Kurumu walked along for a few moments, then looked around. After noticing her position, she frowned. "Ah damnit!"

"What's wrong Kurumu?" Moka asked, suddenly appearing from behind the succubus.

The blue -haired girl looked over to her rival and frowned. "What do you mean what's wrong? Look around us!"

After a moment of searching, Moka looked back to Kurumu. "I don't see anything wrong."

"ARE YOU KIDDING?" Kurumu shouted before pointing above them. "There's no title, that means this is some sort of stupid pre-chapter omake! I HATE THESE THINGS!"

Moka sighed as she looked down at herself. "Oh, that explains why we're naked at least."

The strange comment made Kurumu looked down at herself, and brought out a sigh from the succubus. "This had better have a point other than proving our hair colors are natural."

At the succubus's comment, a letter suddenly appeared in her hands. "What the hell is this?"

"Oh I know!" Moka said excitedly "This must be one of those segments where a question posted in the reviews are answered."

Kurumu looked at the letter for a moment, then threw it onto the floor behind her. "Screw that. If I'm stuck in an omake, I'm gonna go find Tsukune and finally get me some. I find it offensive that a sex demon like me has gone through nearly two series now, and still hasn't gotten laid."

As Kurumu started to walk off, Moka looked down at the letter, then rushed after her to catch up. "Mind of I join you?"

"Meh…three's better in bed than two…supposedly. Although isn't it really four of us since the other you is along for the ride?"

"We should probably stop worrying about the particulars and get going before we run into the chapter's title," Moka said before she looked down to the line below her. "DAMNIT!"

Chapter 5: The Rescue

-About ten minutes after Kurama left-

Kokoa opened her eyes and slowly sat up as her body put itself into emergency awakening mode. The reason being was…

"Ah damnit, gotta pee," she mumbled before standing up and heading to the door. Should have told them vampires and normal food don't mix. But on the other hand, it wasn't as if there was a fresh supply of human blood around for her to drink; and there was no way in hell she was going to reduce herself to drinking another monster's blood like pseudo-Moka had lowered herself to doing with Tsukune.

She opened the door to the main room where everyone was having their planning session, and froze. Everyone was sprawled on either on the floor or had fallen over at the table. "What the-HEY! WAKE UP YOU IDIOTS!" she shouted, then kicked the chair out form under Moka to make sure the other vampire came to.

As soon as she hit the ground, Moka came awake with a jerk. "Ow! What was that for?" she whined while rubbing her posterior.

"Oh Tsukune you're so bi-wha?" Kurumu mumbled before she slowly raised her head off the table, coming out of her dream. "Hey what's goin on."

Yukari grumbled about being pulled out of her dream of finally tracking JK Rowling down to slap her with a lawsuit, while Gin picked himself off the floor where he had been curled up, and Tsukune simply got his head up to look at what as going on before pointing out the obvious. "Did we fall asleep?"

"I thought you guys were supposed to be planning our attack for tomorrow!" Kokoa yelled. Of course being the only one who got any sleep, it would probably be up to her to do all the work.

Well, her and the real Moka. There was no way she was going into the big frozen castle without at least one other decent fighter.

Moka blinked to try and clear her eyes. "I *yawn* guess so." After taking a deep breath, she stood up and tried to put on as determined a face ass he could to help inspire the others. "Come on you guys pull it together, Mizore's counting on us!"

"Wait a minute," Kokoa mumbled as she looked over the room to do a headcount. "There's Boobies, Doggy, Whiney, Kiddy, and…Tsukune, who is rally just too average all around to deserve a nickname…anybody see Shuichi?"

Kurumu yawned. "You try the bathroom?"

Kokoa blinked, then blushed. "Actually…be right back." The little vampire zipped off. There was a sound of a flush, and then she ran back two minutes later. "No he's not in the-"

"Did you wash you hands?" Moka asked suddenly.

The other vampire growled at her sister, then stormed off. From the kitchen everyone could hear the sound of the tap being turned on full blast.

"Wait a second, if vampires are hurt by water," Kurumu mumbled.

Kokoa let out a scream, then stomped back into the room with smoking hands. "Happy?" she grumbled at Moka.

The whole scene made Tsukune frown as he thought of something. "Wait a second, then how does Moka get by all day without…you know?"

"That's a good question," Yukari mumbled as she tried to think just what a vampire did for hygiene. For once, she was stumped.

Moka frowned at her two friends and the implications that came with their musings. "There is such a thing as water free soap you guys. It's not like I walk around all day spreading germs."

"HEY!" Kokoa shouted. "Has anyone else picked up on the fact that Shuichi is gone?"

Kurumu looked over to the vampire. "You sure he just didn't go to bed after putting us all to sleep with his rescue plan?" A plan she couldn't seem to remember consequently; which probably meant it was mind-numbingly boring and doomed to failure anyway.

The question made Kokoa direct her anger at the girl with the big breasts. "I just came from here! He's gone."

"And so's the snowmobile," Gin said after looking out the window.

Tsukune frowned while putting two and two together with the information that was given. "Guys, you don't think he went to try and rescue Mizore on his own, do you?"

Kokoa rolled her eyes. "No way, Shuichi actually has common sense." Unlike pretty much everyone else in her class, or Moka's for that matter.

"Well there was that time he went into the forest to get the dorian fruit," Kurumu recalled.

"And I seem to remember him stepping in-between Kokoa and a pair of powerful monsters during the entrance ceremony," Gin added.

"Then there's the fact he stands up to you all the time," Moka told Kokoa. "Uh…no offense."

Kokoa's shoulders slumped as the evidence piled up against her. Crap. Now that I think about it, he really would do something stupid like that. Oh he'd have some rational explanation for it, like one guy could sneak in and out easier than a group, but that didn't make it any less stupid.

She sighed, then headed for the door. "Well what's everyone standing around for? Let's go save him, and drag the snow girl's ass out of the fire while we're at it," Kokoa added as an afterthought.

"About that," Tsukune said before pointing to the window that Gin was standing next to. "How're we going to that without transportation? None of us will get there in time. He took the only snowmobile."

The rest of the group seized up upon hearing the reality of the situation, then looked outside where Tsukune was pointing to see that the spot where the aforementioned vehicle was indeed gone.

"Well I could run there in a few minutes," Gin said. "But if all that's left is a dog sled that we can't use, then it'll take hours for the rest of you to get there on foot. Kurumu can't fly with that snow storm going on outside, and I'm not even sure Yukari should be going at all with as deep as the snow is getting. She'll be covered up to her waist."

Tsukune blinked. "There's a dog sled?"

"Yeah there's one out next to where the snowmobile used to be parked," Gin answered before pointing to it. Then, he frowned as he saw the look in everyone's eyes as they stared at him.

Then he looked to the sled, then back to the group, the sled, and finally the group again as Moka and Tsukune looked at him with hopeful, pleading eyes. "No way in hell."

"But Gin-" Tsukune managed to get out before the werewolf cut him off.

"You are not hooking me up to that thing so I can drag your buts through the snow. Besides, I can probably only fit two people on it, three tops. Who's gonna stay behind."

"Duh. Like it's not going to be Mr and Ms useless over there," Kokoa said as she indicated Yukari and Tsukune with her palm.

"Hey!" Yukari griped.

Gin frowned. "That still doesn't mean I'm doing it!"

After considering everything for a moment, Kurumu sighed in defeat. If Gin wasn't going to volenteer to do it, she would have to use her last resort. "Then you leave me no choice but to use my charms on you Gin," she said before standing up and looking Gin right in the eye. "You'll take us to save Mizore…and I suppose we can snag Kokoa's idiot boyfriend while we're there," she added as an afterthought.

