Hello, readers of this story! I do so hope that my first Rosario+Vampire fic is up to par with those you've read before, so if it isn't, feel free to give me constructive criticism, please none of that "Ur fic suks ass" bullshit, I've seen it before and all it does is annoy me, so intelligent comments please! Also feel free to PM or shoot a review up if you have a question, I do my best to answer without revealing too much of the future plot, so yeah! Also, this will be based more on the anime (I've read both the manga and seen the anime) and the story will be drastically changed. You'll see why, enjoy!

Tsukune Aono was always a normal boy, average marks in school, a fairly athletic young man. He has a few acquaintances that he could talk to in school, but no real friends (besides his cousin Kyouko). He never strived to put himself above others, to make it seem as though he was superior to anyone, he just wanted to fit in. How ironic this philosophy would seem to him later in his life.

At eight years of age, Tsukune and Kyouko were allowed to explore in a half-mile radius around their houses, seeing as how they were close together. Oftentimes they would go out for a few hours before returning home, Tsukune sporting a few lumps on his head from "stupid" suggestions to his cousin. Most of the time they would simply go to the playground and play, occasionally growing gutsy and exploring some of the woods around the parks they visited. On this particular day, however, they had been at the park for more than their designated time (they had fallen asleep on the slide side-by-side), and neither of them were relishing the thought of confronting their parents about the situation.

"Ugh, this is all your fault Tsu-kun! You were supposed to wake us up if we fell asleep!"

Tsukune looked at her incredulously for a second before responding. "How….am I supposed to wake us up if I'm asleep with you?"

Kyouko mulled this over for a few seconds before sending him a half-hearted glare. "I don't know! But Uncle Koji won't be happy with us…."

Tsukune nodded, curiosity crawling onto his face. "Where did your dad go again? I still don't understand…"

Kyouko shrugged, "I don't really understand myself, I just know that he had to go away for awhile and that he won't be home for a few weeks. Mom wanted some time out with her friends so-"

"So she dropped you off here, yeah." Tsukune finished for her. "I understand that….geez, it's really dark out, what time is it?"

Kyouko looked at the watch Tsukune had bought for her the previous year with some difficulty, considering the lighting of the patch of grass they were currently standing on. "It's….9:30. Wow, we ARE late! Let's get going…"

Tsukune nodded and they started off, walking in eerie silence towards the Aono residence. Tsukune couldn't help but look around, trying to be alert as possible to protect his cousin (despite her constant claims of having to protect HIM). He knew of the bad men who would come and try to take her, he heard things on the news and from police officers at school about them. He didn't want to lose her, she was his closest friend and relative, and losing her would be….

Tsukune shook his head, warding off the dark thoughts threatening to invade his mind. Just as he was cleansing his mind of such thoughts, however, a black van pulled around the corner silently behind them, and started tailing them closely.

"Do we have a positive I.D. on the girl?" a muscular man whispered to the man driving the van.

"Yeah," said the obvious leader, "that's the girl that the boss wants dead. Said that her dad was dealing some bad drugs and had to be whacked, except that her mother knows too much. She's getting hit by Yokutso and Vostu, and we're to kill the girl."

"But why the girl?" whispered the first man, watching her walk with a small boy beside her. "Surely she can't know anything about her dirt-bag father's dealings?"

The driver shrugged. "I guess the boss thinks that she might. I don't think about these things, I just follow orders, or it'll be MY head on the platter. Come on now, just grab her and we'll dump her off a dock or something, don't want a scene in this urban environment."

The passenger nodded and moved to the middle of the vehicle, popping the sliding door open ever so slightly for a quick pull open. The driver, as if by some hidden signal, pushed his foot on the accelerator to glide up beside the two children.

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

Tsukune was paranoid. He'd seen the van creep up from behind, the two men whispering inside. He pulled Kyouko closer to him, walking a little faster. She looked up at him confused, but didn't question it. Her cousin didn't do things for no reason, so she would just have to question him later. Besides, she was scared, why shouldn't she be?

Tsukune heard the slight squeal of the tires as the van sped up, and turned just in time to see a large man thrust the van door open and grab at Kyouko.

"NO!" he shouted, pushing Kyou behind him and slapping the man's hands away from him. The van went for another fourty feet before pulling a 180 in the street and coming back around. The man jumped out of the door this time, obviously aggravated that his first grab was a failed one. Tsukune was urging Kyouko to run, but she was just staring at the man in startled realization.

