouldn't even hesitate to kill one of us given half the chance, so why should we?"

Clark's jaw squared and his eyes hardened. Electric blue eyes affixed onto ugly brown, fury causing his form to tremble with the need for violence, though it was repressed under the belief that he should first try to civilly debate his beliefs before taking any such violent actions.

"But does that even make it right? Sure, an eye for an eye sounds great to the downtrodden and oppressed at the time, but in the end everyone just winds up blind," he reasoned simply. The boy's response was merely to narrow his eyes.

"What rock did you crawl out of, gaijin?" the delinquent questioned.

"Kansas," Clark defiantly replied. The thuggish boy looking down on him, even reclined in his own chair like that, merely trembled with amused laughter.

"You're American, huh? I heard that monsters from the states were a little weird, but I hadn't thought that they'd actually be human lovers," the boy said on a hiss, as if it were a curse. His scorn seemed to be shared by the rest of the class, who each laughed mockingly at what they thought to be an idiot.

Clark's hands were clenched into fists at his side, but before he could properly retort the classroom's doors were pushed open and a familiar figure stepped into the class.

"Uh, I'm sorry I'm late…I ended up getting lost in the halls after the entrance ceremony," the lifting, almost musical tones of Moka Akashiya's voice almost acted like a soothing balm to the sensation of fire singing in his veins, mounting and growing with his rising anger. As he calmed, his body cooled quickly, allowing him to direct his eyes to his now very late friend.

"It's alright. Just take an empty seat Miss…" Shizuka Nekonome directed, turning her eyes back to her roll sheet and smiling, "…Akashiya Moka-san…"

Moka's answer was to smile brilliantly, and perform a strange half curtsy, half bow that seemed to bedazzle the rest of the student body in the class. Clark was effectively startled by some of the absurd things spilling from the mouths of his classmates. Male, female, it didn't matter; they expelled compliments and worship with near fanatical fervor as Moka stepped in amongst the peons. Then her eyes locked with his brilliantly blue gaze.

"Clark-kun…?" she blinked in astonishment, before surprising him as she practically tackled him, squealing loudly enough that he could hear the classroom's windows rattling.

"It really is you, Clark-kun! Oh, I'm so happy that we're in the same class together!" she practically gushed.

Clark gave a put upon sigh, patting Moka's back even while he listened to the rest of his classmates steam and curse his very existence merely because he seemingly already possessed the affection of the current most popular school idol.

From beside him, Kurumu Kurono narrowed her gaze. There was anger in her eyes, but there was also curiosity and a little confusion…until Nekonome-sensei quieted the rest of the class and dictated everyone to their seats.

As Clark began to sit, he noticed Kurumu's intense gaze upon him, and he awkwardly flashed the girl a smile before returning his attention to the front of the classroom. Beside him, the blue haired girl in question frowned in thought…

DC+RV

The first day at Yokai Academy was intended to be a free day, a suggestion to hopefully give the students enough time to become appropriately familiar to drop down on the abundance of tardiness in the latter days of their three years of schooling…or so the thought was.

Kurumu's continuing confusion was further compounded upon when that damned Akashiya Moka arrived at her neighbor's desk and requested his presence for the rest of the day. But Clark surprised both girls by turning to Kurumu and requesting her own presence to accompany them.

If not for his easy, welcoming smile, and kind, soft eyes set into his equally as handsome face, Kurumu might have ignored the request, might even have attempted to snort her own derision at possibly spending her time and company with her prey and her rival…but something in the boy's eyes caused her to hesitate in acting upon her inborn response, her eyebrows pinching as she awkwardly agreed.

That was how she found herself situated on a bench an hour later, sipping thoughtfully on an iced coffee while attempting to study her two companions as they chatted amicably with easy smiles on their faces.

The subject of their conversation: dietary necessities.

"So, you're saying that you usually only live off tomato juice?" Clark Kent seemed surprised by the discovery, which was not so surprising. As far as she were aware, most vampires tended to prefer the eastern half of the world, and if they should go to the Americas then they tended to stay close to major metropolitan areas, where the blood was.

"It's not so much of an issue…vampires don't need to drink blood all the time. We can usually sustain ourselves on high calorie and protein diets provided that we supplement our diets with an acidic drink of some kind. Tomato juice and orange juice are the preferred choices among vampires, since they taste so good. The acid helps cut on the thirst for blood, which is our major compulsion to feed our vampirism, but without the thirst we are capable of surviving on near human diets," Moka tried to explain to her new male friend.

"Well…that's good," Clark attempted for levity, smiling an awkward, boyish smile that really complemented him. "You don't…kill when you feed, do you?" Clark tried to ask gently.

Moka looked down at her can of tomato juice depressingly, biting her lip, "Some vampires actively hunt and kill humans and other monsters because they like to indulge their thirst, but it isn't really a necessity. We're perfectly capable of surviving on almost human diets if we take the proper measures, but we always have the need to feed the thirst despite our attempts to be civilized. Thankfully, it doesn't really matter how much blood we drink, a few sips is enough to temporarily quench our thirst as much as the blood of a hundred people. It's only the taste of blood that the thirst wants, nothing else."

"Huh," Clark said noncommittally.

"Of course…drinking blood is more than just to satisfy your thirst, isn't it?" Kurumu commented, indulging her desire to interrupt the two. They blinked, and looked to her in regard. "I heard…that drinking blood from a living source was more…intimate then you've let on…or am I wrong?"

"Moka…?" Clark looked to his pink haired friend in askance, who was flushed down to her neck in embarrassment.

"Oh…um," Moka bit her lip again, shifting her eyes away from her male friend's inquiry gaze, "Well…it's sort of a new ideology. With modern medicine and strict laws in place to protect other species from our thirst, we vampires aren't strictly allowed to feed on anyone who isn't willingly letting us…so when we find someone who happens to be willing, vampires tend to get territorial and even go so far as to reward their partner…it's…a special bond to most vampires…"

"Huh," Clark cocked his head back, looking thoughtful. His eyes shifted back to Moka, a small smile on his face. "Well, it's a good thing that your fangs can't actually pierce my skin, because I'd hate for you to get in trouble just cause of an accident…"

Even as Moka began to beam in elation at the seeming acceptance of her male friend, Kurumu was gnashing her teeth together while trying to outwardly maintain a near calm. It took an astronomical force of will to keep her displeasure from showing, so much so she almost missed Clark turning to her and offering her a question of her own.