"He's not my boyfriend," Kokoa grumbled.

Tsukune blinked as he realized what was going on. "Wait a second Kurumu, I thought you promised never to use those powers-"

"And I'll let you grope me for a whole two minutes when we get back," she grumbled to the werewolf. Mizore was so gonna pay for this!

A fiery resolve sprang to life in Gin's eyes as his face took on a determined look and he steped forward to strike a heroic pose. "Saddle me up, we've gotta go save us some club members."

-The Snow Palace-

"Red hair…and the ability to manipulate plants…that would make you the demon Kurama, correct?" the man asked with a frown.

"Well it's nice to know my reputation will actually work for me, for a change," Kurama added as an aferthough. "Surrender now, and the woman next to you can go free."

The man smirked. "Oh, and what about me?"

"Considering I found you between the legs of my friend over there with tears in her eyes," Kurama began. "I'm afraid there's this thing inside of me that will just bug me to death if I let this one go. Now do you have any last words before I turn you into fertilizer?"

Kurama frowned as he studied his opponents. The man had a disabled arm, but his left hand might still be useable despite the damage it had taken from grasping the razor-sharp rose petals.

It was the woman Karua that troubled him. Destructive power and speed aside, her aura was…strange. It seemed bound in a similar way to Moka's, but at the same time largely unrestrained. Then there was the other thing about her…

Karua yawned loudly and rubbed her eyes before looking over to her boss with a droopy expression. "Mr Fujisaki you know it's late. I was just about to get changed and go to bed; this is way past normal working hours."

"You're an assassin, you don't get to just punch a clock," the main yelled in a rush before pointing to Kurama with his bloody hand. "So start assess-assissass-assassass…JUST KILL HIM ALREADY!" he shouted in anger after mangling the word assassinating several times.

The dark-skinned woman flinched at the command, then her mouth started to tremble. "Y-You don't have to sound so mean! WHAAAAA!" she replied before throwing her head back and breaking out into tears.

Although it went against his sensibilities, he opening was one he couldn't pass up. And that's my cue to leave, Kurama thought as he inched over to Mizore's bed. "Shirayuki, I think it's time for us to go."

Everything happened in an instant.

The woman Karua blurred forward towards Kurama and struck out with her undamaged hand with a chop that he avoided by twisting away from her in the direction of the blow to let it miss by centimeters. With his rose hidden from the woman, Kurama made some minor adjustments to its structure before he finished the 180 degree turn of his roundabout dodge and struck out with both hands.

A screen of rose petals guided by his aura surrounded Kurama in a defensive spiral while he flicked an acorn under the bed. The woman counted with a punch from her damaged hand, but cut it short and jumped away before the petals could multiply and gain enough momentum to do more than a few superficial cuts.

With the extra breathing room, Kurama fed the acorn under Mizore's bed his demonic energy to grow it into an oak tree with reinforced bark that expanded to Kurama's needs, blocking off the half of the room with the with the strangers and carrying Mizore's bed towards Kurama, and the window.

It only took both of his enemies a few seconds to start breaking through all the branches, which was rather impressive as Kurama began re-growing them as soon as they were damaged, but by then he was at the window with his arm around the snow fairy and a leaf from the tree in hand. "Good night all," Kurama taunted before kicking away from the window and expanding the leaf in his hand to act as a small glider to carry him to the ground before covering the window exit by having a branch grow through it and continue until it filled the entire hole in the wall.

As soon as they were outside, Kurama gritted his teeth as the cold instantly drained most of his body's warmth away. Without some sort of protection from the elements, it might be the weather that finishes me before anything else. He took a look at the girl just hanging limp while he held onto her wrist. There was a small flash of anger that despite her nudity, she wasn't feeling a bit of the freezing cold's bite.

The second they were close enough to the ground, Kurama let go of the glider and turned his attention back towards the window that they had jumped out of. The woman Karua took a look around, then focused in on them before stepping of the edge of the window ledge. On the way down, she reached back to dig her hand into the wall of the palace, slowing her descent before she kicked off and landed not far away from the other two demons.

Up in the palace, Miyabi looked down on the scene, and then went back inside the bedroom. He had more important things to do than watch this play out. He needed to get the job done while Karua was busy holding off the redhead.

If she lasted long enough, he supposed that he should retrieve her afterwards. The commander might get angry with him if her daughter ended up being used as a sacrificial lamb.

"Could you at least try to hide your aura?" Kurama grumbled to the girl sitting on her knees at his feet.

Mizore didn't even bother looking up. Kurama had to strain just to hear her words in the howling wind. "You shouldn't have come. It was all…for nothing."

The comment made from frown down at her. "Yes well, I'm sure you'll change your mind the day you actually give away your virginity instead of having it taken from you."

"It's too late for that." she replied.

Kurama ignored the overly emotional girl in favor of the other woman coming up on them. He reached up to rub his arms in an attempt to keep warm and frowned at Karua. "You mean to pursue us then?"

"Those are my orders," she replied with some unease in her voice.

"I see your still crying," Kurama told her as he prepared to execute his contingency plan. "I didn't know people like you were so emotionally fragile."

Karua continued forward at her slow pace. "That is my atonement for the lives I must take."

"In that case, save your tears. You won't have to worry about killing us," Kurama assured her before triggering the trap that had used the last few seconds to burrow underneath the woman.

Two sets of fangs sprang up from beneath the ground to form a single circle of teeth around the woman. "Did you honestly think I didn't plan on someone coming after me?" the former fox demon asked before the rest of the carnivorous plant sprang from the ground and closed its jaws to swallow Karua whole. With its prey trapped, the plant brought itself all the way out of the ground and rested its body on the snow. Its multiple tendrils spread out to support it, while the fruits that gave the bore the things name rested under what mould have been considered its chin, had it been a real face.

The appearance of the exotic plant seemed to bring Mizore out of her daze for a moment. She looked at the strange plant, and even stood up a bit to try and back away from it. "W-What the hell is that thing?"

"Monster devouring Dorian," Kurama explained before looking back to the girl. "Don't you remember the first day of school and our trip to the forest? How it was strange that our group didn't encounter any dangerous plant life? One of my demonic abilities allows me to control plants, even these kind." Although those did take a bit more power than those of the human world variety.

The plant rocked back and forth a bit, but the woman remained trapped inside. Kurama continued to rub his arms for warmth as he explained to Karua her situation, assuming that she could hear him at the moment. "I'm afraid that I grew this plant for the purpose of containing many people, so the dorian's stomach very flexible. No matter how hard you strike it, the plant will simply stretch to absorb the impact with no real damage. It's over."

Kurama turned back to check on Mizore before he felt a flare of demonic energy coming from the oversized fly trap. A trio of dark, curved blades came out of the dorian's stomach, then withdrew for a moment before several more sliced through the plant to create an opening for the woman to step exit the damaged fruit.

The Karua that came out of the dorian was not the same as the woman that had been swallowed. Her right arm had changed. Instead of a humanoid hand and arm, it had become a collection of seven batwing connected to her shoulder by a grotesque mass of twisted muscle. Judging by how it had cut through his plant, the edges of the wings were also razor sharp.

"Your speed, strength, that transformation, and the fact one of your cross earrings is now missing," Kurama summarized, "you're a vampire then?"

Karua nodded her head once before answering in a clam voice. "Yes. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I apologize for not doing so earlier, but duty outweighed edict. My name is Karua Shuzen. It's an honor to meet you, Mr Kurama."

