Hey folks! A reminder, these are really me trying to improve, so critiques are very desirable. ALSO, please please please leave a review, even a short one just to say you like a story, if you want to see more of it. I have a few more of these in the pipe and several where there is a chapter 2 or 3 ready to go.
Shinji Ikari One Shot
No-Life King of Tokyo-3
In the year 1999 the Millennium organization, a Nazi occult science group which had survived in South America, surfaced. Using technology, they had duplicated a race of monsters that has preyed on mankind since the beginning of history, the undead. Vampires, heading armies of semi-intelligent mobile corpses known as ghouls, made high profile attacks throughout the world.
Two organizations, existing in opposition but concurrent in purpose, opposed them in Europe. The Royal Order of Protestant Knights, also known as the Hellsing Organization, and Vatican Operations Section XIII, also known as Iscariot.
The matter came to a head in the invasion of London shortly before the turn of the century. The majority of forces involved perished, including the Hellsing Organization's most powerful weapon, a vampire under their control known as Alucard. This being was known in life as the Wallachian noble Vlad "the impaler" Tepes, better known as Dracula and one of the most powerful undead to have ever existed.
Humanity, now aware at large of the existence of the undead, rallied their nations and purged the vampires and ghouls within their ranks. Under the newly created UN organization called GEHIRN, the effort to exterminate the final predators of humanity began. Within a year those vampires that were not controlled by a human led force had been nearly wiped out. Those that remained were now the prey.
In August of 2001, a discovery was made beneath the Antarctic ice. An immense being, theorized by some to be the origin of the undead on Earth had been found. This being, which became known as the vampire Adam, was dormant at its discovery, but after it was uncovered signs of unlife began to return.
In September of that same year a contact experiment was attempted, utilizing a holy weapon known as the Spear of Destiny. The objective of the experiment was to neutralize Adam. Contact instead resulted in an event known as Second Impact, also known as the Second Great Flood. The Antarctic ice melted in an instant, raising sea levels and killing nearly two billion by drowning and the destruction rent by worldwide tidal waves.
This was to only be the start of a new, dark, chapter for humanity. Within days, vampires and ghouls began to emerge. Those bodies which had been recovered where quickly burned, but the unrecovered hundreds of millions held a potential army beneath the waves, the likes of which the world had never seen.
GEHIRN was reorganized as UN NERV, in which was trusted the organization of resistance against the undead which now plagued humanity in a way not seen in recorded history. NERV was successful in organizing the retaking of much of the remaining land of the planet, however Africa and Europe remain lost to the undead.
As humanity rallied, new and terrible forms of the dead emerged the likes of which had not seen before. The worst of these became known as Angels. Vast gestalts of putrid flesh, theorized to be the result of several hundred thousand corpses being fused into a single creature. After the first was dispatched through use of several thermonuclear weapons, a new solution was needed.
In 2006, a ritual was conducted by the remnants of the Hellsing Organization and a small faction of NERV personnel who believed in their methods of combating the undead using the undead. This ritual involved all recovered articles of the vampire Alucard as well as a large quantity of virgin blood, the vampire Alucard's only progeny, and a young male child.
The exact procedures of the ritual are unknown, however all involved but Sir Integra Fairbrooks Wingates Hellsing and the remaining controlled vampire perished, including the child's mother. Both have refused to divulge the content or intent of the ritual, leveraging their continued utility in exterminating the undead threat to avoid prosecution.
The result of the experiment was a vampire borne of the body of the child. This vampire was found to be in possession of the many magical and technological enhancements made to the vampire Alucard during its use by the Hellsing Organization, leading many to believe the ritual was meant to resurrect the organization's most potent weapon. The vampire was declared property of the Hellsing Organization and put into their custody.
The year is 2014. Sir Hellsing has died and willed the vampire known in life as Shinji Ikari to NERV, on the condition that they provide a suitable candidate to serve as the creature's master.
This is the story of the Vampire and his master as they seek to end the undead threat to humanity.
Captain Misato Katsuragi of NERV strode through the emptied town. All of the inhabitants had been evacuated to provide a buffer zone around the arrival site. Military vehicles and heavily armed soldiers filled the streets. NERV VTOLs patrolled the skies and the prepared landing site, a grassy municipal baseball diamond, was lit by a dozen spotlights.
Misato heard the sound of helicopter blades and hurried to the field's edge. All NERV aircraft used the tilting jet design, which meant any helicopter in the area had to be their delivery. As it came down into the field of light, she could see it was a Russian model, one of their large cargo haulers that resembled the flying tank that was the Hind gunship. She had heard Hellsing had been hiding out with the Russians.
