A/N: Hello, everyone. This is my third book for the saga. This particular story focuses on Rosario + Vampire. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rosario + Vampire

Chapter 1: Only Human

Bells.

Not the chiming sort of bells that you hear during the Mass that good Catholics attended every Sunday, nor the loud, haughty, pronounced ones that you always depicted with those beautiful wedding days for every happily ever after. Just the sound of bells that seemed to be…missing pieces. Like they were trying to work. But then, perhaps it was absence of sound instead – no one had ever heard the sound of a bell trying to work. There was only the slightest tinkering of the little tiny marbles inside. Maybe Aono Tsukune…really wasn't hearing anything after all.

But then, there was the sort of the continuous moaning, artificial noise that you might hear after waking from unconsciousness, buzzing through your head, and not going away until you simply forget it's there. That was all he could hear through his bloodied, beaten ears ever since his earlier incident with the aggressive female vampire. You know, the one that sends bigger, bulkier, uglier monsters spiraling thousands of meters through the air, crashing, and completely obliterating the entire landscape behind them? That's the one.

Her name…is Akashiya Moka.

And even through his crippled, stranded vision could he still see the strong scarlet flash through and through the refined slit pupils that were her eyes. Her silver hair was long and free, drifting quietly every so direction, but only adding on to the natural elegance that came with being the S – Class monster. That kind of absolute being that other monsters probably only dream of matching up with.

The renowned and infamous pinnacle of power.

Vampire.

That name flashed dozens of times through the human boy's head as he continued to drag his wounded, practically broken body through the trail deep in some wilderness situating in the Youkai Academy. An academy for monsters. An academy…that he was not welcome to as a human. Only a handful of people know the truth about him, and one of them had just beaten him half to death.

He had assumed that she didn't know about how much she had really hurt him. That was just the kind of gullible person he was, and he cursed himself for it. But he really didn't believe that she knew her own strength, because she was much more used to being around other monsters than humans like him. Humans tended to be more frail than the creatures she was used to. Moka would never mean to kill him. He believed this, alright.

But for God's sake, he was only what he was! He didn't ever ask to be thrown into some mix of universal creatures from practically every side of the universe, fairytail, and mind. That was just not what he had in mind when he gave school another chance. He had failed himself once – his exam grades were proof of that, but when his father came to him one day with the presumed answer to his curricular problem, he was only too happy to accept admission into a private school.

The weary, wounded boy shook the thoughts to the back of his mind.

He was in constant need of medical attention, but it was weird, because the only thing that crossed his mind during his humiliation in front of everybody was just to crawl away from the academy as fast as his body could allow. Just to disappear from sight. And that's exactly how he ended up here.

He broke his miserable movement for a moment to reach up and gently wipe a smudge of blood from his face. He could only imagine how much he had been messed up. He definitely felt like crap. He could feel the bruises and wounds all over his front and back, and if there wasn't at least one bone broken, he'll be damned. Of course he knew if Moka really meant to do something this severe, she probably would have ended up accidentally smashing him to bits instead. That was how deadly she was…that was how capable.

His academy suit was torn and ruined, but that was the least of the matters at hand here.

The whole thing started with the simple prank from before. The young witch, Yukari was the one who pulled it, so in a way that even he saw, this was pretty much all her fault. In order to gain a little moment from between Moka and him, she had decided to douse her with a little bit of this thing called an Aphrodisiac. What a thing to do. Not only had it gotten him into trouble with Moka herself, but he had almost been crushed between two additional admirers – Kurono Kurumu and Shirayuki Mizore. A succubus and a yuki onna, both exceptional ranks in the monster chain, but terrible monsters to get involved with. Tsukune's luck seemed to go a little bit like that. They were beautiful creatures to behold indeed, but god they were competitive. It was as if the world of tomorrow meant nothing to any of them the way they throw themselves at him, quite literally. For Kurumu however, she would usually stick to the tradition of throwing him face first into her huge breasts, nearly suffocating him each time. So really, even when a monster is trying to be affectionate, they can still kill you. Some. Way.

