Author's Notes: This is my first pure Rosario Vampire story. I am posting it now because I've just noticed that the website finally has an option for it. If any of you are interested I am also writing a Rosario / Naruto cross over called The True Monster. You can check on it through my profile.

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Tsukune was standing in front of a weird scarecrow with a pumpkin head. A simple wooden sign hanging from it read, 'Youkai Academy.' Off in the distance he could make out a large building that looked a lot more like some sort of strange mansion as opposed to a high school. "This really is some sort of bizarre monk school isn't it?" He muttered as he picked up his bags and headed down the road to what he assumed would be his home for the next three years.

He'd only just arrived and he already had a bad feeling about things. There was just so much that seemed peculiar. For one thing the bus driver had seriously creeped him out, his eyes almost seemed to be glowing.

"Be careful," the bus driver had warned him. "Youkai Academy can be a veeery scary place!"

Why would a school bus driver of all people say that to him? Was that some sort of joke he told all the new students? Then there was the weather. Just before coming into the tunnel it had been sunny without a cloud in the sky. Now it was completely overcast and even looked like rain. He had seen weather change quickly before, but such a radical and complete change from one side of a tunnel to the other? It seemed down right unnatural. And speaking of unnatural…

He looked over to another series of tombstones and unburied human skulls. Who in their right mind builds a High School by a whole bunch of cemeteries? He thought. And why are there skulls just lying there? It's like something out of some cheesy horror movie!

It was as he was walking nervously along the road he heard something from behind. "Get out of the way!" A girl's voice shouted.

Panicked, he did exactly that. He leapt out of the road and just barely avoided getting run over by a girl on her bike. She sped past and he got no more than just a glance at her face. She didn't stop or even call back to apologize for nearly hitting him. He watched as she disappeared down the road. He noted that she had really long pink hair and a uniform similar to his.

Well that was lucky, he thought as he started walking again. I almost got hit, that would have been a bad way to start things.

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He was somewhat relieved to see a lot of other freshmen looking around and seeming as confused as he was. The building itself was just as bizarre as he'd first thought. It really did look like some sort of weird gothic mansion as opposed to a normal high school. He wondered if some eccentric rich guy had donated the building and lands to the school. He joined a stream of fellow freshmen as they were all herded towards the auditorium for the entrance ceremony. As he was about to take his seat he tripped and stumble a bit. He suddenly found himself landing in a girl's lap.

He quickly jumped up to his feet. "Sorry! Sorry about that, I tripped."

The surprised girl looked up at him. He noticed that she was very cute with long purple hair and dark blue eyes. She wasn't wearing the school uniform; she had on a white shirt with dark sleeves, a short skirt, and purple stripes leggings. He also noted that she had a lollipop in her mouth. "Don't worry about it," she told him quietly.

He sat down next to her and put his things underneath the seat. "I'm new here, so I'm kind of nervous."

She looked over at him. "I think we're all new. The entrance ceremony is just for the freshmen. The older students don't have to be here until tomorrow."

Tsukune nodded. "Well since we're both new here maybe we can be friends," he held out his hand to her. "I'm Aono Tsukune."

She stared at him and he thought he must have done something really wrong. But she finally reached out and very lightly placed her hand in his. He couldn't help but notice it felt kind of cold. "I am Shirayuki Mizore, and I would like to be friends too."

Tsukune smiled, this wasn't turning out so bad. He was about to say something more when Mizore pulled her hand out and looked away from him, seeming to ignore him. He hadn't talked much to girls and wasn't sure what to make of that. He decided to just sit back in his seat and listen to the ceremony.

It was nothing really special, though the fact the speaker was dressed in a white robe was a little odd. The speech was about adulthood and commitment and hopes for the future. When the speech was over Mizore got up and left without so much as acknowledging him.

Heh, I guess she was just being polite.

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Following the ceremony he had to find his homeroom. There would be no actual classes today; this was just a chance to meet his homeroom teacher and some of his classmates. Despite the unusual design of the building he was able to find his home room without too much difficulty. The classroom itself looked comfortingly familiar to him. There was a blackboard with a teacher's desk and the little wooden chair and desks he'd been familiar with in middle school. Even if everything else seemed strange this was normal at least.

"Hello Tsukune."

He jumped a bit at the voice from behind him. Standing there calmly looking at him and sucking her lollipop was Mizore.

"Please don't sneak up on me like that, you scared me."

She grinned slightly at his reaction. "Sorry, it's just how I am. Since we're in the same class do you want to sit together?"

"Uh, sure!" She didn't seem very exuberant, but he wasn't going to turn down a friendly gesture from such a cute girl. They sat down in a pair of chair in the back of the class.

Once they were both seated. Tsukune looked over to her. "Why did you leave the ceremony without saying anything?"

She looked at him in surprise. "Why would I say anything?"

He opened his mouth… but couldn't come up with a reply.

Not long after that their home room teacher arrived. She was a young blonde woman with glasses and a weird hair style; two tufts of hair were sticking out almost like a pair of furry ears. She smiled at them and called on them to quiet down. Tsukune's very first impression was that she seemed like a typical ditzy blonde, but nice enough.

Once the class had quieted down she introduced herself.

