Alucard, Seras and Pip all arrived shortly after everybody else was seated, well, Hiei and Yusuke had opted to stand, but Kurama had taken the seat offered to him. Of the three Japanese, he was really the strategist, so it made sense that he should be the one seated at a strategical meeting. All three demons watched silently as Alucard approached the English Queen, and Hiei and Yusuke smirked when Alucard talked of the monarch being even more beautiful to him as one old and wrinkled than she had been as a young tomboy of a girl. Nevertheless, they listened intently when the ancient vampire explained the situation.
Nazi soldiers, attempting to raise an undead army, put down fifty-five years ago only to rise again at this time; the Last Battalion.
"I see you found out through Tubalcain's blood," announced a small boy from near the door, surprising nearly everybody at the table with his sudden appearance. "Geez, he's no good."
Three guns were simultaneously drawn. Two by an Iscariot agent Yusuke had decided was pretty cool while they were waiting and talking in the hall before the conference, and one by Pip, who looked rather less impressive out of uniform.
"Wait, I'm just the messenger. I have no intention of fighting," the boy said, walking forward slowly, his hands up as if to show he meant no harm.
Kurama breathed deeply, scenting the boy. "Hiei," he murmured softly, narrowing his green eyes as they remained focused on the uniformed child as he continued to move foward. "Is that boy even really here?"
"Hard to say," the fire demon answered, his voice as low and soft as he could make it. The demons all kept an ear on the rest of the conversation. According to Walter, the defences were both perfect, and were not registering the breach of security that this messenger was.
"It's useless. I'm everywhere and I'm nowhere," the boy said, setting down a box. It seemed to be a cross between an accordion and a portable television. While the boy was distracted by the presence of Seras, greeting her personally, Kurama gestured for Hiei and Yusuke to stay out of sight. This was the enemy, after all. Know them before they know you.
"Dear people of England and the Vatican-" the boy clearly didn't notice the Japanese boys "-our leader, the Major, has an announcement. Please hear it," the boy began, reaching into his pocket and taking out a remote for the communicator. Only to be frustrated by it for a full minute when the device refused to work properly.
"Warrant Officer Schrodinger, nothing's showing," said a voice from the communicator's speakers.
"Schrodinger?" Kurama whispered, his mind now churning. He knew about the psychologist and his experiments, added together with the boy's own statement of being everywhere and nowhere, and the uncertainty he held regarding the actual presence of the boy, and Hiei confirming that it was an unsure thing...
He watched as Alucard and the Major greeted each other as familiar old enemies. He listened as he heard the Major talk like a better educated version of Yusuke – wanting to fight for the sake of fighting. He observed the rest of the table turn pale at watching the vampires feed on humans, and sat amused as insults passed between the leader of Iscariot and the Nazi Major.
"Alright then, stop me, self-professed 'normal' ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately, you are not my enemy. My enemy is England, Hellsing... No, the man standing over there laughing!"
Alucard was laughing, and he was the one everybody turned to, but Hiei and Yusuke were laughing as well, quietly, in the shadows behind a pillar. Kurama was biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from doing likewise. It really was a splendid declaration, though it was definitely going to be a different sort of fun than had been promised by Yusuke's declaration all those years ago when the first Demon Tournament had been held.
Kurama forced himself to focus intently as Alucard shot the Schrodinger boy, and did not take his eyes off him when Seras shot the console. The boy vanished. No puff of smoke, no fading in or out, just sudden disappearance. And Alucard was the one being targeted.
The Queen gave her order, and the knights, vampires, and guests were dismissed. Kurama approached Alucard quietly, keeping Hiei close to his side.
"I hope you won't think me forward, Mr Alucard, but might I have a micro-litre of your blood?"
Alucard raised a curious eyebrow. "Why should you want that?"
"I have a theory that I need to test. Your blood against the blood of Miss Victoria, who I believe has yet to drink an entire human?" Kurama asked.
"Fool barely eats at all," Alucard confirmed, fixing a disapproving red eye on his Draculina. "What will you do with this blood if I give it to you?"