Yukari succeeded in drugging the beautiful vampire, and she in turn tried to force him to do the most – the most unspeakable things! One of them, he wouldn't forget easily, was that she wanted him to kiss her leg, speaking to him about it like it was some sort of forbidden love rite.

The boy's weary, yet still wondrous brown eyes held true. He stared at the ground he clung to in a moment of deep thought. The scary thing was…he felt that he was prepared to. It was the weirdest feeling, like he just felt like holding her, and…

His drooped head instantly jerked up to snap himself violently back into reality. No! No, what was he thinking? He wasn't ready to do something like that, though he had to admit, he was very near the age. It's as they say, at sixteen, anything could happen.

And a lot has definitely happened.

But something funny happened when in that very moment, when she and he each drew in a breath of the spring air and went in for an enchanting, enthralling, exhilarating first kiss, the Rosario, the rosary that Moka always kept worn around her neck went ballistic, and nearly punctured his cranium when he got close enough - the gemstone in the center, gleaming with that same scarlet color of her true eyes. Trying to stop it, Tsukune accidentally pulled it off…accidentally awakening…her.

Pardoning the term of use, but Moka isn't just a vampire. She's…well…Moka. An elegant girl who could very well overpower all of the teachers working in the monster academy, if not the academy itself. The battles with any would-be vampire conquerors were met with the cruelest retribution, often dealt with in a minute or two. Can you say anticlimactic?

Moka had two sides. The first was who everybody deemed 'Outer Moka' a cute, carefree girl with the gentle personality more suitable to Tsukune himself. She had only a fraction of her actual strength thanks to the rosary usually lingering around her neck. He had never seen her try to kill a fly that way. Her appearance was a little less threatening too. Her breasts were less developed, and her hair was a pinker tint of color. Without the ominous influence of her youkai aura, her eyes were the most charming shade of green. Overall, that form comforted Tsukune more.

Her other form, now, was something completely new. That very form that Tsukune had accidentally awakened at the time, despite having purposely freed many occasions before to defend his friends and himself, was a true monster. Her skin was much paler than her farce form; her eyes, two slit pupils encased in the deepest shades of scarlet. Her hair was much lighter in color as well, and her voice commanded the level of authority that 'Outer Moka' would never measure up to.

Her face wore little to no empathy for other living beings, and she rarely ever smiled, except for when she was fighting some monster that didn't take less than a minute to take down.

We call her 'Inner Moka'.

Back before the school shut down because the thug organization 'ANTI-THESIS' nearly wiped the barriers that separated the monster world from the human world straight off the cosmos. That would've been messy, no doubt, and it's little wonder why the Chairman of the school decided to close down for half a year. At that time, Tsukune missed Moka and his other friends more than he had ever missed his parents when he attended the academy.

He expected some sort of a freaky welcome back, but never this.

When Inner Moka entered the scene and found Tsukune on top of her, she cringed with a type of threatening aura that he hoped he would never see off of anyone ever again. It was awkward, and he agreed that he deserved the thunderous kick that sent him sailing off into the air and back, but not what came after that.

Though unclear from delirium, his memory served him properly, and he relived the horrible vision of being explained to firsthand by Inner Moka about what happened while he was weak on his knees.

"Aphrodisiac…?" he heard his weak, crumbled voice, "Yukari-chan had you drink an aphrodisiac…? Th-then today, Moka-san's pushy actions…"

"Were completely the Aphrodisiac's fault." He heard her refined voice finish for him. He cringed with his eyes when he thought about the stare that she gave them with those elegant, deadly eyes…and what was soon to ensue shortly thereafter. "However," she continued to speak, turning her heated, perhaps disrupted glare to him. Her usually pale cheeks were in a flush.

Tsukune released his arms that kept his upper half up; dropping his support as he helplessly listened to the playback in his head. He held his hands to his ears in a fruitless effort to block out the sound.