"So what kind of foods do you eat, Kurumu?" Clark gave her a chance to properly enter the conversation, and like a lioness on a gazelle, she pounced on the chance.

"It's not so much what I need to eat, but what I need to regularly consume to stay healthy," Kurumu leaned into Clark's side, practically leering up into his eyes. "I'm a succubus, you see, and as creatures of lust my species need to feed on sexual energies to maintain our health. Even kissing or holding hands could be counted as such experiences, if our partner happens to be excited at the time…"

Clark broke eye contact, coughing awkwardly as he leaned away from her presence pressed into his side. A glance over his shoulder told her that Moka was stemming jealously. That was a thrilling thought.

"I…see," Clark tried to be reasonable and understanding, but only managed to sound…strained. "Does that happen to be…everyone, or just certain people?" his discomfort was actually very enduring, that sort of shy bashfulness that she didn't see a lot of from monsters built quite like Clark was.

Kurumu leaned away, allowing Clark to breathe a sigh of relief. It was comforting to know that he was attracted to her, even if she was still confused how he was seemingly able to repel the illusionary abilities that allowed her species to seduce men with hardly any effort. She didn't think that he was completely immune to her Charm ability, because she'd increased the power exponentially just then when she'd looked him in the eyes, heightening his own arousal than what it was…so she might be able to enchant him if she hit him with the full force of it, but that had all the subtly of crushing an egg with a wrecking ball.

Instead, Kurumu decided to take a more languid approach, lounging slightly on the bench with near catlike poise, pressing out her chest a few inches and offering a tempting, sultry smile to her male neighbor.

"We don't necessarily have to feed on lust from our partner. We can actually feed on any form of lust that surrounds us, but because we succubi are amorous creatures by our very nature, it tends to be more…fun to pursue our food in the traditional way. However, that all changes when we find our destined one…" Kurumu said theatrically.

Beside Clark, Moka perked up, bubbling, "Destined one? You mean even succubi possess bonded mates?"

"Yup," Kurumu grinned, popping the "p". "It's a little known fact, but all monster species have fables and legends of bonded mates. Vampires, werewolves, succubi, you name it. We succubi call them destined ones, though."

"So what are these…bonded mates?" Clark hesitantly asked. His confusion was apparent, so Kurumu decided to educate him.

"You want this one, pinky, or should I try?" Kurumu glanced to Moka who was following this exchange with a clear abundance of excitement.

"No, I'll provide what I know, first," Moka replied, before looking earnestly to Clark who had turned his gaze back to his female friend. "Clark, the term 'bonded mates' is a universally applicable classification to a very mysterious phenomenon in the monster world. We vampires call such people 'blood bonded', and among vampires, just as it is with the rest of the monster world, our blood bonded are considered our eternal partners, companions, friends, spouses, and vampires consider it a union more sacred and intimate than marriage…" Moka explained the general lore of bonded mating.

"It's also extremely rare, with maybe one or two occurring every century or so, out of all the monster species on the planet," Kurumu continued the explanation, just so he had a better understanding of what they were discussing with such awed fervor. "When a monster encounters their bonded mate, their youki, which we could call 'monster energy', begins to resonate and attune to their partner's internal energies. Overtime, a bond begins to form between the two monsters, sometimes strengthening the health between two bonded individuals, sometimes sharing powers, or sometimes, as in the case of succubi, forcing one of the bonded to rely on the other for their sole sustenance."

Clark was frowning thoughtfully, mulling over her words. "Why's that, though? It doesn't really make a lot of sense, monster energy or no…who decides who is a bonded mate to whom? And why would it change you so dramatically?"

Kurumu disregarded the question with a casual, dismissive roll of her shoulders, pressing her canned iced coffee to her lips to avoid answering. It was Moka who answered instead.

"I'd heard that something like that happened with succubi, but I thought it was rumor…" Kurumu's snort of derision forced Moka to flush and turn back to Clark to answer his question instead of facing the other girl's contempt. "Not that we know, Clark-kun. Monsters are as in the dark about the nature of bonded mates as you are. It's generally accepted that bonded mating is kind of like marriage to humans, but that's really just speculation, a little wishful thinking, and an educated guess based on all of our prior experiences with the subject. The truth is that we just don't know what it really means or what its purpose is…"

"But that's just…" Clark was attempting to gather his thoughts when a new voice broke into the middle of the conversation.

"Man…you really are cute, Akashiya Moka," it was obvious that the speaker, the thuggish looking Saizo Komiya from Kurumu's homeroom class wanted to jump into their conversation, and from the way he was eying Moka, Kurumu had a thought about what he was attempting. No less, though, she, Clark and Moka all stood to their feet, facing the newcomer with trepidation, anxiousness, or frustration.

"The name is Saizo Komiya, you'd do best to remember it," Saizo said confidently, stepping towards Moka who was partially hiding behind Clark's comparatively massive frame. Stepping toe to toe to Clark, it was obvious that Saizo's attempts to be intimidating were left wanting. Clark was easily half a foot taller than the other teenager. Even monster teenagers weren't so impressively built in adolescence as Clark Kent was.

"What I want to know is why such cute girls are hanging around a piece of human loving trash like you," Saizo growled. Clark's frown was stretching, and there was an unusual strength within his arm even as Kurumu slipped her hand down to soothingly grip his forearm. The strength in that limb was actually a little startling to feel. Kurumu found herself wondering what kind of monster Clark was.

"Who they wish to spend their time with is of their own concern," Clark said, unwavering in the other youth's antagonistic approach. He shifted his stance, glancing from the corner of his eyes between Moka and Kurumu to let them know that he didn't intend to start a fight. Seeing the look, both girls hesitantly relaxed, smiling.

"Let's go, Moka, Kurumu," Clark beckoned, turning slowly after one last stare down between him and Saizo. As they were turning, Kurumu could see the other boy shaking with fury.

Though they escaped without incident, Kurumu felt sure that this wasn't the last that they'd seen of Komiya Saizo.