"Hiei will taste it, that is all," Kurama answered, smiling sweetly, almost innocently, except for the gleam in his green eyes. "A lot can be learned by tasting someone's blood, I did it a great deal in my previous life, but I am out of practice now and Hiei has . . . a particular aptitude for reading such things." Just because they had given statement of their demon nature was no reason to disclose every secret they had, such as Hiei's Jagan eye.
Alucard considered the young man beside him as they walked down the hall, then nodded.
"Police Girl, our guests want a sample of your blood," he called.
"Uh, yes Master," Seras answered, running up beside her master at once. She had been talking to Walter.
Kurama laid a hand on Hiei's shoulder. The fire demon had been scanning through his friends thoughts with his Jagan since Kurama had grabbed him and gone to speak with the elder vampire, and he fully agreed. This was something of importance that needed to be figured out. These Nazi remnants weren't inclined to make a creature like Schrodinger just to carry messages. He had to have another purpose.
"Hers first," Hiei grunted, drawing his sword. Seras was the base, the untainted vampire. Yet to consume anybody as her master had done.
Tentatively, the blond held out an arm, which Hiei pricked with the very tip of his sword, gathering exactly one bead of blood, which he licked away immediately. "I cleaned it this morning, it hasn't been bloodied since," he said in response to Kurama's expression. Hiei had himself once told an opponent how disgusting it was to lick his sword, not knowing how many demons had been cut down by it. It was in the Dark Tournament. The idiot with the beast orbs. "Besides, it's a newer sword, hasn't cut through that many demons yet."
Kurama just smiled softly and shook his head before turning his eyes from Hiei to Alucard.
The Dracula pushed up his sleeve slightly. This was only a drop of blood after all, no need to go so far as tearing a limb off over it.
Hiei delicately repeated the process, his body seizing up as he tasted the richer, older, more potent and powerful blood of the No-Life-King. After a few seconds he came back to himself and shook his head as though to clear it.
"You need to make sure you don't drink that Schrodinger's blood and assimilate him as you have all those other lives," Hiei informed the figure, twice as tall as himself. "You'd get lost inside of yourself and disappear until you killed all those other souls you keep."
Alucard's eyebrows raised.
"You presume to tell me who I may and may not eat?" he almost demanded.
"You weren't listening," Kurama interjected. "Schrodinger's Cat, ring any bells? Exists because it is observed. If Seras consumed him, she would be safe, because she is only herself at this point," Kurama said, looking to Hiei to make sure he was right. A nod from the shorter demon and he continued. "You have millions of fragmented souls within yourself," this time Alucard nodded in acknowledgement. "How will you observe yourself as Schrodinger does, if there are so many of you within yourself?"
Integra pulled up beside her servant, having caught the conversation.
"Makes sense to me," she said. "Officer Victoria, in the upcoming confrontation, Schrodinger is your first target. Kill anyone who gets in your way, but your main target is that messenger boy, who you are to consume completely."
"Yes Sir," Seras answered, saluting sharply, even as she didn't much like the idea.
"What is this?" Maxwell asked, sneering as he approached the smaller conference.
Hiei shot a glare at the man. He disliked how everybody in this country was so much taller than him, in Japan he was merely average height, and in the demon and spirit worlds it didn't matter. Here, so many of the idiots were nearing six foot tall.
"We're just putting dibs on who we want to kill once this war starts," Hiei answered the Iscariot leader, smirking. "Will you be taking part in the fighting?"
Maxwell had not been informed of the three's status as demons, and looked on them merely as heathens, which to him wasn't all that different.
"You will roast in purgatory for centuries, I'm sure," he said, not answering the demon's question.
Hiei, Kurama and Yusuke weren't able to help themselves, and burst out laughing. It would have been thought impossible seven years ago that Hiei would find cause for laughter twice in two months, let alone in two hours.
"What do you laugh at?" Maxwell demanded.
Kurama calmed down first, closely followed by Hiei, but Yusuke was still going while his friends answered the idiotic Catholic's question.
"Your ignorance," Kurama said, with as straight a face as he could at that moment, "and your narrow-mindedness."