"My supreme pride as a vampire…will not allow a lowly human like you to get near me."

With that, Tsukune pictured her stepping towards his temporarily helpless body with the intent to finish the thrashing with him that she started. And those terrible two words echoed with her movement.

Lowly human

Lowly human

Lowly human

Lowly human

…………

…those…hateful words…

"I am aware that I had already commanded you to know your place when I kicked you once…but I want to get a few more in just to ensure that this will not happen again." Tsukune watched a cruel smirk wrap around her beautiful, flawless face. "You'll understand, won't you Tsukune?"

"No…don't come near me…I…I get it."

"No…" he heard her say, not seeing her approach slowed one bit. He closed his eyes in a horrified wince when she stopped in front of him, her hands at her hips. "…I really don't think you do."

Lying on the ground as he remembered, the boy gritted his teeth in anger and regret, and threw his fist to the soil-patted ground. A small plume of smoke shot up from the impact.

"Damn it…why…? …And how??" He looked up to the sky with tears welling up in his eyes. Turning away to close his eyes for a minute, he instantly threw his head back up to the sky again.

"…HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW SERIOUS YOU WERE??!!"

His voice echoed again and again. All he could do at the moment was to yell. Scream. His practically useless body wouldn't allow him to do much else. He panted for breath under the exertion mixed with the pure, complete shock from earlier. He lay on his side, a crumpled heap. A miserable mound welling with guilt, lament, anger, and most of all, desire to understand how the day could have taken such a turn for the worst. The moment he had stepped off of that bus, even through the unnerving warning from that mysterious bus driver, he had expected to be welcomed by so much more gentle arms. …At least arms that wouldn't do…this to him.

That desperate moment that he had trying to get away from the vampire, he remembered stopping his struggling movement for a moment, but only a moment to stop and look back over his shoulder at the girl who had done it all to him. His eyes quivered with terror; with questioning, with pleading, with shock, but her eyes remained unmoved as they answered them. As he elongated the distance between him and the group of girls, Kurumu, Yukari, and even Mizore looked at him with sheer concern and bliss sorrow for the boy, while the vampire herself kept her arms neatly folded and her emotionless face blanketing a demeanor of disappointment and a feeling hidden especially well…

…Regret.

Tsukune continued his petty crawl to wherever the path led him. His face was pale; soaked with the feeling of hopelessness. Since the end of the last period with the academy, he had hesitantly begun developing feelings for the colder version of Moka, but he always kept it to himself. A dream to get that half to accept him as well, as he realized, was crumbling down.

"…I was…only…ever…human."

He found himself in the middle of the dead forest that he had always strolled through on his way to the academy for a semester – a forest that he had crossed just earlier this day. It was just as creepy as it always had been. Bronze, dead leaves were scattered all over the place, some spinning along meager whirlwinds in the distance, and let's no one forget about the long rows of tombstones scattered across the sides lining up the twisted road.

The sky was almost completely covered by the outstretched arms of the gnarled, leafless trees, making it look almost like nighttime there in those woods, although Tsukune had always reason to believe that the sky always looked more sickly and brown whenever he stepped in to go through. It was like the whole place was cursed. It would come to no surprise if it was haunted, as well.

His body continued to slide against the leaves and otherwise loose soil scattered messily across the cold ground. Tsukune scowled weakly at the disgusting sound it made, but he would persevere. He would find a solution to all this…somehow.

He grasped the ground he was pulling himself toward with a firm grip. His wrist sparkled with a golden light, and his eyes widened in the realization that it was the arm he kept his holy locket attached to. The only thing that kept him human – from turning into a mindless ghoul. He remembered how much of a threat that everyone had said he was when he was in that violent state – how he had almost massacred everyone with him. It was from…taking in too much of Moka's vampire blood…wasn't it?

He ran the edge of his hand along the thin chain that supported the tiny cross insignia. He felt the fleshy pads of his fingertips gently meeting up with the enchanted metal. How could such a tiny thing possibly keep out such a destructive force? It was amazing.