As the helicopter set down, it brought with it a hurricane of dust, and Misato raised her jacket around her nose and mouth. She could see soldiers in black dismounting from the huge helo. On their shoulders was the quartered red and black badge of Hellsing.
One soldier, apparently the leader, pointed at her and beckoned for her to approach. As she walked towards the aircraft, the blades were coming to a stop.
"Captain Katsuragi?" The man asked in a Russian accent. A balaclava covered his face and Misato could see only his eyes.
Misato nodded and held up her NERV ID. The man pointed towards the rear of the chopper, where the large cargo ramp was opening. She nodded again and began to walk towards the ramp. Despite all the lights, she could see nothing but inky blackness past the door. She stood one step away from the ramp and looked to the man who had called her over. He only nodded and she sighed then took a deep breath before stepping into the darkness.
Misato knew she should have heard the sound of her heels on metal deckplate. She should not be hearing the dull tock of the stout heels hitting hardwood. She should not be smelling cigar smoke and alcohol. She should not be seeing a dark barroom with a single occupant seated at the single table and a band of identical men to the one at the table, all dressed in dark grey suits with red shirts and ties, playing deep, thrombing jazz. And yet, she heard, smelt, and saw all of these things as if they were perfectly real.
The man at the table held up a white gloved hand and beckoned for her to come and sit. She had been shown pictures of the vampire and this man looked nothing like the asian teenager she had been sent to collect. He was tall, unganly so, and had long black hair and noble European features. Despite the darkness, he wore sunglasses.
"Cease the illusion vampire." She said and stood beside the table.
"Command is something you will soon possess, but for now, yours is to listen…" The man said and waved two fingers. Misato found herself thrust into a chair, which rocked back before all four legs settled on the floor as if held there.
"…and obey."
The man took a sip from a wine glass, which Misato was sure was not filled with wine, before speaking again.
"You are the candidate to be our master?"
"Yes."
"Do you fulfill the criteria?"
"Yes" She responded again. The criteria he spoke of, more than anything, had put her in this position. Simply put, she was the highest-ranking female officer in NERV who was a virgin and single. She liked to attribute both to the massive injuries she had received as an up-close-and-personal witness to the second great flood. A piece of shrapnel the size of a dinner plate had cut her from just below her breast down to her tailbone. She was a virgin by virtue of the fact that "down there" had been repaired to function to remove waste and there wasn't anything left to do anything else.
She still had feelings and emotions of course, strong ones, just romantic relationships too often had trouble getting past the state of her body. That enjoyable sex was not even really a possibility did not help matters.
"Have you ever considered the possibility of eternal life, m'lady?"
"Yes." She responded. It was part and parcel to hunting the undead. It was the prisoner's dilemma that allowed them to continue for millennia. Despite eternal damnation, someone was always willing to take the deal. It was pointless to tell people not to think about it, everyone did. It was having the fortitude not to keep thinking about it.
"And what did you think of it?"
"I found it wanting." To live forever, as a neutered freak, alone, was not in any way desirable to her.
The chuckle that came from the figure was deeply unsettling. The smile doubly so.
"Good." He said and waved one hand over the table. An arcane symbol appeared in white over the dirty wood. It was a pentagram within a circle, flanked by warding. Words in english around the rim read: HELLSING - Hells Gate Arrested – Gott Mit Uns – And Shine Heaven Now.
"Memorize this circle. You will draw it…" He flicked his fingers and was suddenly holding a piece of white chalk. "…With this. One stride wide. You will ask us to step into it, before drawing your own blood…"
His flicked the fingers of his other hand and now held both the chalk and a mother of pearl handled pen knife out for her.
"And let us taste of it. Once we have drunk of it, we are bound to you and you to us." With that he stood and the table, the floor, the band, and the whole of the bar and all its details melted into darkness. Misato found herself standing now in a small circle of light over a metal floor she recognized as the deck plating of the helicopter. The vampire was only a pair of bright red eyes within the darkness.
"Begin."
"You do not command me, vampire."
"And yet you must obey, your mission demands it."
Misato grimaced and took a deep breath before kneeling down, and she was very mindful of the fact that she was kneeling before the vampire, and starting to draw. The circle was not perfect, but it was close enough. As she rose, she locked eyes with the red orbs in the dark and held the pen knife to her palm.
"Step forward vampire." She said.
Out from the darkness stepped a figure made of darkness itself. It was in the shape of a man but as if slightly out of focus. Misato became uneasy as she tried to look deeper at its skin. She could catch glimpses of crawling things, of buzzing tings, of flying things, before her mind forced her to unfocus. As it stepped into the chalk circle, the lines on the metal deck began to glow. The ritual had begun, the vampire was locked within the chalk lines until it was complete.