Kurama watched as the woman made a formal bow while he digested her words. "Shuzen? Are you any relation to Kokoa Shuzen?"

Surprisingly, the woman's face brightened. "You know little Kokoa?"

"We attend the same school," he explained stoically.

"Oh that's nice? Are you friends?" she asked before standing up and tapping her chin. "Well you must be if you asked me about her."

Mizore looked over to the vampire. "Actually, they're going out."

The vampire gasped and became excited. "Really?" she asked before her face became serious, and she bowed her head. "Please take good care of my little sister."

"WE ARE NOT A COUPLE!" Kurama shouted. How anyone could actually think that he and Kokoa had any sort of relationship, Kurama had no idea. The idea was just…creepy.

Mizore waved off his objections. "Don't mind him, they're just shy about it," she assured the other woman.

"Whose side are you on?" he asked Mizore with a frown. "And you, shouldn't you be trying to kill me? Or at least backing off because of my supposed relationship with your little sister?"

The vampire sighed then stood up before looking at him again with tears threatening to fall again. "Sorry, but I am a professional. Personal thoughts and feelings don't really factor into things when I'm doing my job. I don't think you should be too worried though, I know my chances against someone who could kill Uncle Karasu are rather slim."

I wouldn't quite say that, Kurama thought to himself as he calculated his chances.

Physically, the vampire was by far the superior of them. Although Kurama's body was on par with an athletic human's, it was a human body and had human limitations. Even if he were to use his demonic aura to try and strengthen his resilience or increase his speed, there was only so much his muscles could take before breaking down from the strain. Karua didn't suffer from such frailties, she could push her body well beyond his current limits.

Then there is the cold to consider, Kurama told himself. He didn't know the effects it would have on the vampire, but without something to keep him warm, Kurama knew his reaction time would be stunted exceptionally. Not to mention what would happen if he took too long. Freezing to death was a real possibility.

And the weather. That was the real debilitating factor in this battle. With the howling winds, he wouldn't be able to mount much of a long-range offense.

"I don't suppose you're done with whatever the hell it is that's paralyzed you?" Kurama asked as he looked back to the snow girl to see she was still simply sitting in the ground. He put all his attention back to the vampire. Of course not.

Kurama quickly reviewed his options.

Despite the fact that my opponent is faster and stronger than me, I can't attempt to counter by limiting her movement with my usual counter thanks to these high winds and snowfall. While he could guide the rose petals, the high winds would slow them down considerably, and the cold would greatly increase the amount of power it would take to keep them alive.

Regenerating the dorian plant would only be a waste of energy. With that arm, she could easily counter any attack from the demon plant, if it could even catch her. Once the thing was above ground it was pretty much useless.

Basic weaponry will allow me to keep out of her reach, but I doubt it will be enough to let me finish her in time. That arm of the vampire's had a big enough arc to it to act as both a weapon and a shield. It could easily destroy Kurama's rose whip or even a barrage of thrown weapons. On top of which, the longer he fought, the worse off he'd be.

A death plant would do too much damage. She was Kokoa's older sister. Just killing the woman wasn't an option.

There was another option, but Kurama threw it aside. He was nervous that if it came down to a real life threatening situation the choice would be taken away from him thanks to the heat of the moment, but that was then and this was now. Besides, I doubt I'll care enough about Mizore to even bother with saving her.

So in the end, all I can do is stall for time and try to think of something better to do, Kurama reasoned. If he waited, an opening might present itself. The only question was: how long would it take? The cold obviously wasn't affecting the vampire, but he had…fifteen…twenty minutes at the most before the cold became debilitating.

Recalling the woman's earlier words, Kurama took out another seed from his hair to grow a rose. "Did you say Uncle Karasu?" he asked. "I suspected that he was a vampire." The guy did dress all in black and had color-changing hair after all. "But didn't know he was connected to the Shuzen family."

"Only by living arrangements," Karua explained. "Nearly every vampire operating in Japan is connected to our family in some way. However, the Shuzen family lost contact with him until he and Bui were seen at the Dark Tournament."

Kurama smirked. "That's strange, as I don't remember any vampires in the audience during the final rounds." Although such resilient monsters might have been among some of the survivors that didn't get killed by Toguro, if they had managed to survive Karasu's explosion and Hiei's dragon that is.

"Oh, no one in the family went to something that…low brow," Karua said after a moment to think of how to say it politely. "But seeing as how you're here and he's not, it's obvious that you either killed him, or Bui. But with Karasu's personality, I'm betting he fought you."

The last bit of the fight replayed itself in Kurama's mind…

"For the first time in the history of the Dark Tournament, we have a winner's who's dead and a looser who's…not."

"Excuse me, but is this enough pre-fight banter?" she asked. "I'm an assassin so I don't talk to my opponents much before trying to kill them."

"I suppose so," Kurama replied.

Karua charged forward but was forced to stop and used her wing-arm to counter an attack by Kurama as he swung a rose whip, cutting it into several pieces. He created three more roses in his hand, and hurled them like darts, which the vampire also managed to intercept with her morphed arm.

As soon as his roses were destroyed, Kurama quickly fed his energy into the severed pieces of his whip to wrap around her legs on its own while he guided the rose petals to slice at her body.

It lasted good two second before the vampire punched her human hand into the snow to create a small shockwave that kicked up enough of the stuff to interfere with the petals. Then Karua jumped back, cutting the thorny vines and freeing her legs while she was in the air before she quickly moved away from their remains and advanced again at a roundabout angle.

This time when Kurama launched a volley of rose darts, Karua launched herself over them and forward to close the ground between them in a light leap. With the woman close enough to his body that he didn't have to extend his aura too much to guide his attacks, Kurama pulled Mizore closer and surrounded the two of them with a defensive screen of rose petals with enough force behind them to punch through any obstacles. The screen sliced through the vampire's human hand several times before she jammed her inhuman arm into the ground and used it to pull herself back before the damage became such that she would loose her arm.

Kurama repeated his earlier attack with the whip and dart combination, with the same results. The vampire got a few scratches that meant nothing than a bit of blood running down her legs, and she was pushed back until she had lost the ground she gained in her charge.

In the end, it was a simple delaying tactic that only worked in the vampire's favor. Every moment brought Kurama closer to freezing to death, but the vampire lost nothing. Even though he could more accurately gauge her speed than when the fight started, Kurama still had nothing strong enough to counter it.

Once she was back on the ground again, Karua looked at her opponent and sighed. "Excuse me, but is something wrong?" she asked. "Pardon my rudeness, but I was really expecting a much better showing from someone of your reputation."

The quick conversation gave Kurama a chance to rub his arms to help with the circulation. "Oh come now, is there anything wrong with letting you think you're doing a good job? It would be kind of cruel for me to just finish the fight as soon as it started."

"No, that's not it," the vampire said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear your suffering from the onset of hypothermia. You do know that you won't be able to attack me if your body goes numb. Not that I'm complaining, but it seems a rather roundabout way to go through a fight."

I need to change tactics or this is all as good as over, Kurama reasoned as he watched Karua circle him while he worked to keep himself between the vampire and Mizore. But with everything the way it is, I'm stuck on the defense. He frowned as the vampire prepared to attack again, and ran through his list of options to try and find an alternative.

I could drop an acorn into the snow and have it prepare something to entangle her while underground, Kurama reasoned. But after what he had seen back in the palace, it would take too long to create a bark hard enough to counter that wing-arm.