Just then, he slowly started to draw his own attention away from his fidgeting with the seal and slowly up to the sound of flowing water. There he found himself suddenly in darkness at the bank of a tranquil, misty river.

'Did…I ever cross…or even see a river in these woods?' He wondered, peering on with curiosity at the limelight water flowing one direction. The body of water itself ran directly in front of him, channeling straight ahead and flowing away from where he watched from all fours. Ahead was like a tunnel, but it was too dark to see where it led. He looked up at the sky to realize that the sky was visible now. It wasn't brown, but in fact the darkest shade of gray he had ever laid his eyes on; the clouds all kept themselves sewn together in a smoky pattern. There was not a star in the sky, yet the moon was nearly full – just trimmed slightly on one side, but it still looked luminously beautiful. The moon in the Youkai Realm was always gigantic and bright pink for some reason. He had never really bothered to deduce why. However, this particular moon looked like the sort that he was accustomed to seeing back home – distant and pale. He wondered silently to himself why that was.

The skinny, leafless, dead trees that he saw everywhere in the woods were now lined up in two rows, one perfectly positioned on each side of the slender body of water, bending towards it in the way that the tree in the movie Sleepy Hollow did. There was the absence of animal noises; he would expect to hear an owl or two or at least a couple of crickets, but no such thing here. There was only the vigorous flowing river that continued its flight downstream, cloaked in thick shreds of mist.

Tsukune reached out with his locket arm to run his fingertips along the surface of water. He slowly but surely made contact with it – and it felt ice cold to the touch. He shuddered at the intake of such ugly temperature, but kept his hand in. Suddenly he noticed a faint red light radiating out from his hand and spreading like wildfire across the water. Sparks danced without breaking the surface underneath, bringing the fog of the bank to life with the color as well. Soon, the whole place was illuminated with the blood red light.

His pupils dilated with wonder at what surrounded him. Tiny wisp-like sparks of light, like red fireflies, danced in front of his face, one every now and then would catch his nose, and he would feel the pleasant, tingly feeling of warmth in a tiny little burst. He then eventually realized that his attention was no longer on his pain, although he was still bloody and damaged, whether that were the case or not.

"…Thou art lost, child?"

His eyes perked up with startle and he vigorously turned his head back and forth to look ahead at where the chilled whisper of a voice may have asked from. The background was smothered in black with red lights still dancing up from the water and dissipating like fire ember. "Uhhh, who, who said that?" He peeped out his response with the timidity that he always showed the girls in everyday life-threatening situations. He heard a deep inhale come through as a hiss in the background, seeming to never cease for the longest time. Tsukune felt his heart pounding in his chest with excitement.

A gigantic body of red light appeared from under the water's surface, shining uttermost into his face. His whole upper body lit up with that same color; the lower half was out of its range since it was further back. The voice repeated its coarse beckoning, "…Thou art lost?" The voice spoke in mixtures of Old and Middle English Text that Tsukune was somewhat familiar with from having studied in Shakespearian drama and the like. But he had a feeling that he already knew what the whisper was attempting to ask him.

He thought about the question with uncertainty for a few moments, and then hung his head in shame.

"Hai."

He was unsure of what he should say to the voice beckoning to him. Should he really tell it about his earlier incident between himself and Moka? He imagined that the voice may very well recognize his terrible condition, so he would do his best to make it seem like nothing had happened.

The voice took several seconds to respond. The echo that followed it every time it spoke did also, lingering somewhere in the air through the passage.

"Thou doth look as if thy mote hath been mauled terribly so. Come and wash thyself in 'ere water that hast been touched by my presence. Come…"

Tsukune knelt over and peered deeply into the water. He saw a perfect reflection of himself cast about the surface, though the strange thing about it was that it had none of the wounds that he had and his clothes were perfectly neat and clean in it. His white dress shirt was free from any mud or grime, and the cloth was not torn through to the point where he could see his bare skin through it. It was probably inferring the capabilities that the water had. He was very hesitant in his decision, but finally scooped up a handful of the clear liquid and watched it drip through his fingers. He splashed some up into his face to wet his messed up hair down to decent shape and cool his heated face.