DC+RV

"I wonder why Komiya-san seemed so angry with you, Clark-kun," Moka thought aloud as they stopped at the edge of the school's roof to appreciate the view of the nearby Cliffside and the red ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Kurumu snorted in amusement, sending a baleful glance at her "rival", before allowing herself to sink comfortably in her male friend's side, even if she was a little annoyed about the way he jumped in shock from the intimate contact. Still, he didn't push her away, so she could look around his discomfort with her presence since it seemed to be ebbing slowly.

"You didn't see their face off in the classroom. Clark-kun here is apparently fond of humans, and took exception to the school's policy to kill any human interlopers on sight."

"Really…?" Moka blinked, looking up at Clark's face while wearing a frown from her place pressed into his other side. "But humans are so…cruel, and so violent. They wouldn't hesitate to kill us…" she trailed off, biting her lip.

Clark's eyes softened and Kurumu frowned in annoyance as she watched him place a hand gently on top of Moka's head.

"I never claimed that they weren't. But neither are all of them like that, for that matter. There's plenty of kind and accepting humans willing to look past our differences. I know because my parents are some such people. Though they found me in a corn field after a great tragedy had befallen upon their home town, and nearly died themselves that very same day, they still welcomed me into their homes, their lives, and their hearts as if I were their own son despite all my oddities…" Clark reasoned. Kurumu considered that explanation, and had to admit that he did have a point.

Moka hung her head, and sadly began recounting her own story. "When I was in middle school, I went to a human school. The other children there were so…cruel, so spiteful. Humans don't believe in monsters, and all the other children thought I was weird and liked to pick on me because I believed in monsters…" Moka claimed. Her answer was to have Clark give a half armed hug to the pink haired girl, smiling sadly at her lonely experience.

"It must have been really lonely, huh?" Clark asked rhetorically, because even Kurumu could tell how much of an affect Moka's previous life in the human world had affected the pink haired vampire. "But children aren't exactly the best example of human compassion and understanding, especially teenagers. I've seen for myself how puberty affects human children. Peer pressure and a desire to conform can make them do some darned cruel things…right?" he reflected.

Moka nodded, sniffling. "Y-yeah…"

"I'm not advocating that they are all perfect or all good, cause there are a lot of bad and cruel humans. But the same is true with monsters. In mythology, vampires and succubi are even demons who either corrupt or slaughter humans mindlessly…but I can't help feeling like you two are angels instead," Clark smiled, winking to the two girls. Even Kurumu found herself flushing at the compliment, sending a competitive glare at the vampire pressed into her male friend's side.

Clark sighed, and pulled away from the girls, saying, "That said, I'm beginning to believe that it might be possible for humans and monsters to coexist. If there are other monsters like us, I can't help but hope that one day we can come out from the shadows with pride, and stand side by side with humans as equals…" Clark reasoned.

"That's beautiful, Clark-kun," Moka said wondrously, stepping into Clark's side again. Kurumu followed that up by doing much the same, nearly gluing herself to her male friend's side in an attempt to outdo her competition.

"C'mon you two, we still need to check out the dorms…plus, I need to go see the headmaster as soon as possible. I've got a few…questions, which need to be answered." As Clark led the two girls away, Kurumu allowed herself to sink into the warm, muscled side of her new male friend, letting concerns of her mission and her responsibilities to her race go…for now.

DC+RV

Conversation flowed easily between the three teenagers as they continued down the path towards the two adjoining dorm houses. Moka noticed the way Clark carefully measured his words, relaying in subdued tones some of his experiences in his hometown and country. Kurumu was in comparison especially open about her life before Yokai Academy, and Moka admitted privately that the childhood of a succubus was as interesting as her new male friend's life.

"Wow, that's pretty unreal. Your mother really does have twenty boyfriends at one time?" Clark inquired with interest. Kurumu's amusement was paramount as she bobbed her head, turning to watch them with dancing eyes as while walking backwards.

"Yup; we succubi have big appetites after all and varying tastes, y'know…it isn't unusual for us to have multiple lovers to quench our hunger for sexual energies, unless we happen to find a particularly powerful individual that falls for our allure, or we find our destined one," Kurumu tried for casual disregard as she explained the wanton lifestyles of succubi.

Clark frowned thoughtfully as he was no doubt digesting her words. The careful way he considered how to reply to Kurumu's nature somewhat concerned Moka, but she wanted to hear what he'd make of the succubus's childhood for herself.

"That's the second time that you've mentioned destined ones to me…and while I understand that these bonded mates are a big deal among monsters, I don't really understand why they are so important for succubi," he pointed out. Kurumu hesitated a moment, before grinning toothily at the opening.

Moka felt her hands clenching into fists at her sides, unconsciously stepping a little closer to her new male friend.

"Well," Kurumu rolled her tongue over her bottom lip, her eyes closed with consideration. "A destined one for succubi is pretty important. I did mention it in passing though, so it's not surprising that you mightn't have understood my meaning…" she trailed for an explanation.

Clark nodded. "You said something about succubi relying on their destined one for sole sustenance… which I'm having a little trouble understanding, honestly," he pointed out.

Kurumu nodded in acceptance. "Yeah, but for succubi, meeting our destined one is a pretty rare experience. Many monster species our dying out these days, and some like succubi have only begun to produce females of our species. In the old days, incubi were just about as common as succubi, but they went the way of the dinosaurs during the witch hunts by the Church," she explained.

"I'm sorry," Clark said immediately, but Kurumu dismissed the apology with a wave of her hand.

"Don't be, Clark-kun, it's not your fault," Kurumu dwelled on her thoughts for a few minutes, a reflection of her race's total combined history in her mind's eye that Moka was only barely aware of. "Anyway, at about the time when incubi birth rate stopped the encounters that we succubi continued to have with our destined ones dropped nearly to zero. As with most monster species, destined ones, as with all bonded mates, resonate better with our youki than other men and women that we could meet.