Bamboo then? No, too much damage, he told himself as he pictured the woman skewered by over a dozen such lances. Any more wouldn't be enough to stop her.

Garlic maybe… Were vampires even allergic to garlic?

-Back at Mizore's house-

Tsukune looked at the steaming cup of tea in front of him and sighed. "I don't see why I couldn't go too."

Across the table from him, Yukari resisted the urge to pull out her wand and drop something heavy on Tsukune's head. "Are you crazy or something? Between the choice of sneaking into a dangerous place filled with who knows what, and hanging out with a genius, cute, and energetic girl like me, you want to go to the dangerous place?"

The rather harsh summary of his decision made Tsukune flinch. "It's not like that Yukari, it's just…I'm worried about Mizore…and Moka. I just…I hate not being able to do anything to help them!"

The little witch rolled her eyes and sighed. "Oh yeah, help them how?"

"Well, I can fight now," Tsukune told her. "Moka gave me her blood, remember?"

That particular fact seemed to make Yukari even more disturbed in Tsukune's eyes. "Yeah, and every time you use that power, you risk turning into a bloodthirsty monster; and I'm not talking about the word in its generalized species term either. Plus, it's a stealth mission. Kurumu can fly, and the vampires are vampires, Moka may not show it, but her skills go further than just beating the crap out of people. She would easily be able to locate people by nothing more than their aura and just avoid them.

"I hate to admit it, but we wouldn't have been much use other than added weight for Gin to drag, and two more people for the guards to spot."

Tsukune sighed. "Look, it's just something you wouldn't understand."

The offhand comment seemed to anger the little witch even more. "You mean the fact that girls are still doing all the heavy lifting for you even after Moka shared some of her blood with you makes you feel like less of a man? I hope it's just your bruised ego, and not something stupid like that 'I want to protect Moka' talk you used to go on about last year. Because if its that, I'm going to hit you with the heaviest thing I can find."

"Uh Yukari, are you okay…you seem a bit…angrier than usual," he mumbled. For a minute Tsukune had a very horrid thought, but…she wasn't that old yet, was she?

"I get cranky when I'm up till 1:30 and have to wait for my friends to come back from certain doom because the guy that's supposed to replace e as the brains of the operation does something stupid," Yukari grumbled. "Then there's the fact that you want to be stupid and risk you life for the sake of your male ego."

The last comment made Tsukune blink. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on Tsukune, I'm the smart one, remember?" Yukari asked rhetorically. "I could tell from day one you didn't like the idea of girls saving you all the time. Now you can maybe throw a decent punch every now and then, and you think you can just go charging off at the front of the group instead of hiding behind inner-Moka like before, despite the fact you have no idea how to work your powers."

Tsukune tried to defend himself. "That's not true, I can help Moka and the others!"

"Like last Tuesday?"

The comment made Tsukune blush as he remembered the day when it came time to restock the club supply room. "Well, that was…different. Lifting boxes isn't fighting so, my powers didn't kick in."

"And Wednesday in gym class?"

Tsukune blushed as he remembered when the couch decided they needed to spend the day experiencing human world sports. With his human abilities, Tsukune had been the worst of the players. "Well that doesn't count. Stuff like that isn't really threatening."

"And Thursday?"

Those memories made him sweat. "T-Those were just high school bullies. It wasn't a life or death fight, or anything…"

"That's my point!" Yukari yelled. "Moka gave you her blood, but you can't do anything with it unless your life is in danger, and even when you can, the second your adrenaline stops your powers cut off. You've got no control over it. I don't even want to think what would happen if you got hit or something before Moka's powers kicked in and someone just obliterated your frail human body! But since you only care about your stupid little go, go ahead and get yourself killed when the next problem comes up. See if I care!"

When the little with was done shouting, she looked at her tea for a moment before finishing it in one gulp, then storming off towards her room. "I was going to keep you company, but the heck with it. Since I actually believe in Moka, I'm just going to bed. Wake me when everyone gets back so I can yell as Shuichi for being an idiot."

Once she slammed the door, Tsukune slid down in his chair from all the feelings weighing don on him. Was his faith in Moka really so weak that it shattered whenever he wasn't looking over her shoulder. He squeezed he Rosary in his hand and sighed.

Note to self, next late-night crisis, make sure Yukari gets to bed on time.

-Meanwhile-

"MUSH!"

THWACK!

"MUSH!"

CRACK!

"I am not a dog damn it, stop whipping me!" Gin shouted back at the shortest person on the sled as Kokoa drew back her whip for another bout of encouragement, then decided she had better things to do before throwing it away. Wish I could have brought Ko. Unfortunately, the bat weighed the same no matter what form it was in, and they needed to travel light.

From her place at the sled, Kurumu leaned back and over to Moka's ear and whispered so the other vampire couldn't hear. "You know, she's pretty good with that whip. You think she's been getting some practice in?"

Moka looked over to the succubus with her red eyes, then over her shoulder back to Kokoa. "The image that brings to mind is pretty disturbing, so…yeah, probably."

"What're you two talking about back there?" Kokoa shouted over the wind.

"Hey Kokoa, are you into dominatrix fantasies?" Moka yelled.

The blunt question coming from her big sis nearly made the younger vampire fall off the sled. She crawled back to the top and glared at her sister. "I'm starting to like the fake Moka better."

Kokoa grabbed on tight to the sled, then looked back to the direction of the priestess's ice palace. She could feel a massive demonic aura that was comparable to her sister's in size not too far ahead. That's not good.

When this whole mess started Kokoa had hoped Shuichi would have at least been able to sneak into the place without any trouble. Despite her being a vampire, Kokoa always had trouble just finding the guy when he was in the same room as her by his aura.

"Can't you run any faster you stupid dog?" Kokoa shouted to the monster pulling their sled.

Gin looked back to his noisiest passenger. "I'm a wolf! And if you want to complain then get off and walk! I'd like to see how fast you run in the middle of a snowstorm!"

This turned out to be a bad idea, as something in the snow managed to trip the werewolf up, and sent the group flying through the air when the sled hit the same rock that tripped Gin. Moka readjusted herself in midair to land on her feet, Kurumu spread her wings and kept close to the ground to avoid being blown away by the winds, and Kokoa landed face first in the snow deep enough so that only her waist and legs could be seen.

Well least I'm not in a skirt, the younger vampire thought before she felt someone grab onto her foot and pull her out of the snow.

With Kokoa freed, Moka tossed her into the air enough so that the short redhead could flip herself over midair and look at the scene in front of them. "W-What the hell?"

When she had started heading to Shuichi's rescue, Kokoa had been expecting to knock out a few snow women, take down their stupid queen or whatever the hell was supposed to be ruling this place, beat him up for marking her worry, then go back to bed and try to get some sleep before the sun came back up.

What she hadn't expected was to see was her second older sister in a snow fairy village.

"Big sister Karua, what are you doing here?" Kokoa demanded after regaining her nerve.

The older vampire looked away from her opponent for a moment and over to the familiar face. She blinked at the familiar blurs, then wiped away her tears to get a better look. "Little Kokoa?" she looked over to the other vampire standing beside the shorter one, "and Moka too?"

Karua gasped when she noticed the color of Moka's hair. "Oh Moka, your rosary is gone! That's amazing!"

"Uh…yeah," the middle sister agreed hesitantly, "but more importantly…" She pointed over to the assortment of wings sticking out of Karua's shoulder. "What the hell is that?" She remembered hearing a few rumors about Karua being able to use her transformation abilities for useful changes to her from when they were all still living together, but Moka had never imagined something like what she was seeing right now.