"You….you're the man….daddy brought home…you're my….my dad's friend…."The man laughed and gave her a grim smile. "Afraid not sweetheart. Your dear daddy is dead, and your mother will be as well around…this time actually. You're the last to go, so come on, make this easier for me why don't you."

Tsukune and Kyouko were both rooted to the spot. Did they….hear the man right? Kyou's dad dead? Her mother dying? What was happening? Silent tears starting falling down Kyouko's face as her entire world starting crashing down around her. Her parents were dead. Gone. And she would be soon too.

Tsukune's mind was a whirlwind of confusion. These men knew that Kyouko's parents were dead, so they knew the men who did it, right? He started shaking, too young to deal with and understand the information thrust upon him. The thing he did understand, however, was the man advancing on them, knife in hand and murderous intent in his eyes. His eyes darted around the sidewalk, a single thought in his mind. 'I need a weapon'

He found a knarled branch just off the path with a knot at the end. A perfect club. He grabbed it and stood in front Kyou, branch at the ready. "Leave us alone!" he shouted, trying to push Kyou to start running to the house.

The man simply laughed at the scene laid out before him. An eight year old kid trying to stop him from offing another equally helpless kid? He didn't exactly feel comfortable killing a child, but orders were orders, and her friend trying to save her made the situation feel a little less real.

"Out of the way kid, maybe I'll let you live if you leave now and run." he said, before taking another step forward. The driver watched with annoyed eyes as the kid lashed out with the branch, catching his partner across the face and mangling one of his eyes.

The man wailed in pain, clutching his eye as blood pooled around his fingers. "THAT LITTLE SON OF A BITCH, I SWEAR HE'S GOING TO DIE THE WORST FUCKI-"

"QUIET." His partner shouted, catching some movement in his peripheral. It seemed that the boy finally got their target to start fleeing the sight. The driver grunted, before upholstering a silenced pistol and taking aim. One bullet was all it took, striking the girl in her back as she fell to the ground with a yelp.

"Get in and let's get out of here!" he said, aggravated that his partner was bested by some kid. The man nodded angrily, but not before throwing his knife toward Tsukune. The knife sailed through the air, before slicing through flesh and bone to lodge itself in Tsukune's arm. He screamed in pain before falling to the ground, desperately trying to get to Kyou to see why she had fallen while running.

The men gave the scene one last look before driving off, leaving the street as silent as it had been three minutes previously, with the exception of Tsukune and Kyouko's groans and whimpers of pain. After a minute of pained crawling, Tsukune came to rest beside Kyou, now getting a full view of the bullet wound and blood stain on her back.

Tsukune whimpered, poking at her arm. "Kyou-chan….Kyou-chan please…."

Kyouko turned her head to look at him with pained eyes. "Tsu….ku….ne…."

Tsukune nodded, tears streaming down his face. "I'm here Kyou-chan, we need to get you to the hospital so that you get better!" he said, turning to the houses sporting light he started shouting for help.

Kyou looked through him, seeing some distant thing that he would never see as the life faded from her eyes. Blood began to seep from her mouth, the internal hemorrhaging being too much for her young body as she passed on to the afterlife. Tsukune continued to scream for another 5 minutes before someone heard him and came, calling an ambulance. Tsukune clung to Kyouko's body, wishing that they had left sooner. Wishing that he could have been stronger. Wishing that they had taken a different road. These thoughts persisted with him even all the way to the hospital, where the dagger was removed, he was announced to make a full recovery, and Kyouko Aono was pronounced dead. The pristine white hospital, where everyone tried to stay happy, even as the detectives questioned Tsukune about the men. It was when his father spoke that he learned Kyou's father had been involved with some mob and had stolen from them, sold bad drugs and gave them a bad reputation and the like. It was then that the mob boss ordered him and his family killed, in order to remove any information about them that might lead the police to them. Of course the blood at the scene from the man's eye was a good start, and the police later found all this out.

But even all the information in the world wasn't useful, unless it was uncovered before the crime was ever committed.

Tsukune's best friend and cousin, Kyouko, was dead because of some stupid crimes. Her father being involved in stupid crimes. Obsessed with money. All people were. He hated it.

There, in the hospital, Tsukune decided that he would do his best to make sure that no one close to him would ever get hurt from something like crime ever again. And not only crime, but anything. He would NEVER let anyone get hurt again. He would push himself to be as physically and mentally fit as he could, to be one step ahead of any criminals that might want to hurt him or his precious ones.