"Because of that, fertility, energy levels, physical health and wellness, some powers, and yes, even dietary concerns fluctuate for individual monsters upon meeting their bonded mates. For succubi, much as vampires, our bodies develop a sort of dependency for our destined one's energy to survive. In vampires, drinking the blood of someone that isn't their blood bonded tends to act much like poison in the worst case scenario, and doesn't even succeed in quenching the thirst in the best case scenario. In succubi it tends to be much the same, though more mild. If I were to encounter my destined one, chances are that while I could feed on the sexual energy of other creatures, it wouldn't really feed my hunger and without feeding on my destined one's energy regularly I'd probably starve even with other avenues to feed on…"

Obviously, Clark was startled by the explanation. His body had tensed, the muscles in his arm becoming rock hard where Moka's side was pressing into it. But his expression was unreadable, and his blue eyes were a stormy gale.

"You said that it's rare, though?" Clark questioned, relaxing out of his taut stance. Kurumu smiled, and approached Clark with a sway to her hips that made Moka clench her teeth angrily. As Kurumu settled easily into Clark's other side, Moka became aware that she had grabbed Clark's arm with her hand and was squeezing so tightly that her sharp nails were pressing into the skin of his inner elbow, but even with that he didn't seem to notice.

Unbelievable!

"Uh-huh, that's right. Long ago it was more common for succubi to meet and bond with their destined ones, but those individuals that they did so with happened to be incubi. Without incubi, we had to hope for encounters with other monster species. It's actually so rare that only the matriarchs of the succubi clans even remember the signs for how to tell if a succubus is reacting to their destined one…" Kurumu was smiling, rubbing her face into Clark's shoulder like some human shaped sex kitten.

Moka's heart was pounding in her ears. Though it was a relief that Kurumu wasn't claiming that Clark was her destined one. She didn't know if she could take that particular offense.

Vampires had their own tales and had gathered knowledge on how to determine if they or someone they knew were reacting to their blood bonded. She had experience with such an event, because her mother and father always claimed to be such a pair.

Since her father was the patriarch of the Shuzen clan, that meant that Moka was in line to be the matriarch to the Bloodriver clan. Because of that fact, her father had seen fit to mail her the journal of her late mother, Akasha Bloodriver.

It might have only been one of her mother's journals, but to Moka it meant the world. She might have had a lonely childhood, but she'd always known that she was loved. Her mother's journal was of how she met Issa Shuzen and fell in love…and it allowed her to see depths of her parents that she could only distantly remember…

But to her, now, the journals meant more, because she recalled what her mother had wrote down about how finding Issa meant to her…and exactly what her daughter should expect she to feel upon finally meet her blood bonded.

Scowling over Clark's shoulder, Moka morosely declared, "But that's not the end of a succubi's debauchery, is it? What about those men that you enslave?" she albeit hissed.

Clark's eyes flickered down to Moka's shimmering green eyes, before returning to Kurumu's expressive violet orbs as the succubus fixed her irritated gaze onto the scowling vampire.

"If you must know," Kurumu declared simply, taking obvious insult with Moka's tone and abrupt snitching, "We succubi don't enslave men," Kurumu snorted, before pulling away from Clark.

Immediately, Clark pulled his arm out of Moka's grip, but he didn't step towards either girl. Instead, he backed away, eying both of the furious girl's with concern.

Kurumu had turned her back to Moka, and had crossed her arms around her midsection as she scowled into the forest.

Then, the blue haired beauty flicked her eyes to Clark, obviously noting that he wasn't wearing a judging or expectant expression. Moka felt, strangely enough, as if Clark was perfectly content to let the matter drop. Obviously, he wouldn't support the idea of enslaving men, being a man himself, but she could just sense the confidence he held in Kurumu beneath the calm surface of his electric blue eyes, as if he doubted that the succubus could even if she wanted to enslave men.

"Succubi are creatures of lust," Kurumu agreed quietly, her head dipping so that her bangs hid her eyes. "We're capable of hypnosis and illusions, which is a fact that I'm not ashamed to admit…but we don't enslave men…" she declared, turning venomous eyes onto the pink haired vampire watching her.

Pointing a finger judgmentally, Kurumu continued her monologue, "Yes, our hypnosis ability called 'Charmed' can influence thoughts and actions of unwary men, but that is based on the key facets of hypnosis; repetition, comfort and susceptibility. Using 'Charm' invigorates the sensation of arousal, making a man more susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. The so called 'Kiss of Binding' that follows is also totally misunderstood! It doesn't even have a name among succubi, it's just a natural part of how we feed!" Kurumu vigorously declared, snarling at the pink haired girl.

Moka felt chastised by the blue haired girl's arguments. Kurumu wasn't exactly providing her a chance to counter her argument, which left Moka gaping in surprise. Kurumu took full advantage of the vampire's shock, capitalizing on the moment by continuing her deluge of facts.

"The easiest method for a succubus to absorb sexual energy is through their mouth, much the same way as it is for a vampire to drink blood! By locking lips while having sex, we can absorb sexual energy in abundance! The very reason why it's rumored that the kiss will enslave a male under the effect of a succubi's 'Charm' power is because while using Charm and draining a male of their energy, the male feels such euphoria that sex with anyone but a succubus can no longer satisfy them, which their jealous and angry lovers used as the basis for the rumor that succubi enslave me to justify oppressing and discriminating against the whole succubi species for!" Kurumu jabbed Moka in the chest with her vindicated finger, making the vampire stumble backwards.

Spitting at the ground, Kurumu declared, "Think about that before labeling me, miss too-good-for-us vampire!" with one last haughty look at the vampire, Kurumu turned away and marched off, leaving Moka to stand there, stunned.

Clark sighed, startling Moka.

"Don't feel too bad, Moka," Clark said softly, in an attempt to comfort the startled vampire. "It's obvious that she'd been bottling that in for a long time…maybe all her life. Maybe prejudice goes hand in hand with every species? Monsters hate humans because they believe that they are a bunch of homicidal savages, and the same goes for how humans believe monsters act like, if they even believe that they're real in the first place."

