Alucard turned as he sensed Jonathan approach at his side. "I think you'd best stay back. It would be more difficult to fight with both of us at the same time."
Jonathan shook his head. "I'm not going to just sit here."
Alucard closed his eyes for a moment. "...Fine."
Murasame looked at the pair and nodded. He made a strange gesture with his right hand and muttered something Alucard couldn't make out before suddenly leaping towards the dhampir.
Alucard parried the blow and counterattacked, but Murasame parried the blow himself before creating distance between them again. Jonathan moved forward after the teen, his own longsword in hand.
Murasame deflected several of Jonathan's swings before turning his motion into a spinning kick aimed at the hunter's head. Jonathan ducked underneath the attack and brought his around towards Murasame's legs. Suddenly, Murasame's sword was back low, blocking the attack; Jonathan rolled backwards, dodging the attempted counterattack.
"Magnificent." It was rather clear, though, that Murasame was not seriously complimenting Alucard's swordplay. "But now feel my unbridled wrath!" From inside his coat, Murasame produced a small paintbrush, wielding in his right hand like a sort of main gauche. "All that time I spent at the Art Club with Ayako wasn't wasted... Brush Art Technique!" He cut the air with his brush, leaving black trails in the air.
Alucard and Jonathan leapt sideways and apart to avoid the mass of magic ink that appeared from nowhere and sliced the space where he had been standing.
"What the... This is just like Brauner!" Jonathan shouted, though it was mostly to himself. Alucard, after all, had already seen what the attack did and didn't probably care who else had used it.
Alucard cut his way quickly through magic ink in front of him and dashed towards Murasame. The teen leaned out of the way of the horizontal slash and counterattacked, but the dhampir parried with his shield.
"How do you like this?" Jonathan shouted, and Murasame was forced to dodge away from Alucard, a pair of kunai burying themselves in the ground. Alucard stepped forward immediately, continuing to press his attack.
Murasame was considerably skilled; Alucard would admit that, but he was not the dhampir's equal...in swordplay. Alucard was only concerned for how Murasame's magic might factor into the battle; considering what the teen had done before, he couldn't discount some tear in space-time as a factor.
"You're pretty good," Murasame said as if reading Alucard's thoughts. "But you and I both already knew that, heh." Nothing further could be said, however, as Jonathan leapt into the fray as well, the Vampire Killer blazing as he swung it. Murasame and Alucard jumped apart to avoid the attack, but Jonathan spun around, swinging the whip over Alucard's head and down towards Murasame's chest.
The teen parried the blow, but the whip wrapped around his sword; a deadly situation for him. Thinking quickly, Murasame drew a wall of ink between himself and the others and began to slide his sword free. As he did that, he thrust the brush forward, drawing another ink line directly towards Jonathan.
The hunter's view was blocked by the first batch of ink, however, giving him no time to react the second as it hit him solidly in the chest, knocking him backwards. He kept his hold on the Vampire Killer, but Murasame managed to slide it off of his weapon so the hunter stumbled and fell to the side.
"Jonathan...!" Charlotte shouted worriedly from the sidelines, seemingly unable to decide whether to intercede.
Alucard again cut his way through the ink wall and engaged Murasame, catching the teen off-balance from Jonathan's earlier attack. The dhampir's first slash cut well, but Murasame stayed steady, parrying the follow-up attack and countering himself. Alucard simply turned to mist for a moment to dodge before continuing, keeping Murasame on the defensive.
The teen locked his blade with Alucard's, but the dhampir was stronger, shoving the teen backwards before knocking his weapon aside using the flat of his shield. Murasame stumbled backwards, blood staining his clothes, but gave a strained smile.
"Well...that didn't...work out."
Alucard stayed where he stood, not replying but keeping his weapons at the ready. Murasame, however, tossed his sword, sheath and all, at the dhampir's feet.
A voice interrupted anything Alucard would reply with. "Rgh! Murasame, where are you!"