*Timeskip 8 years*

Tsukune sighed as he finished his homework. Making sure to change some of the answers to wrong ones, he started his daily training regimen of pushups and sit-ups. Gone was the small athletic child that watched as his cousin was gunned down in cold blood. Gone was the boy who thought that everything could be achieved through believing in something.

Tsukune was now 16 years of age, and, to put it simply, ripped. He could easily bench twice his weight, could run miles without becoming short of breathe, and had studied numerous martial arts styles, making his own two fists as lethal as any sharpened weapon at close range. Not only that, but his mind was as sharp as they came. Studying levels of math and science at the college level (of those achieving their Master's degree), he was easily the smartest of any his age. Due to this, he knew no to show it. To stick out was to beg for trouble, just as Kyouko's father had. He didn't cover his trail in the slightest, knew no morality or humility, and invited trouble to come from all angles. And he had paid for it with his own life, as well as the lives of his family. Tsukune would not make the same mistake.

He kept average grades, practically the same as his eight year old self, getting problems wrong on purpose to fit in with his peers. He found all their homework boringly easy, getting it done within minutes each day. It was harder to hide his physical prowess, but he had devised a few ways. Add weights to one leg to throw himself off balance to seem clumsy, use his knowledge of chemistry to make a serum to slightly paralyze his muscles and make it harder for him to move, stuff like that. And it worked, for all intents and purposes, but as his high school career was ending soon, he had to go off to a university. His average marks put him in a not-too-pleasant situation of no one wanting to take him, and his parents were none too happy about it. They too, had not noticed their son changing into the pinacle of human prowess, and had accepted that he would just never be social. They thought of their son as the "clumsy average kid that we will always love and protect." Little did they know that he had protected them on several occasions. Funny how that works out.

One night, while sitting in the living room and watching television with his mother, he heard his father burst through the door in song.

"Tsuuukuneee is goinnnngggg to colleeeggeee~" His voice rang out and his wife snickered at her husbands antics, smiling over at Tsukune. He rolled his eyes before they both got up and went to see what Koji was prattling on about.

"Youkai Academy," he explained, a bit tipsy as he had just been home from the bar. "A private academy where you'll be admitted no matter what! Some old codger in a white robe dropped this pamphlet on his way home, so I just picked it up! Pretty lucky to have me as a dad, eh son?" he joked, laughing at his son's deadpan expression.

Tsukune, while keeping up the irritated son look, was thinking things over at lightning speed. 'Unidentified man dropping a document claiming to be a school. Possibilities include some organized crime house needing a new flunky, an insane looking for more victims while handing out these flyers to attract victims, or the real deal. Name suggests a school for demons, given the irrational thought that they even exist, and could be a school for delinquents. Given any of the possibilities, I may be able to shut operations down on the inside and pretend to be a survivor of some gang attack, or end up back in school and training. No downsides, but many upsides.'

He nodded to his father and smiled halfway, "Guess I'll be going off to school then, right dad?"

His dad nodded solemnly, remembering that it would be the first time with Tsukune away since the incident. "Yes, and for Kami's sake Tsukune try to make some friends! I know you miss Kyouko but it's time to mo-"

"To move on? To forget?" Tsukune finished angrily, noting his father's disappointed reaction. "I can't. You didn't see the look on her face dad….she knew she was going to die and she was so scared…and I couldn't help….you don't understand." he finished with a huff and tears in his eyes, before he stormed off to his room, slamming the door shut.

Koji sighed before turning toward his wife. "I have a feeling that this affects him even worse than we thought, probably more than he lets on. I hope that schools atmosphere will help him cope and move on."

Kasumi nodded sadly, looking to her son's room. "He will. I just know it. He'll come back to us changed, he won't try to isolate himself anymore."

Meanwhile, Tsukune was packing his bags, seeing as how the sheet of paper stated that the bus would be there within the week to pick him up. He sighed before throwing some of his books into the bag, as well as a single photo of him and Kyouko when they were kids. He tucked it very carefully into his bag's hidden pocket, before gazing down at his belongings. His gut was trying to tell him something, and he had learned to always listen to it, as it was never wrong.

Something about this Youkai Academy was going to change him, for better or worse, he did not know. But something was off about it. And in a weeks time, he was going to find out what.

Well there we go, first chapter dished out. To anyone who reads comics, you probably noticed that his beginning is essentially the same as Bruce Wayne's (Batman). He sure as hell won't be any superhero though, just a man defending his family and friends, so don't expect some costume and alias bullshit. Anywho, hope you enjoyed, and see you next time!