With a hiss she pulled the blade down through the flesh of her palm. The figure twitched as if to grab at her arm and she pulled her hand away. It was time to put this vampire in his place.
"No. Yours is to obey vampire, not to take. End this illusion."
The figure growled and bore a mouth of bright white fangs at her.
"Now! Or I leave you in that circle and have my men dispose of you like all the other undead scum."
It opened its mouth and hissed at her as the darkness began to recede. First she saw the interior of the helicopter, then the darkness pulled back over the figure and what it left astonished Misato.
Standing in the circle was a pitifully sick looking young boy. He had black hair cut in a bowl cut and his skin was pallor grey. He wore a rumpled black suit that was too big for him and his black necktie hung loose around his red shirt collar.
This was the Hellsing Organizations ultimate weapon?
"P-please…" The boy rasped out, holding up his white gloved hands together in front of him. "I-I'm sorry about the illusions, I j-just didn't think I'd make a good impression and I c-couldn't really remember the steps right, s-so I let him come out. I-I'm Shinji Ikari, the real one."
Misato pushed all thoughts of sympathy from her mind. This was probably just another trick. It would be best to end this before the vampire got any more creative. She thrust out her hand and clenched her fist, causing the blood to begin to trickle down her hand.
"Drink, vampire."
He leaned in and stuck out a tongue that was far too long to look at all natural. He lapped at the trickle from her hand and for some reason she could not fathom, Misato opened her fingers. The young vampire latched onto her hand, though without using his fangs Misato noted, and began to drink from the wound. The soft squeaking as his sucking caused the seal of his lips to break reminded Misato of a babe breastfeeding in an incredibly unsettling way.
"That's enough!" She said and pulled her hand away.
The boy looked at her with sad red eyes, as if he had been struck, before her mind forced her not to focus again for a moment. When she could see the vampire again, he had changed.
It still looked like the boy, though it stood upright now instead of the pitiful slouching creature that had drunk from her hand. His black hair was slicked back over his head and he wore the same little round sunglasses that the adult in the illusion had worn. He filled the suit perfectly now and Misato saw the circle she had drawn on the floor drawn on his white gloves as he reached up and cinched up his tie.
The boy clicked his heels together and with one hand behind his back and the other held horizontal across his abdomen, bowed.
"What is thy bidding my master?"
"Tell me who you are, vampire, truly."
"I am untold multitudes contained within the blood of a single vampire." He said as he straightened up. "I am the impaler, I am the dragon, I am the no-life king, and I am Shinji Ikari. I am also untold millions more. Most importantly, I am yours to command Misato Katsuragi, your humble servant on an unbreakable leash."
He smiled and it did not surprise the captain that every tooth in his mouth was a fang.
"And I am your gadfly. I am the ever present voice of temptation." He said, spreading his arms to his sides. "I am infinite power at your beck and call, but yours to truly own should you only ask. You may have considered the offer of eternal life oh captain my captain, but never with it right here at your fingertips. I am your eternal reminder that you choose to continue your slow march to death when you could rule as a queen for eternity if you only asked."
"Eternity holds no draw for me, vampire."
"As your wretched self no, but the vampire changes its form to suit its desires. If a queen of the damned wanted companionship…" He leaned towards her and his glasses slipped down his nose, exposing one bright red eye. The other was covered by darkness.
"Then she would only change herself to receive it."
It was revolting to think that this creature now knew her every thought. Her every fear, her every desire. He knew them as well as she did now and the rest of her life she would fend off his offers of succor.
"Silence, Freak!" She barked imperiously, standing as tall as she could. "You are not some noblewoman's pet any longer. I am a soldier, and I will take you into the breach until your kind is wiped from this world! And when none remain but you, I will put the stake through your heart myself!"
In a wave of darkness he turned back into the sickly child who had suckled from her hand.
"Would you?" He asked with tears in his eyes. When she flinched the vampire returned to its healthy form and began to laugh. It was cruel and grating.
"Very well master, let us go together now, and I will show you what a fearsome bite this noblewoman's pet has."
End
So this was something a little different. If this gets enough interest to develop further the character arc would chiefly concern the Shinji (appearing here as the sickly child) persona's control over the souls within himself, and Misato's twin desires to be a mother figure to Shinji and her attraction to the vampire personas and if she can really resist temptation. Love, physical and emotional, and to be a mother to SHinji and possibly others through siring, is an incredible temptation to her.