"It feels…so soothing. It's wonderful, actually." He announced through a weak voice just briefly while he took a few quick sips in. He hadn't drunk anything all afternoon, so he knew he was dehydrated. His eyes were closed to allow the refreshing sensation of the water pour through his dry palate and throat.

"As it should. 'Tis water crafted by myself. Ordinary water canst do naught for thee as thou doth appear. …Critical wounds." Before Tsukune could reply with thanks, the voice went on, emulating through the light. "Before thou compliments his thanks to me, I sense that thou hast been wounded further…"

The great light and the area around it immediately flashed into a beautiful dark blue. There was an unsettling whistling sound.

Tsukune felt himself go pale again. "Th-this can't be good…"

"Child, be not afraid. Come hither and bare witness to thy reflection once more…"

He timidly stuck his head closer to the now blue light and anxiously peered again into the water. He saw himself again, but before his very eyes, the image of himself melted away to reveal a black figure that he had never seen before. His jaw dropped at the ghastly effect, but tried to shake it off, knowing full well that he would not want to disgrace whoever it was that provided the water to him. He squinted to make out the figure's face, but failed to do so. It looked really dark on the other side.

"Holy crap…" he started in amazement, "are you…"

The figure that he was looking to waited patiently for the question to finish. Tsukune's eyes sparkled with wonder at the notion that had popped into his head.

"…God?"

The figure turned its head to the side awkwardly.

"'Tis not who I am, neighbor…"

"Well I…I'm not sure if I understand what you…"

"Come hither," the whisper interrupted gently, "Come hither…and I will show thee wonders only beheld in thy dreams." Tsukune stared down at the reflection. Strangely enough, it looked much closer than it was before. He still could not see the face of the beckoner, but it was right up in front of him. "Come hither…and I will teach thee to spark things only beheld in the nightmares of thee and thy enemies."

"Enemies…?" Tsukune questioned nervously. He had remembered that not all of the monsters in the academy that he had met had become friends. And some of them were terrible even to look at. But still, he was unsure if he wanted anything to do with fighting. "What if I…don't want that kind of power?"

He grunted in surprise, his eyes wide at the skeletal hand that reached straight up through the reflection, breaking the surface of the water, causing ripples.

"Come hither, and I can teach thee to do battle for the ones thy loves."

The hand protruded more and more out of the blackening water, turning only slightly as it offered itself to Tsukune. He was positively freaking out over it now. He twitched nervously at the fingers reaching forth almost as if to grab him. Then, pale skin slowly started to envelope around the exposed bone of the strange hand. It burned onto it from out of nowhere, like how an object would collect dust, only a hundred times faster.

"Is this…an illusion of some sort? Are you…trying to trick me…?" He asked intently as the now human-looking hand stuck out for him from the other side of the reflection in the swirling water.

"Be not afraid," the voice assured. Suddenly, Tsukune got the feeling that whoever that was down in the water, he was smiling at him. It was a type of smile that could freeze water into ice in the late of summer. With that feeling, Tsukune found himself becoming increasingly intent taking whoever this was up on their offer. He needed some time away from Moka for what she had done. He might as well make the most of his time to learn new things. If they turned out to be bad, he could just sneak away when he got the chance. "Come hither, and I can eliminate thy reason to fear…forever."

What else could he do?

Sitting up on his knees, Tsukune took the hand into his own. It made a squishing noise that sent a wave of chills down his spine, setting all his hairs on end. If it wasn't so moist, he could have sworn that he was touching dry ice.

"Okay…" he did his best to force a polite, optimistic smile to the stranger. "Let's hear what you've got to tell me."

A/N: Phew! It is on. Please… My stories grow better through progression.