The dhampir turned to see Soma running towards them from around the school, not looking very happy. He turned back to see also that Murasame had inexplicably disappeared.
"I thought he'd be here with..." Soma looked around, his anger fading into confusion. "What happened to Shanoa?" He scanned the area, seeing the remains of the battle. "It looks like you got into a fight with Brauner."
Alucard closed his eyes as he put away his weapons, not really wanting to explain what Soma had missed. "He and I were fighting," he said simply. "It seems he used your appearance to make his escape."
"What? Really? Were you winning? I need to pay him back for–"
"That's not important," Alucard replied, cutting Soma off. "We need to find a way to leave." He turned to Jonathan, who was being healed by Charlotte. The hunter looked well enough.
"What happened?" A familiar calm voice asked from the dhampir's side.
"...Shanoa?" Alucard started, wondering why the woman was here now.
"Murasame came to the coffee shop, injured. He told me you needed assistance, and that he was going to the hospital," was her reply.
Soma looked to Alucard. "Hey, I thought you were–"
"Yes," Alucard said to the teen, cutting him off before looking back to Shanoa. "His injuries were dealt by Jonathan and me."
"But why?" Shanoa asked, confused.
"I don't what his plan is now, but he did admit he had just been manipulating us and attacked Jonathan. We fought, and when the tide turned against him, he fled," the dhampir said.
"...I see. I apologize."
Alucard looked at her questioningly.
"For not stopping him," she elaborated.
Alucard shook his head. "There was no way you could have known."
"Hmph." Soma crossed his arms. "Well this is annoying. I'm going to go to that hospital, then." With that, the teen began walking towards the school gates.
"Wait, Soma," Alucard called. "We don't know where it is."
"I can find it just running around," Soma said back dismissively.
"You can't use your powers in public like that," Alucard stepped up behind him. "Don't be foolish."
"Well then what do we do? Buy a map? Ask for directions?"
"The latter," the dhampir replied, walking past the surprised teen. "Follow me."
Alucard stepped out of the coffee shop to where the others were waiting.
"How did it go?" Jonathan said, asking the obvious question.
"I have the location." Alucard turned down the street. "Once we get there, I'll speak to Murasame alone."
"What?" Soma complained. "No way! I said before I was going to–"
"It would look too suspicious," was the dhampir's simple reply.
"Yeah, well, we aren't sticking around here anyway..." the teen mumbled to himself. "I don't know why you care..."
Alucard immediately stepped up to the receptionist's desk as the group entered the hospital. He gestured for the rest of the group to sit down in the waiting area while he figured out the details.
Soma put his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair, looking like he was going to try to go to sleep as the others waited patiently.
"I'm sorry..." Charlotte suddenly said quietly, sort of at Jonathan.
"Huh?" The hunter blinked.
"I'm sorry about before..." she said again, slightly louder and actually directed at Jonathan this time.
Jonathan looked at her and smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it."
Charlotte didn't meet his gaze. "I just don't want you to..." She paused, seemingly unsure of what she wanted to say.
"Huh?" Jonathan raised one of his eyebrows. "What are you talking about...?"
There was a short period of awkward silence as Charlotte didn't respond. She was saved, at least temporarily, however, when Alucard beckoned the group to follow him down one of the hospital hallways.
He responded to the curious looks before any actual questions could be asked. "It seems he is expecting us."
"But why...?" Shanoa wondered quietly aloud. This, of course, was the question everyone was wondering and none had the answer to. The room were Murasame was staying was in the far corner of the hospital, which meant it was larger than most of the patient rooms and gave a good view of the cityscape.
"Hey, you all came to see me," Murasame said, sounding a bit too cheerful considering his position.
"Would you please explain what is going on?" Alucard asked, carefully keeping his voice even. Surprisingly, however, the teen nodded.
"I can see the ending now." He glanced out the windows for a moment. "But it's not really something you care about, I don't think." He looked back to Alucard and the others. "In any case, you helped me so I'll send you back to your respective timelines." He got a few odd looks for this.