As Moka looked to her new male friend, she could see him awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, thoughtfully looking in the direction that Kurumu had retreated away from them. Moka felt terrible herself for judging Kurumu on fictitious rumor and speculation, but most female monsters were taught from an early age to be wary of succubi least they steal their chosen mates…

"Look, maybe there is a reason why everyone believes that succubi would enslave men given half the chance, and maybe Kurumu was lying to us…but then again, maybe everything that she said is the truth," Clark debated, his hand dropping from his neck to fall to his side. "Basing your actions off the words and feelings of others seems a little silly. Second hand experience doesn't equate to the same as first hand experience after all. The same is true for third hand experience to second hand experience. The truth is that with every story, with every rumor, a little piece of what the subject matter is gets lost in the process of telling it to someone else. But you're in a unique position, Moka. You actually know a succubus and can learn about them first hand…are you really going to write her off without giving her a chance?" Clark questioned simply.

It was funny, Moka reflected. Clark wasn't pushing her to be friendly with Kurumu, or to continue discriminating with her. He'd only asked her what she, Akashiya Moka was going to do, and from the soft acceptance in his voice, Moka had the strangest feeling that he wouldn't judge her whatever her choice was…

It was…actually humbling…Clark had near saint-like patience and levels of forgiveness. He chose to debate and comfort rather than curse and confront whatever opposition turned up. Honestly, if anyone were angels in this school of monsters, Moka wouldn't be so surprise if they turned out to be a farm boy from Smallville, Kansas.

"I think…" Moka began to speak up, but they were caught by surprise when they heard a scream…from a very familiar voice.

"Kurumu…"

Clark's head jerked up, and for a moment Moka was left speechless, because Clark's eyes were burning red, wisps of smoke drifting from his eyelids. Then before she could react he was gone…just, vanished as if he'd hadn't ever been standing beside her in the first place.

Left alone, all Moka could really accomplish was to slowly trudge in the direction of the dorms, hoping and praying that she was correct in trusting Kurumu's safety to her male friend...

DC+RV

Kurumu flailed uselessly, kicking her legs to try and free herself from her captor's grip, but the colossal hand still held her struggling form easily.

"What's wrong babe? Am I too much man for you to handle?" the orc laughed, sneering at her as he hunched over her. Kurumu spat on his face, making him grunt in annoyance.

"Get bent, Saizo," Kurumu snarled, interrupted when the male monster backhanded her into a tree. Dizzy from the force of the blow, the blue haired succubus limply fell to the ground, blood trailing down her face.

"Don't be like that, babe," Saizo commentated with a sneer, stalking towards her downed body with an arrogant swagger. "I promise if you stop fighting I won't make it hurt…too much…" he snickered as Kurumu fixed hateful eyes back onto him.

"As if," Kurumu snarled, and leaped away, trying and failing to take to the air as she felt a twinge of pain from her broken right wing.

Before she could flee, Saizo's massive arm plucked her from her air, and smashed her frail, comparatively tiny body so hard into the ground that her body formed a miniature crater in the soft forest soil. Kurumu screamed as she felt her ribs give under the force of the blow, spewing blood in great coughing fits.

"That's the way! Scream! Beg! Cry for help!" Saizo laughed, reaching down to lift her battered form from the crater, Kurumu hanging limply from his hand. "This is why I'm alive!" he laughed.

Kurumu weakly tried to rake her claws across his face, but before she could strike a decisive blow he had already tossed her back into a tree, which split in half from the force and left her lying helplessly between the two halves of the broken husk.

She could hear him approaching, his great, lumbering steps shaking the ground underneath his titanic bodyweight. His true form must have been approaching a ton. You'd never know when he kept his true form hidden through the art of transformation.

Kurumu knew that at this point it'd be useless to run. He'd caught her unaware and struck a crippling blow when he'd shattered her left arm and left her nearly concussed. Even with her ears ringing from the blow to her skull, she'd been in the process of her own transformation, but he'd further crippled her by crushing her right wing in a downward slash of his arm.

Without her wings to flee through the air, and with her brain concussed as it was, she was unable to even fight the bigger monster off. He was systemically taking her part, and she didn't have any doubts what was to happen to her now that her strength had finally faltered.

In a moment of delirium, Kurumu's mind flashed back to the moment that she had fled from both Moka and Clark. She'd been positive that the in the fallout from her argument with Moka that Clark might have been distrustful, even reluctant to continue their somewhat tentative friendship. But when she'd locked eyes with him as she'd turned from Moka, all that she'd seen in his electric blue eyes was benevolent acceptance.

The thought of those kind, baby blue eyes filled her with warmth. She wished absently that she'd stayed…if she had, would she even be in this mess?

"You're not my first choice for prey," she could her Saizo snickering, feeling the coldness of his shadow as his massive frame approached, "But since you made it just so damn easy for me, why should I turn down such a tempting invitation?"

That was it? She was just a target of opportunity? If she wasn't even his first choice then…

Ah…

Moka…

Beside herself, Kurumu found anger growing in the pit of her heart. So Moka even dogged her now of all places?

That…that…!

And then Kurumu couldn't even speak. She was welcomed into strong arms, covered in a comforting warmth, and a carefree scent of wildflowers, sunshine and the scent of toiled Earth filled her whole being, its very presence promising only safety and love.

There was a name for that…a name for this person.

"Clark…"

DC+RV

Clark was not a confrontational sort of man. He didn't really enjoy violence, and preferred to usually use his words to escape conflict than his fists. If given the choice, he was more than ready to forgive and forget most offenses.

That being said, he was a teenager, so he had a passionate side that he usually restrained from the rest of the world. On top of all that though, he was a protective man, tenaciously so…you could almost say obsessively so…

Steal something? Alright, off to prison, or maybe even a warning if he felt sorry enough for you.

Assault someone? Alright, definite prison time with a suggestion for therapeutic counseling.

Murder someone? Life in prison, obviously…and maybe a few prayers…

But attempted rape? Especially when the soon-to-be-victim was someone that he counted among his extremely short list of friends?

Now…now he was mad.

DC+RV

Super speed was an interesting power. He'd once tried to describe it to his friend Pete Ross, and his exact words were "you know how in video games you sometimes have some kind of ability like the 'bullet time' effect'? Though the words were true, they weren't exactly accurate.

The human mind could only really process so much information, and some things escaped their understanding of just what was possible. Clark often thought his super speed was both a form of the illustrious bullet time effect, which was actually conventionally just created by increasing the speed of neurological activity from the brain to the eyes and limbs of the subject who could make use of the effect, and a form of enhanced reflexes built around the need to be able to quickly react to supersonic speeds. Both frames of reference were dependent on his speed, with increasing levels of intensity the faster than he ran.