Karua looked over to her transformed arm then rolled her eyes. "I know it's a little weird, but you should see how well this configuration cuts! Or is it slices? Well, more like dices considering the amount of times I can hit someone with a single attack."

From her place behind the two younger vampires, Kurumu folded her wings up and stomped her foot down; which was much less attention getting than she thought it would be thanks to all the snow. "Hey! Would someone tell me what the hell is going on here? Who's the new freaky bat-arm lady? Why the hell is Shuichi's skin a light shade of blue? AND WHY THE HELL IS MIZORE NAKED?"

"Well to answer your questions in order," Moka began evenly, "that woman is Karua Shuzen our older sister, the third eldest in our family. Since he's not wearing his jacket I'm betting Shuichi is freezing to death, and…quite frankly, I don't even want to guess about Mizore."

"I was…defiled."

The newly arrived Yokai Academy students minus Gin, who after running a marathon in the freeing cold had decided that he'd done his job and could now take a quick nap, were caught off guard and stepped back. "WHAT?"

From his spot crouched on the ground, Kurama looked away from the work he had begin when the others showed up and over to the naked girl behind him for a moment. "Oh for crying out loud, it was a kiss! Quit being so dramatic. I got you out before her boss was able to do anything more."

"Of course that still doesn't answer my earlier question of WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE BIG SISTER," Kokoa shouted as she pointed to Karua. "The only reason you ever leave the house is because someone has hired you for a job. So, who're you here to kill?"

Kurumu looked over to the youngest vampire nervously. "Kill?"

Kokoa frowned back at the succubus. "We're vampires, the vast majority of us aren't are cute as my big sister, or as disciplined as me."

I think you got that backwards, Kurumu thought as she glanced back and forth between two girls.

"The majority of us work for the underworld in some aspect or another," Kokoa continued. "We even work for humans sometimes, if they already know about us and pay enough." In fact the biggest supplier of their contracts were a group of humans based in Japan called the Black…something. Since she had never wanted to go around killing people for money, Kokoa never really paid that much attention to her extended family's activities beyond what she overhead every now and then back at the mansion.

"I'm here under orders from Mother," Karua told Kokoa. "You shouldn't have run away after Moka left baby sister. I'm afraid you've missed out on a lot. Our family is moving up in the world, thanks to Fairy Tale."

Kurama filed the name away for later, and decided to use the opening to try and gleam more information. "Fairy Tale? Is that the name of the organization Miyabi belongs to as well? Tell me, why are you here in the village." Without tears that turned into valuable gems, Kurama couldn't understand why someone would want this place.

There was the barrier that hid it from the rest of the world, but those could be duplicated easily enough with enough time and effort. Plus, he doubted that anyone would want such a barren place as the Snow Village when there were probably better places to set up shop.

The mention of her organization's name by the redhead caused Karua to flinch. "Oh dear, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that to you. Now I really can't let you live. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to finish you off now instead of just letting the cold do it for me." She took a step towards Kurama.

With the casual threat from her elder sister brought Kokoa into action. She reached for her bat, then winced when she remembered that it had been left back at the snow woman's house because it would have slowed them down too much. Fighting Karua unarmed was practically suicide, but if they didn't do anything…

"Hey Sis, what do you think our chances are of taking her if we double-team her?" Kokoa asked hesitantly. "…to be honest, I'm a little scared."

"I was thinking we should just stand by and wait till it's all finished," Moka replied without taking her eyes off the scene in front of her.

Kokoa frowned at Moka. For anyone else, they would have chalked up Moka's response as cold-hearted, but Kokoa could tell when her sister was nervous. "Hey, I thought the pink you was supposed to be the coward." Then she pointed over to Mizore, "don't you want to save your friend over there?"

"I'm agreeing with the kid here Moka," Kurumu said as she looked over the vampire's shoulder. "I know you're probably rusty what with the lack of life-threatening situations on a daily basis back as school since we've been able to avoid a lot of that crap this year somehow, but now would be a good time for some ass kicking vampire action." If Kokoa and Moka kept their sister busy, Kurumu was pretty sure she could swoop in and haul Mizore and Shuichi out of danger. The added weight might even make it possible to fly away, even in the blizzard.

Moka let out a growl at her companions' obliviousness to the situation. "Why don't the two of you take a look at the scene in front of us."

With the vampire that was supposed to be on her side getting riled up, Kurumu sighed and looked back over to where everyone else was. "Let's see…Mizore's naked, Shuichi's couched down in front of her freezing to death, and your big sister is standing there with a freaky-looking arm getting ready to kill them. Why can't you do that anyway?"

"As if I'd lower myself to alter my perfect form by…growing wings," Moka replied, disgusted at the thought of taking on the appearance of a bat, even if it was just her arm. She didn't notice the girl behind her that the girl who did grow wings giving her a dark glare. "A vampire would only do that if they had no other option other than defeat."

Kokoa crossed her arms and nodded in agreement at her sister's words.

"Then there's the fact we've been standing here for a good two minutes, and Karua hasn't done more than take a single step towards her opponent," Moka continued. "When you put that together with all the visual clues, it's pretty obvious that she's the one who's loosing."

"You're kidding rig-" Kokoa cut her sarcastic question off as she took a closer look at the battlefield. Karua had multiple cuts on her remaining humanoid arm, as well as several gashes running along her legs that could be seen through her torn dress.

"Okay, that's not right." Kokoa's terrifying older sister that creeped the hell out of her was loosing to Shuichi?…Shuichi?

Karua looked up from the ground and to her opponent. "When did you-"

"D-Do y-you honesty think I j-just stood here while you ch-chatted it up with your sisters?" Kurama asked through chattering teeth. He clenched his jaw shut to keep his voice steady. "In my present form, there is no way for me to match your strength or speed. Although, our auras are comparable, the environment we're in limits my options as far as weaponry, unless I have the time to prepare for it; time you just gave me with your sisterly banter. Now just stand down, and we can all go our separate ways. The plants may have been modified for cold weather, but they won't survive for more than a few hours without my demonic energy."

What is he- Kokoa cut her own train of thought off as she looked at the ground and extended her honed senses to detect demonic energy. What she felt nearly made her collapse in shock. For nearly fifty meters out in all directions, the ground was saturated in Shuichi's aura. This…this is impossible! It would have taken someone with enough energy to match Moka to do something like that.

After examining the distance between them, Karua started crying again. For a moment, it had actually looked like everyone was gong to get out of this alive. "I'm sorry, but I don't need to cross that much ground to reach you." Then, she jumped into the air towards Kurama with her winged-arm ready to strike.

"Yeah, I figured that," Kurama mumbled before he took out another acorn and tossed it at the vampire. The seed quickly grew into a twisted tree, with branches that looked more like moving tendrils a normal plant that moved to entangle the vampire.

Ah crap, Karua thought as the odd seed became a mass of wood to block her path that tried to grab onto her. It was easily cut down by her winged arm, but the force needed to slice through the dense object stopped her forward momentum, and left Karua to fall to the ground below as she felt her opponent focus most of his demonic aura that was in the ground into the area directly beneath her.

"Blades of Grass."

Below, Karua watched as hundreds of green grass blades poke their tips up from the snow and form an organic spike trap. She drew in on herself to try and minimize the damage, then grit her teeth when she felt the impact.

A dozen, dozen tiny green swords pierced her flesh along her legs, arms, and even her stomach despite Karua's attempts to protect herself by rolling up into a cannonball-like from.