Alucard, on the other hand, gave him an unreadable look that nevertheless was readable as saying 'You didn't explain anything.' "Why did you fight with me earlier?"
"I had to say the lines!" Murasame replied, sounding insistent. "The reference was just begging to be made." He smirked. "And that's really all."
"What?" Jonathan asked, confused. "You attacked me because of that?"
Murasame shook his head. "That was something else entirely. That was for my capture of Charlotte."
"H-Hey, I'm right here, you know!" said mage complained.
Murasame smiled. "And as pretty as ever, too."
Charlotte blushed despite herself.
"Why did you have us set up those...events for you, if you weren't going to use them?" Shanoa asked.
"They were useful in their own ways," Murasame replied. "Some were for Plan B or C, though."
"...But you aren't going to explain them." Alucard asked, though it was equally between a question and a statement.
"Nah, that would be most unkind!" Murasame said with a smirk.
He began a surprisingly detailed explanation of a few of the plans he'd made; the coffee shop was meant to either be a 'standard' date spot or used as an invite point so he could start another event there. Specifically, he said, he'd planned to have Jonathan beat him up so he could look like he'd been mugged (or something) and do some sort of silly pity play for affection, which he was adamant would be very effective. "To be honest, I utterly forgot what my plan at the theatre was. Good thing it didn't come down to that, heh."
He went on to mention how he'd incapacitated Shiori, the girl from before, as part of some plan to have Charlotte come into class with him and take one of the school's term tests with him. According to him, their hairstyles and outfits were "not that different" and that he "doubted anyone would notice."
"But I stupidly underestimated Arikado's skill with the sword, here." Murasame shook his head. "Unfortunately for me, while fanon tends to make him quite godly in terms of fighting, even in straight canon he's one of the best. Better than Raizze and myself, for sure." He looked back to the group. "Now. I should probably see you off before Ayako gets here." He tilted his head sideways and frowned. "Where's Soma?"
The others turned to see that the white-coated teen was, in fact, missing. Alucard sighed.
"Right then," Murasame said, taking a deliberate breath. "Alucard, Shanoa, go and drag His divine self back here."
This left Jonathan and Charlotte awkwardly alone with Murasame, who slid off of his hospital bed and got carefully to his feet. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, presumably focusing.
"Just for the record, I'd like to note that while I was seriously trying to get your ending, Char, I still totally ship JonathanxCharlotte." There was an almost audible pause as the two blushed a crimson red and Murasame raised a hand. "Showtime."
He snapped, there was a flash, and the two were gone. Rather anticlimactic.
Conveniently, the remaining three members of the group entered the room almost immediately after that.
"What happened to Jonathan and Charlotte?" Shanoa asked.
"Probably collecting cakes or something," Murasame commented offhandedly. "Shanoa, are you ready?"
She glanced to Alucard for a moment, who stepped backwards with Soma.
"You know, you–" Soma started to address Murasame, but was somehow cut off by Shanoa.
"Yes," she affirmed, nodding.
"It was an honor, my lady." He snapped again, and Shanoa vanished in a flash of light.
"What? That's it?" Soma said, sounding annoyed. Apparently the flashy light had distracted him from whatever he was going to talk about before.
"Okay..." Murasame began, looking to Alucard and Soma. "You're the last."
Alucard nodded, not particularly interested in whatever Soma had to say.
"Feels a bit weird to say this, but–" He shrugged. "Farewell. May you walk with Keima's Grace and fight with Soma's Strength." The teen chuckled slightly and snapped again.
He let out a long sigh of relief. "Whew..."
"This concludes our business, I think," a familiar calm voice said from behind him.
Murasame didn't turn. "You know, I'm still waiting for a Castlevania dating sim."
"I would not count on it."
Konami made Tokimeki Memorial! A Castlevania dating sim isn't unreasonable!
So everyone is back where they belong! ...Which raises the question, what happens to the story now? SPOILERS: Murasame screwed up and unnamed other character that has been seen before didn't catch it either.