"Hello everyone and welcome to Youkai Academy! I am your home room teacher Shizuka Nekonome. I think you all already know this, but this is a school built for the sake of monsters to attend!"

And with that a boring, 'welcome to the school' speech became something else. Tsukune sat up and actually began paying attention. What did she just say? He glanced around the room to see everyone else take it in stride. Is it me or is everyone in here nuts?

Noticing this Mizore looked at him. "Something wrong?" She asked him quietly.

He looked at her. "Did you just hear what she said?"

"Yes, so?"

He again did not know how to answer.

Meanwhile their teacher pressed on. "Now as you all know the earth has already come under the control of the humans! In order for us monsters to continue to survive, we have no choice but to continue to peacefully coexist with the humans. At this academy, you will be studying, 'How to coexist with humans!"

Once more Tsukune glanced around the room to see the reaction of the other students. Some of them were nodding; most were just listening with varying degrees of attention. None of them were acting as though their teacher had gone insane. They were acting as though what she was saying was not unexpected.

"So for that reason," she continued. "As a school rule you will all live your lives at this academy in human form! Do you understand? It's a matter of being able to disguise yourself well as a human! This is the foundation of coexistence. You are never to allow any of your fellow students to know your, 'true form' understand?!"

"Hey teacher," a student sitting in front of him called out. "Wouldn't it be better for us to eat up those puny humans? And in the case of beautiful girls, better to molest them?"

Tsukune looked at the brawny blonde kid and tried to hide his sudden fear. EAT humans?!

"Oh," his teacher spoke. "Incidentally, here at Youkai academy, the teachers and students are all monsters; there are no genuine humans here! Since this academy is within a secret sacred world! To those humans who come to know of our existence we will bring them death… or something."

Despite the sudden revelation he was surrounded by monsters and would be killed if the truth about him was found out Tsukune somehow managed to keep a calm demeanor. He didn't really have much of a choice. He couldn't draw attention to himself or he might get eaten

"Excuse me," a girl's voice called from the class room door. "After the entrance ceremony I kind of got lost in the school, sorry I'm late."

Nekonome looked over to the girl and smiled. "Oh, that's fine, just take a seat."

"O.k.," a beautiful girl with long pink hair stepped into the room. Immediately the boys, and even some of the girls, were star struck. Most of them began to greet her with loud cries of enthusiasm and a few even asked for dates.

Tsukune paid them no attention as he was too scared to think about anything but how to survive.

Mizore noted his sedate reaction, but said nothing.

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The moment the teacher released them from the room he took off. He still had the school bus schedule. There would be a bus leaving in just a couple hours. He would write a withdrawal letter and just go. There was no way he was going to stay in a place full of monsters. As he hurried back to the bus stop he never noticed a figure trailing behind him.

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He was panting as he set his bags down. Checking his watch he saw he'd made it in time. The bust should arrive in twenty minutes. He would get out of this crazy place and back to his boring ordinary life. The thought of going home and spending the next year trying to pass a high school entrance exam didn't thrill him. But it sure beat getting eaten by some monster.

"So you're going?"

"Ahhh!" He jumped in terror. When he calmed down he saw Mizore standing there sucking her lollipop and just looking at him. "Mizore! What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "After homeroom I didn't have anything better to do so I followed you."

He stared at her. "Do you usually stalk people?"

"Sometimes," she admitted not feeling the least bit embarrassed. "Why are you running away?"

"Because this place is too damn scary!" He told her. "I'm going to go to a human school."

"And that's less scary?" She sounded surprised.

"At least humans don't eat each other!"

She shrugged. "Maybe not, but from what I hear they do enough horrible things to each other."

Tsukune looked at her. She definitely seemed weird, but nothing she'd done or said even hinted that she might be malevolent or mean him any sort of harm. "Mizore, you're… you're a monster right?"

"Of course I am, just like you."

"If… if I were a uh, human. Would you try to… to eat me?"

She stared at him for a second, and then began to laugh. "Geez, that sounds like something a human would say. Of course not, only a few of the more unsavory monsters would do something like that."

He looked at her nervously. "What would you do if I was… human?"

She glanced at him and considered. "You are aren't you? That's why you're scared, you're human and you got into this academy by mistake didn't you?"

He looked frightened and took a couple steps away from her. "No! I uh…"

She held up a hand. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you or tell on you. There was a human village near where I grew up and I've known a few humans, even cared for one. I don't have anything against humans."

"Really?" She nodded. "So you're not afraid that I'm a spy or something?"

She grinned. "Trust me; you're nowhere near stealthy enough to be a spy and you don't seem very good at keeping secrets." She paused. "You know monsters aren't as bad as the stories would have you believe. Sure some of them are pretty cruel, but that's true of humans as well. If… if you wanted to stay you might like it here."

He saw the girl was blushing a bit and seeming a bit nervous. Does she like me? "Are you asking me to stay?"

"If you want," she said. "You seem interesting Tsukune, and I'd like to try and be friends with you. I also think you're kind of cute."

He felt his face begin to turn red as well. He'd gone through middle school the most ordinary and mediocre of guys. No girl had ever paid him any notice. Now this really cute, if weird, girl seemed to like him. But can I actually have a monster for a girlfriend?

She looked at him shyly. "So what do you want to do?"

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The bus pulled up to its stop it was right on schedule.

But there was no one waiting.