He waited for a few seconds, then ten, and finally a full thirty before cutting his power to the surrounding grass. With the vampire properly skewered, Kurama simply let the cold creep into the surrounding foliage and lifted his hand off the ground to rub it against the other, trying to put some feeling back in his fingers.

"I'll take a look at Karua, you two…" Moka trialed off ass he saw Kokoa and Kurumu already running over to their companions. Her eyebrow twitched at being ignored, but let it slide for now. "Fine then, I'll check on big sister."

As soon as she got over to Mizore, Kurumu knelt down to look at the snow fairy, who was still in a daze from her…kiss. "Okay snow girl, time to get up," Kurumu said without much sympathy. "Fights over, you're safe. Victory party at your house, then we go home."

"Just…leave me."

"Oh for the love of…" Kurumu reached down to yank Mizore up by her hair, then planted one on the girl's lips.

No one noticed Gin's sudden recovery in the background; or the fact he was focusing his camera on the girls.

Then, Kurumu kissed Mizore again, taking the girl in her arms. The third one involved the succubus putting her tongue in the snow fairy's mouth to interlock it with Mizore's own as well as explore every centimeter of the other girl's mouth.

When Kurumu was finally done, Mizore pulled away and was reduced to a fit of spitting. "What the heck was that for? And how did you do that with your tongue?" she whined.

"Is it wrong that even I thought that was hot?" Kokoa asked the freezing boy beside her as she helped him to his feet.

"Thought nothing," Gin said as he zipped up next to her to help with the injured redhead, and get a detailed close-up of the girls. "In my expert opinion, that was hot."

Kurumu stood up and crossed her arms under her breasts. "You done feeling stupid? So some guy stole your first kiss, you just got mine. Let me tell you, it's not that bad. Now come on and get going. And if you don't, I swear I'm going to make out with you all the way back to school!"

"Please do!" Gin begged before Kurumu kicked him in the stomach before snatching the wolf's camera away and pointing an accusing finger at him.

"You look after the…uh…hey, does anyone know what Shuichi actually is?"

"Well he smells like a human," Gin informed everyone.

Mizore looked at the plant-based weaponry and thought back to the fight. With that and his inability to handle cold temperatures… "I'm going to go with witch."

"Fairy maybe?" Kokoa suggested. She didn't buy the witch angle, they already had one of those.

"That makes sense," Kurumu agreed. "That way, all the gay jokes would be foreshadowing as to what type of monster he is."

The succubus and vampire blinked when they noticed a menacing aura coming from the other redhead. "I'm not gay! And would someone give me a jacket already? I'm quite literally freezing to death!"

Kokoa quickly tripped Gin and tore off the werewolf's school jacket to give it to her minion. It wasn't much, but she supposed it would do till she could get him back the village and break his legs to make sure he didn't go running off on her again.

On the other side of the battlefield, Moka couldn't even put up an uncaring front when she looked at Tsukune's other love interests. "Now I'm wondering if that harem was just for sharing Tsukune, or for Kurumu to have other options."

"It's…not…over…yet," the woman on the ground next to Moka got out between labored breaths.

The younger vampire looked over to her feet, then jumped back just in time to avoid a swipe of Karua's wings before the vampire tore herself free of the weeds, slicing several more of her muscles as she did so.

You have got to be kidding me! Moka thought as her sister stood up, gravely injured, but still moving. Blood ran from the numerous wounds all over her body, some going all the way through, while others left pieces of flesh hanging off from when she cut herself getting up.

If their places had been reversed, Moka knew she wouldn't have been anywhere near being able to with that much damage. Every step caused Karua to bleed more. The pain alone would have caused her to pass out. So why wasn't she still on the ground? No one could just ignore that level of pain without some serious help.

Now I get it, Moka realized. "You're charmed, aren't you sister?"

It all fit. When under a magical charm to act a certain way, they would do almost anything to carry out a task. Kurumu could do it in terms of making other people fall in love with her. If she could make Tsukune her boyfriend when he didn't want to be, Moka didn't want to know how long Karua would be willing to fight when she wasn't working against the mind control.

Then there was Moka's motivational problem. She didn't want to have to kill her big sister after seeing her for the first time in over six years. Damn it, what am I supposed to do?

As long as Karua could still move, she was still a danger. But in her condition, any more damage done to the older vampire might be fatal.

Moka made her decision. "One more step and you won't be getting up again sister," she warned the older vampire.

Karua positioned herself to strike. Moka could see it would be an all or nothing charge. That was apparently all her sister could do now. So all I have to do is avoid that arm, and I can counter.

The sound of an engine drew Moka's attention for a moment, and she looked over her sister's shoulder to spot a pair of headlights cutting through the white curtain of snow.

"Karua fall back!"

Moka stood there as Karua leaped away right before the large caterpillar tred-equipped truck plowed through the snow drove into their area. A man stepped out of the passenger's side, and looked around. The newcomer was a man in a long coat with his hair slicked back in a company haircut.

"Who're you?" the silver-haired vampire demanded evenly.

Miyabi sighed. "Am I really going to have to go through introductions again?" he asked in a bored tone. That makes this…what? Three times just tonight alone? "Oh very well, I am Miyabi Fujisaki."

"You shouldn't talk to a vampire so disrespectfully," Moka shouted before she came in low and began with a spin kick towards his head. "Know your place!"

For his part, Miyabi also charged forward to meet the girl halfway, the stuck with his good arm, bringing it across his body in a hook to strike the vampire's leg and foot right at the joint. The counter knocked the girl off balance thanks to the uneven footing provided by the slippery snow, but he knew he'd have trouble holding his coffee in the morning.

Then, with Moka still lacking good footing, he quickly spun to add momentum to a backhand and struck the girl in the cheek to send her flying back.

Moka rolled as she landed and came up in a crouched position.

"Are we done here?" the man asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Karua had gotten into the back of the truck. If the kids were smart, they would back down. If not, things could become very problematic very quickly.

"As if!" Kokoa yelled as she came charging up from behind the stranger.

Stupid girl, Miyabi told himself. If she had kept quiet, she would have been able to get in a hit. As it was, he managed to swat away her punch, then brought his knee up to her chin to buy time to pull back his fist.

Only when he tried to lay a haymaker into the child's jaw, Miyabi felt a tug, and found a vine holding his wrist. "What the?" he shouted before looking over to Kurama. But the confusion only mounted when he saw that the pseudo boy's demonic aura wasn't active.

"Our balloon-chested succubus has this wonderful ability to fool idiots into seeing what she wants them to," Moka explained as she came in from the side. This time when Moka attacked, the kick landed square center on the man's chest and sent him flying right into the passenger door of his truck, and through it into the cab. "And since you actually got hit this time…KNOW YOUR PLACE!"

"You said that already," Mizore pointed out.

From behind the vampire, Kurumu stomped her foot into the snow. "Hey thanks for telling idiot! If he knows they're illusions, they're not effective!"

Moka looked back at Kurumu and frowned. "Did you just call me an idiot?"

Kurumu flinched. Opps, insulted the wrong Moka. She gulped nervously, then the villains saved the succubus from a rather painful beating when the truck revved up and took off. "They're getting away!"

"Tch!" Moka grumbled, then looked over at Gin. "Can you catch them?"

"Not in this crap," Gin told her has he gestured to the snowstorm.

"It's n-not like w-we d-don't kn-know where they're going," Kurama got out through his chattering teeth. "They'll probably regroup at the palace."

Mizore raised her hand to get everyone's attention. "Actually, the only thing in that direction is the exit tunnel."