In a way, it was bullet time, but if it truly was than super speed would have to be the most boring power ever, unlike the rush of elation and freedom that he felt every time that he let his body move beyond human capabilities.

For one, if super speed really was similar to "bullet time", then he'd still perceive his body moving at human speed even if the rest of the world was moving infinitesimally slower, which would make traveling cross country abhorrently boring. However, if it were a product of superhuman reflexes, he wouldn't actually be able to recall the journey; it would still be a blur to him as it would everyone else, even if he could navigate to his destination without incident.

Therefore, he wasn't actually experiencing either. He certainly felt as if he was moving at super speed. Even if the rest of the world seemed to be moving in slow motion, running at super speed was both easy and quick. Even if he could feel his body moving through the motions of running, he was moving so fast that it felt like he was flying.

Over all that though, he still retained cogitative ability while using his super speed, and could recall with pinpoint accuracy everything he did while using super speed. It was just that the experience just didn't have anything comparable to it for human understanding.

To truly understand how super speed worked and felt, you first needed to be able to achieve super speed for yourself.

But none of this mattered to Clark as he sped away from his pink haired friend Moka after hearing his other friend, Kurumu's distant scream of terror and pain.

All that mattered was that someone he cared about needed to be saved…!

DC+RV

The scene was bleak upon his arrival. Valuable seconds were wasted in the midst of travel, and Clark barely arrived in time to pull Kurumu out of the grasping jaws of death, immobilized between two halves of a tree at the feet of her attacker. Kurumu had been beaten bloody and delirious, and offered him no resistance as he sped them into the tree line.

When he was comfortable with the distance that he'd put between them and Saizo, Clark stopped to check over his female friend. His hands brushed her cheeks, moving down to examine her chest and stomach, which he noticed was struggling to rise and fall with her breath. The feeling of his rough fingers brushing over the bruised skin made the succubus tremble with pain as she gasped his name.

"Shush," Clark said softly, moving a hand down to support her neck. "You've got a few broken ribs. I'll get you to a hospital real quick…don't worry," he tried to be comforting, choking back a snarl and the frustrated tears threatening to spill. He never liked seeing his friends hurt.

"C-Clark…t-thank you…" she struggled to say, though he could tell that doing just that little much was exhausting. He frowned, momentarily pausing to lift her sweater and shirt to look at her stomach, and scowled at the blooming bruise like coloring spreading across the skin of her belly.

"Internal hemorrhaging…not good," his eyes flickered up to Kurumu's face, unsurprised that she had fainted. Her breath was beginning to grow faint, and wiggling his fingers out from behind where he was supporting her head allowed him to see that the digits were coated in a thin layer of blood...

So she had broken ribs and a concussion…as well as the other wounds on her body that he was beginning to note with some trepidation.

Not good indeed.

Would she even survive the run to the infirmary? Would the infirmary even be able to save her?

Maybe if she had Moka's healing ability, she could…

Wait…

Moka was a vampire, and her ability to heal was good enough to grow new teeth in a few hours…did all monsters share a similar ability…?

It was…possible…but then, Moka was a vampire, so her healing ability probably had something to do with her blood…right?

But Moka hadn't drank any blood that day, and from what she'd claimed, the blood really didn't empower her or anything, and was just converted into nutrients when ingested, but was mostly drunk to quench their addiction to blood…?

So, that meant that their healing powers had nothing to do with blood…? Or was it something else?

And did all monsters have similar powers?

There was something in that thought…Clark frowned as he examined Kurumu again. He'd need to act fast if he wanted to save her, but he was frightened of making the wrong choice, even if his indecision could prove just as fatal…

Right then, best to take a look at the facts; Moka was a vampire, which meant that she needed blood, at least to keep from going insane with bloodlust; whereas Kurumu was a succubus, and actually needed to absorb sexual energy as a dietary requirement…so that meant…t-that…

Unerringly, Clark's eyes flicked to Kurumu's blood speckled lips, and he gulped.

A shake of the head helped clear his mind. It was debatable whether he was jumping to conclusions or if he really was on the right track, but as far as options went then this was probably as good a chance that he was going to get to save Kurumu. He didn't know enough about her powers or physiology to take a chance on moving her and hoping that she survived the trip to the infirmary. Hopefully he'd deduced the right answer because if not than this was going to be a really embarrassing memory later…provided it didn't turn into a depressing one should his decision be the incorrect one and result in her dying in his arms...

Clark shook his head, trying not to think of the depressing alternative.

It wasn't as if he was totally unfamiliar with thinking about girls in a sexual way, or even that he didn't think Kurumu was attractive. Even if he'd thought that kissing Kurumu would kinda pleasant if their friendship evolved in that particular direction, he wasn't partial to making on the spot decisions and damning the consequences.

But really, all that mattered to him was that Kurumu was there, and there was a chance, no matter how slim it was that he could save her. If it took a little embarrassment on his part to do such a thing, he could live with those memories, especially if he was the only one who had any memories that he could be embarrassed by them.

Staring intently at Kurumu's bruised and bloody face, Clark tried to recall his friend from earlier in the day…the healthy and hale, beautiful, witty girl with the free spirit and easy laugh.

It took some imagining on his part, not because he didn't want to think of her sexually, but he had difficulties thinking about anyone he'd more or less just met in any non-friendly manner. It'd taken all his years in middle school just to work up the nerve to ask Lana Lang to the dance, and after an awkward kiss they'd agreed to remain friends.

Now this…

But Clark was a stubborn boy, inheriting that particular character trait from his adopted father, Jonathan Kent, and with someone else's life on the line he wasn't about to just give up.

In a manner of mere nanoseconds this all spun through his head like a hurricane, before he crushed all his thoughts with sheer dogged determination, and just…focused on Kurumu.

Fantasizing about being…intimate with another humanoid wasn't exactly a new experience to the Kansas farm boy. When you're the only superhuman in a small town surrounded everywhere that you went by so many fragile creatures and objects, your character is tested every day. In those extremely unfortunate days when your spirit is laid low by depression and loneliness, sometimes it takes a few fantasies of finding, as unlikely as it was, a person of the opposite sex with the strength of body and character to allow you to share your life, love and body with and not be broken by it that was the only thing that could keep you from going mad.