Kokoa looked in the direction the truck had disappeared, then back to everyone else. "So…we win?" The bad guys were running the damsel in distress was saved, and the idiot who almost got himself killed was still alive. As far as she could see, everything was wrapped up.

Well, except for her minion's punishment, but that could wait till he wasn't cold enough to shatter from a good punch. Kokoa was going to make sure her idiot of an underling was going to regret making her come out into a storm like this.

"I wouldn't say that," Mizore said, replying to Kokoa's question reluctantly.

Far away from the group, Miyabi pulled himself into the truck's cab and tore off the ruined door when he noticed it wasn't going to shut. Having to hold the thing shut and listening to its constant rattling would have quickly gotten on his nerves.

"So, how did you enjoy meeting my former juniors?" Kiria asked as he drove them away from the battleground and towards the exit.

Miyabi snorted at the boy's comment, then reached over to test his injured shoulder. From what he could tell it was just damaged muscle, but it looked like it would take the better part of a day for it to heal. "I wasn't aware that the yoko Kurama attended your old high school."

"Who?"

"Tch," the older man grumbled as he reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette. "That's right, you're too young to have been at the last tournament." Not that it would have mattered, as the demon they did send to tape the thing had been killed off during the final round like most of the other spectators. It was just dumb luck the investigation team that had been sent to Hanging Neck Isle to find out what happened stumbled across the video footage their talent scout had been recording.

"And I suppose teaching you kids anything important is too much to ask for a curriculum based on something humans invented."

Miyabi reached under the seat to grab the first aid kit. "Well whatever. Slow down so I can get on the back and take a look at Karua's wounds. Soon as we're outside, I want you to place a call to inhuman resources."

Then he looked back at Kiria. "You did complete the mission, right?" Miyabi asked as an afterthought.

-The Next Day at the Snow Palace-

"What do you mean married?" Tsukune asked as he looked at Mizore in surprise when he heard the last of the in-depth version of what happened last night.

When Tsukune and Yukari had gotten the news this morning that everything had been dealt with, he had rushed over to Moka her rosary and gotten caught up on most of the story. The basics of it: bad guys ran off, turncoat priestess caught, and flower ceremony canceled was quickly given as the cliff notes version. Although Tsukune being the kind of guy he was, demanded the whole story.

It was a decision Moka would come to regret in time…in about ten seconds.

Yukari raised her wand to lecture Tsukune. "It's a social agreement where two people agree to live together and bear children. Although there's a religious context to it nowadays, in the beginning it was pretty much just fathers selling their daughters off as breeding stock."

"That wasn't a real question!" Tsukune told the witch.

"Yeah that's how I took it too," Kurumu told Tsukune as she peeked over his shoulder. It was kind of heartbreaking and scary at the same time, Mizore of all people getting hitched before a succubus. What is wrong with the world today?

"Congratulations," Moka said as she bowed her pink-haired head.

Mizore took the candy out of her mouth. "Uh…you do know he kidnapped me, forced me into this marriage, and forced himself on me, right?"

Tsukune blanched. "Uh…"

"Oh…" Moka looked away from the snow fairy and gulped whil she tried to pull her foot out of her mouth. It was times like this when she really wished she could remember more than just a few bit's a pieces of when the rosary was off.

The whole thing was just so unfair. How come the other Moka knew everything that happened when she was sealed up, but the Moka that was out for most of the time barely knew what was going on when she got back?

Yukari shrugged. "Then it was a traditional monster marriage?"

"Forced himself…IT WAS A KISS!" Kurumu shouted after mumbling the first part in anger, pushing Tsukune out of the way to start a fight with Mizore.

Mizore sighed dramatically, and clasped her hands together dramatically. "You don't know what its like when your first kiss is with someone other than the boy you love," she countered.

"Yes I do! I GAVE MINE TO YOU!" the other monster yelled.

Moka jerked away from her friends. "Eh?"

The information brightened Yukari's day. "Really? So you're giving up on Tsukune to start one of those forbidden romances with Mizore. Wait, if snow fairies were originally all female partnerships, then should I call it traditional relationship instead?"

A sort distance away from the fight, Tsukune gulped to keep the rush of blood he was feeling under control. "S-Say what?"

A second later, Moka was in front of Tsukune, holding his hands desperately. "Don't worry Tsukune, I'll save my first kiss for you!"

"Like hell you will!" Kurumu shouted before she attacked Moka. "If I can't give Tsukune my virgin lips, then no one's going to give him theirs either!"

The thought of evening th playing field at least that much brightened the snow fairy's attitude quite a bit. "Get her!" Mizore said.

Yukari blinked as the older monsters ran past her, chasing Moka. "Well as much as I'd like to also declare my virgin lips property of Tsukune…I'm not missing out on this one."

From the sidelines, Kokoa watched with tears in her eyes as the thing that looked like her sister ran around the palace looking like an idiot. This is so wrong.

"So Kokoa, what're we supposed to do about…you know," Gin asked as he pointed over to the snow priestess.

The snow woman in question was currently hanging upside down from the ceiling, most of her body wrapped in bindings that the Fairy Tale goons had left behind that kept her from using any of her abilities.

"Let me go you fools!" she shouted as she struggled, only succeeding in swinging herself back and forth. "You have no idea what you've done! Without protection, the demon child will return to the village! He must be stopped or all is lost!"

Kokoa ignored the idiot woman's ramblings and just shrugged at Gin's question. "That bitch nearly got my best friend killed and one of my sister's friends raped, keep her tied up for all I care. Still say we should have also used the gag though…no matter how S&M the thing looked."

The thought made Gin grin. "Yeah….then maybe you could get that whip and-"

When she saw Kurumu was still busy trying to make out with the fake Moka, Kokoa reached up and socked Gin on the jaw. With the werewolf rightfully back on the floor, Kokoa dusted off her hands and looked over to Tsukune. "I'm going to check on-never mind," she mumbled at the end when she noticed the blood dripping from the boy's nose over the fact Mizore had caught the sealed vampire.

"Mizore, where did you learn to do that with you tongue?"

"Kurumu," the snow fairy explained.

While the semi-harem had their stupid infighting, Kokoa sneaked away to check on more important things. She came into Shuichi's room to find him still sleep, but his skin was at least back to a normal color. The events of last night ran through her mind again, with one in particular.

It had been after they got to the snow palace, taken care of the priestess, and deiced to stay the night instead of walking back in the freezing cold…

Kokoa walked out of Shuichi's bedroom and shut the door behind her, then jumped when she noticed her sister waiting for her right outside the door. "It's not what you think!" she assured the older vampire. "I was just checking on him! The frostbite's not bad enough he's gonna lose anything, but it was close."

For a moment the strangeness of the situation washed over her. Just a few weeks ago, she would have been attacking her awakened sister on sight. But at the moment…she just didn't feel like it.

"Kokoa, how much do you know about that boy?"

"Shuichi?" she asked before answering her own question while shrugging. "He's just your basic nerd. Head of the class…although that's not much of an achievement considering the competition. The plant thing's new…although it's pretty girly, so it kind of fits with his whole pretty-boy stereotype."

"And yet he was able to survive against Karua in her awakened state, something we didn't even know she had, for what? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Then there's the fact he didn't have a mark on him after fighting a vampire. Don't you think that's a little odd?" Moka asked as she gave her little sister an accusing look.

Kokoa shrugged. "Yeah, I asked Mizore about that too. Seems he was smart and kept big sister from getting too close with a bunch of weird weapons." She crossed her arms and smirked as something came to mind. "Now that I think about it…I should probably have him show me what he knows so I can beat the crap out of you come next week."

"Why're you so defensive of him?" Moka demanded.

"Why're you so paranoid?" Kokoa countered.

Moka grit her teeth. "Because he's hiding something. There isn't a demon alive that can do what he did."

The accusations towards the other redhead were starting to get on Kokoa's nerves. "Sure there is! Just because vampires are awesome doesn't mean some looser monster can't claw their way up to our level in at least one area if he works at it," Kokoa told her. Even if Shuichi had an impressive demonic aura, his strength and durability were barely more than a human's. Kokoa knew that for a fact.

"And how many can do that while retaining a human form?" Moka asked.

Kokoa shook off the nagging memory, and looked back to her minion. When she saw him stir and open his eyes, Kokoa jumped to her feet. "Shuichi you're awake! You need anything? Food?…water?" she asked hesitantly.

"Where am I?" he mumbled.

Since it seemed he was okay, Kokoa sat back down in her chair. "The palace. Don't worry, we took care of the priestess. They'll probably let her go after we leave, but that's then and this is now. We got the snow fairy back and kept you from dying, that's all that I give a damn about."

"Thank you."

Kokoa blushed, then looked away from the other redhead. "Yeah well…you should have gone with the rest of-wait, it would have been too late for Mizore by then," Kokoa said ahs she cut her scolding to admit to the reality of the situation. "You should have woken me up so we could have gone together!"

"Then I could have gotten sis…and she would have woke that stupid boyfriend of hers up…who would have probably done something stupid like wake everyone else up…"

Kurama smirked at the girl. "So you're agreeing with my decision then?"

"LIKE HELL I AM!" Kokoa yelled as she stood up to stomp her foot. "You could have gotten yourself killed you idiot! You're my underling, that means you don't do anything unless I tell you to. If you…if something happened…"

She quickly looked away again to keep him from noticing her eyes as she grabbed her upset stomach to try and keep it from doing back flips when the images of Shuichi nearly blue from the cold replayed themselves in her head.

"Sorry for worrying you."

Kokoa looked down at her feet and clicked her tongue as she tried to think of something else to say before everything got too awkward for her liking. "So uh…since we're outside of school… I'm curious. What kind of monster are you?"

"What?" the old boy asked, sounding a little confused and nervous.

The lack of response made Kokoa turn around, and unfold her hands while shrugging. "I understand you being embarrassed. I mean, a monster dying from the cold? Don't tell me your one of those lame slimes or imp things that level 1 adventurers only run into just outside of a town."

Kurama groaned at the game reference insult. For a fraction of a second Kurama considered telling her the truth, but thought better of it. For one, he couldn't actually prove anything about his actual species since he couldn't change at will even if he wanted to, and producing fox fire while in a body that didn't have a natural resistance to it was rather debilitating…and painful, really, really painful.

So he went trough the list of monsters he could lie about being. Let's see… witches are out since I don't have a focus… I can't fake a doppelganger's shape shifting…no horns means saying I'm a basic oni is out of the question…I suppose I could go with the obvious…

"I'm…human," Kurama lied hesitantly to make it seem he debated telling her the truth for a few moments. Well, it wasn't really a lie per say. The body he was in was a human one.

Kokoa frowned, not believing it for a second. "Uh huh…tell me another one."

Kurama sighed. "Fine I'll prove it." He reached up and put his finger on the edge of his teeth, so that just the smallest bit of sin would be caught in-between and bit down hard enough to draw blood. "You've tasted human blood before, right?"

After that, he put pressure next to the wound to help draw out some blood held out his finger to Kokoa. "See? Human blood."

Kokoa blinked. With no good blood in her for the past twenty-four hours, the coppery scent coming from Shuichi's finger was simply intoxicating. She sniffed the air to draw in that wonderful scent, then got on her knees and examined the red liquid that looked and smelled so delicious at eye level. The short vampire licked the blood of Shuichi's finger, and her body shook as the taste brought her into a state of euphoria.

"Now do you believe-uh, Kokoa?"

She had tasted human blood before, but it had always been in a chilled pouch taken from a blood bank and at least a few days old. But this…this…liquid nirvana…it was beyond anything that had ever satisfied her thirst before. Fresh human blood was on a whole other level than the pre-packaged variety.

"So good!" she said before grabbing Shuichi's wrist before he could pull the tantalizing treat away. Kokoa sucked on the finger to draw more blood, its amazing taste drawing a moan of absolute pleasure from the girl.

Kurama frowned at Kokoa's reaction, and his inability to break loose of her grip. "Okay…now I'm just feeling dirty," he mumbled to himself.

After another minute, Kokoa broke contact with Shuichi's finger and looked up at him with a blush and her eyes in a dreamy daze. "More." The tantalizing trickle of blood Kokoa was sucking from a tiny cut like that only taunted her. She needed more, her whole body ached for it.

Kurama cleared his throat. "That was just supposed to prove-"

"Yeah fine, you're a human with weird magic powers and an overdeveloped sense of smell," Kokoa said between breaths. "Now, gimmie more."

Well since I doubt she's going o go away if I don't… Kurama sat up and turned his hand so his wrist was facing the vampire's face. "Here."

"Not there," Kokoa told him. An instant later she was on the bed, her legs straddling Shuichi's stomach a she moved her head down to get within biting range of his lower neck when it met his shoulder. "Here."

Unable to take the thirst any more, but still somehow about to give a second to wait for any objections, Kokoa bit into the other redhead and drank deeply. The little taste she had experienced before was completely blown away by the mouthful of red liquid that absolutely drenched her taste buds.

She wrapped her arms around Shuichi's chest to stay upright and drew her whole body close to his.

"Kokoa?" Kurama asked as the girl pressed her body up against his before taking another drink of his blood.

A third drink, and Kokoa finally took her fangs out and came up for air, panting heavily from the sheer ecstasy that drinking fresh blood had given her. Kokoa let out one final breath of pleasure, then looked at the boy she had drank from out of the corner of her eye.

Kokoa blinked, then pulled back a bit, bringing herself nose to nose with the human. She licked the blood off her lips. It felt like her heart tried to ram its way through her chest. The vampire looked down to Shuichi's pale lips and took in a breath.

Kokoa took in his looks for a moment as she moved her face closer to his. The boy really was beautiful; for people who were into girly-type men that it. It wasn't just his face though, his chest was…bare… Then Kokoa noticed the position they were in, the young vampire on top of him like a…she left the comparison unfinished.

"Are you done?" Shuichi asked her in an even tone with a raised eyebrow, his face and voice just about as unreadable as ever.

A sudden feeling of nervousness overcame here when she realized just what she was about to do. With the spell broken, the last fifteen seconds replayed themselves in a new light, and Kokoa's face turned bright red when she remembered what she had even thought about doing, if even for just a second.

"I gotta go!" Kokoa practically shouted before she jumped off of the bed and ran out the door in a rush, slamming it behind her. Then she opened it just enough to put her head back in. "Don't you ever get nearly killed again, GOT IT?"

Kurama blinked as the door slammed shut again, wondering what had happened to Kokoa. For a moment, it actually seemed as if the girl was about to… Well that's just stupid, he told himself in response to even considering the possibility. The thought of a vampire even having such thoughts was an impossibility. He'd learned enough lore about the creatures since coming to Yokai Academy to know that they were much too prideful for that.

Out in the hallway, Kokoa tried to catch her breath while the images from just moments ago replayed themselves in her mind. She didn't know what was more disturbing: the fact she had almost kissed the boy, or the voice in her head screaming how big an idiot she was for not going through with it when she had the perfect chance.