When you add teenage hormones into the mix, it's best to abandon any thoughts of interrupting a super human's private moments of solitude. Thankfully, Clark had never been unfortunate enough to be interrupted by his parents during those moments, both because it would be awkward and because going without relief could make him…irritable.

Imaging Kurumu in proactive and tempting situations was an excellent fuel source. Both Kurumu and Moka had pretty much unconsciously been using him as a stripper pole while fighting their little territorial species war today, so he had a good idea of the bodies that they were hiding underneath those unflattering school uniforms. However, Clark refused to think about Moka as the fuel needed to feed Kurumu his lust. It was a little silly, honestly, since he knew from Kurumu's explanation that any form of lust was good enough to feed her hunger, but something about the idea of using another woman as inspiration for his fantasies when he was about to do this with Kurumu just seemed inherently wrong to him…

Clark felt his heartbeat pick up. It was usually slow and even, unnaturally slow in comparison to a human heartbeat, but now it was beating near human levels, which was pretty fast, honestly, for his physiology. There was heat blossoming onto his face from his embarrassment and growing arousal, while blood congregated into other parts of his body.

Then he was leaning down, and placing his lips onto Kurumu's partially open mouth.

The effect was, disappointingly enough, not immediate. He felt Kurumu's breath on his lips, smelt her sweet, fragrant melon scent, tasted the drops of her slightly metallic tasting blood on her lips pushing against his own mouth still held shut…then, she arched into his body, moaning greedily.

Hands reached out, pulling him on top of her properly, and Clark grunted as he positioned his hands on either side of Kurumu's head to keep his weight off her. While Kurumu began to demand entry into his mouth, he closed his eyes and let himself be consumed by the moment, the feeling of another warm, supple, and definitely feminine body trapped under his, and allowed these thoughts to feed his lusts into an wildfire.

A light pierced his eyelids, and a sudden twinge of pain and weakness pulsed through his limbs. The sensation caused the boy to jerk impulsively away, his eyes shooting wide as he caught side of wisps of golden light breaking away from his open mouth and slowly drifting into Kurumu's parted lips.

A pleased murmur came from the girl, her violet eyes fluttering halfway open to reveal startling gold eyes; the same brilliant color as the energy that she was still very much drawing into her mouth. As she drank the last of it, her burning eyes fell shut and her body trembled with ecstasy.

Clark realized that he too was breathing heavily, his flesh feeling strangely feverish and a film of sweat on his skin even though he had never perspired a day in his life. Perhaps the most telling was how his pants strained to contain his erection even while merely at half mast.

Truthfully, t-that…was a seriously scary ability…

"C-Clark…?" Kurumu's hesitant voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he blinked in shock as he realized that Kurumu was slowly sitting up, now completely healed from her injuries. "Where's Saizo…?"

It took Clark a moment to comprehend the question, so shocked was he by her startling recovery. Jumping to his feet, he reached out to pull her to her feet. On sure footing, Kurumu waited expectantly.

"I…sorta left him back there in my rush to get you to the infirmary…but when I stopped to check your condition I didn't know if you were going to make it," he tried to explain. It wasn't exactly as if he was scared of her, he just didn't want her jumping to conclusions about why he felt it was necessary to kiss her while she was dying.

Kurumu trembled, remnants of fear shaking her smaller frame. Clark decided to be as supportive as possible, reaching out to steady her against his frame.

Kurumu absorbed the offered comfort and warmth gratefully, but then surprised him by pushing him away, biting her lip.

"Clark…we need to find Saizo…" she started to say, but halted, unsure.

"Why?" he asked simply. He guessed that she wanted to stop Saizo, but as to the why…that was debatable.

"When he was…attacking me," Kurumu shuddered again, pressing her face further into Clark's shoulder, "He…h-he mentioned something about me not begin his first choice of p-prey…and considering how obsessed that he's been about M-Moka…" she trailed off, but Clark understood.

"Alright…why don't you head to your dorm, and I'll take care of Saizo," Clark offered. Whatever strength Kurumu had drained in order to heal her body was already returning. In its place was merely cold fury. Not the inferno of homicidal rage, or the red hot anger of righteous conviction. No, this was cold fury, the kind that didn't affect the cognitive ability of the rest individual's mind, allowing its wielder to make sound judgments even while locked in the midst of a fight while allowing them to channel the strength of their anger into each blow unhampered.

Kurumu nodded distractedly, murmuring, "Alright…" and while Clark knew that he should be more surprised by the easy acceptance of his proposal, Clark was just too glad that she'd leave without question and stay out of harm's way.

Dropping his arm from Kurumu's body, he looked her over one final time before saying goodbye and disappearing faster than the human eye could perceive.

After his departing, Kurumu's lips quirked into an awkward smile, and a blush rose to lightly dust her cheeks. If anyone aware of her nature of as a succubus was there to see her in that moment, they'd be surely surprise when her hand rose demurely to her face to fondly touch her swollen lips.

DC+RV

Quite unbidden, the old proverb "Forewarned is forearmed" came to Clark's mind as he sped through the forest, looking out for any sign of either of Saizo Komiya's huge monster form or his comparatively miniscule human form. Perhaps what was most surprising was not that he didn't find him in the forest, but that he found him right outside the student dorm rooms, towering over Moka's frightened form.

"W-why are you doing this, Saizo?" Moka trembled, attempting to crawl away from the behemoth, however, the massive orc startled her by opening his mouth and snatching her ankle up with a inhumanly long, prehensile tongue that was surprisingly strong enough that he was easily capable of throwing her behind him and onto the mossy lawn.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to make you my woman, Akashiya Moka!" snarled the brute, leaping towards the girl. It was precisely at that moment that Moka managed to climb to her hands and knees, her face unconsciously turned up and accidentally locked her green eyes with his baby blues.

Again, Clark Kent reaffirmed that he was not a violent man, and that he would have preferred not to battle with the other male student. But he also affirmed that he was a protector, and stubborn enough to face challenges such as asshole monsters like Saizo Komiya without flinching…which he demonstrated right then, in full view of any of the students peeking out the dorm room windows, or congregating out in the lawn to watch the spectacle completely unobstructed.

Honestly, Clark had never thrown an honest to god punch in his life. He'd had some experience with combating some of the more dangerous meteor infected of his hometown, but he'd always won those battles with either his wits or a few light palm slaps or possibly trapping them in chains. He'd never brought the full force of his alien strength to bare, and for good reason, too.

Math and the sciences came easy to the teenage alien. With super speed, and eidetic memory, and a brain capable of processing huge quantities of information in completely inhuman ways made processing physics and understanding human anatomy quite easy.

In most humans, they had to transform potential energy into kinetic energy, build momentum by moving their whole body, and strike with a closed fisted blow at the apex of the motion, and if performed correctly would transfer the full force of their body's total production of spontaneous kinetic energy into a single, devastating blow.

The same could not be said about Clark. Even the subtlest of taps from one of his fingers had the same amount of force that a full grown man was capable of with their best punch, and then some…should Clark actually deliberately and seriously punch someone there wouldn't even be a stain leftover on the ground. If his late night idle calculations were indeed correct, then a punch from him with all his strength and speed backing it would be enough to atomize anyone he was attacking an whichever city that he so happened to be having that particular battle within.

So…Clark had never honestly thrown a real punch before in his life…but he was very good at faking a punch.

The motion came easy to him as he saw Saizo's jump reach its zenith. The shadow of the orc broke Moka's trance, forcing the girl to attempt to crawl away from her attacker. But before Saizo could bring his full weight and strength down onto the pink haired vampire, Clark was already soaring above Moka's body, a single fist outstretched.

Saizo saw the intentionally slow move, and tried to correct his flight. He lashed out with a kick that Clark saw coming, the alien catching the blow in one hand. Clark hunched his body in mid air in the split second before Saizo could react, bringing his arm into his center to build a little more kinetic force, before propelling the limb into the orc's center directly over were Clark figured was placed the strongest bones that made up the orc's surprisingly durable exoskeleton.

To those watching, it seemed as if Clark had suddenly called forth thunder. A deafening boom shook the school grounds, making the students cry out in alarm. Then Saizo fell from the sky like a shooting star and formed an impossibly large crater in the mossy lawn mere feet from his would-have-been-victim. He did not get back up.

However, that was not the end of the strange events of the night, though. For when Clark landed onto the lawn he suddenly crouched low, almost as if he were in pain, clutching at his face. The students watching felt almost sure that Saizo had taken his revenge in those last moments before the first and final blow was struck during the short but intense fight, hitting Clark in the face while the rest of them were distracted. Only Moka could see the slight red glow between his fingers.

Then Clark's head titled back, and his hands felt to his sides as he opened his eyes…and screamed!

Even as Kurumu stepped out of the forest to witness the spectacle occurring on the lawn between the two neighboring dorms with stupefied disbelief, even as Moka looked on with mounting worry, and even as the students watched on with pale faces and horrified eyes…Clark screamed…

And two rivers of FIRE poured into the night's sky...

To Be Continued…

Author's Notes:

Well, it's been a long while since I've written an actual fanfiction. But I've been working on this particular idea for a while now.

Some of you who read this fic might think of SSJ3Kyuub's story: "Kryptonian Plus Vampire", and while I'll admit to having recently read his story, which kicked me into my fanfiction writing mode, this is NOT plagiarism, or based off his work, or even inspired by it.

Truthfully, I've had this particular idea in my mind since late 2013, right around the time that the Man of Steel movie came out. But I never bothered to write it both because I found myself retiring from fanfiction writing soon after, and because I'd never bothered to finish reading the Rosario + Vampire manga or watch the anime at all. Now though I've done my homework and have the energy to start, so I got to work and typed this up in a matter of days.

I've already messaged SSJ3Kyuubi to give 'em the heads up so he knows what's what. Surprisingly, he encouraged me to continue with my idea, even asking me to message him when I post it. So now here with are, with my idea finally getting posted onto the inter webs. Hope everyone appreciates it.

Hmm…probably should mention a few important details…for one, the Clark Kent of this story is going to be a mix and match of various Superman mythos from all DC storylines, shows, movies, comics, cartoons and video games. He will be based off more heavily on the New 52 version, with slightly less inspiration being derived from the Smallville television drama and the Man of Steel 2013 movie. I…really enjoy the New 52…well, not so much how the universe has changed since DC dropped the New 52 slogan and have begun nerfing the crap out of Superman…but, yeah, I like how the New 52 was before all that crap.

As for what I intend to base the Rosario + Vampire part of the crossover off of…well, its going to be a fusion between the anime and manga. The anime was fun for humor purposes, but the manga was by far the superior of the two. My issue is that some of the greatest battles in the manga just end up barely being noteworthy compared to the overall plot of the rest of the story, plus I don't really like the manga's timeline of when all the girls in Tsukune's harem are just dropped into canon. In that respect, I prefer the anime, mostly because I feel that there should be more of the main character's harem there to see his more epic battles.

It's a little childish and silly, but that's how I decided to take this story in regards to character introduction and the like…but it should incorporate the manga plot versus the bastardized version of it that appears in the anime…

That being said, this is still Superman we're talking about, even if he's a teenage Superman. Most fights won't really be all that impressive, honestly, but for some of the things that I've got planned there will be a reason for why the biggest villains happen to be more of a challenge to him. Also, I don't really plan to go for the universal copout weapon in the form of Kryptonite. It might appear a time or two to make some of the more pathetic villains more of a legitimate threat and give Inner Moka a chance to show off, but I by no means wish for it to be a staple of the series like it is in so many versions of the Superman mythos. I mean, he does have other weaknesses than just Kryptonite, even if said rock is the most obvious and prevalent in the DC universe. But I don't really think that such a reason gives writers the right to rely exclusively on what is essentially just a plot device to drive a story along and humanize what is essentially an alien sun god. That kind of shtick just screams plot hole to me, and laziness…can't forget that…

Anyways, that's all's I got to say for now. I'll see you in the next episode. Later!

"By Roa," – Man, or Superman?