Disclaimer: I haven't played PoR and I only picked Jonathan/Charlotte because it was convenient.
Someone in the last chapter pointed out that Mina and Hammer couldn't have gotten to the Chapel because they didn't have the Flying Armor soul. I forgot about that. Maybe they made a parachute? Rope bridge?
In Cyborg 009, the 004 cyborg, Albert Heinrich, had a fiancé named Hilda, so Hilda's surname is Heinrich.
I started this as chapter 19, before I got enough reviews saying that they didn't like the influx of new characters. This one introduces five of them, so this one became chapter 20.
This is not the chapter where Soma gets Dracula's powers. That one comes later.
Dracula (the book, not the person)
Soma really wasn't sure how long he could resist telling the people in front of him how ironic the whole situation was.
"My ancestor guided yours," said Rita Van Helsing, who was a sophomore in high school. "He knew everything about vampires. I should lead this time."
"Yes, but it was Mina Harker who fought off Dracula and guided them straight to him," said Matthew Harker, Tatsuya and Jun's roommate. "And Jonathan was the only one Dracula introduced himself to."
"My ancestor was corrupted by Dracula, and I must restore my family's honor!" shouted Stacey Wren, who was in her last year of high school and a descendant of Renfield on her mother's side.
"My ancestor was the first to actually stake a vampire," said Natsumi Holmwood, who was a high school junior.
"My ancestor actually killed Dracula!" shouted Peter Morris, who had just stared middle school.
"Um, well… I'm the most useful person here!" said Martin Seward, who was in his second year of college like Matthew but went to another school in America. "All right, I'm not. But since my ancestor didn't do as much, I should be leader so that I can honor him."
"If we're going off of that, then I should be leader because my ancestor did even less than yours," said Natsumi Holmwood.
Soma made a note to ask exactly how famous the Belmonts and Belnades were in the monster hunting community. Leon made it seem like they were well known, but of course he would say that of his descendants. Julius did say that Richter brought the family into hiding and none of the Belmonts had done much of note between him and Richter (other than a minor scandal involving Richter's grandson, ten buckets of machine lubricant, and a petticoat factory, as well as an entry in 'Top 100 Stupidest Bets of the 20th Century', featuring Lara Belmont, an ordinary bullwhip, a copy of Indiana Jones and the Raider of the Lost Ark, and every chandelier in a certain opera house in Paris), but two hundred years wouldn't be enough to erase them from the records. Yoko said that the Belnades were better known as being powerful magic users than for killing Dracula.
Soma sighed. He had been kidnapped before by people who hated Dracula, but never dragged into one of their meetings.
"Since Soma's not arguing, let's make him the leader," said Rita Van Helsing out of the blue. If she couldn't be leader, then at least she could make someone else be leader.
"What?" said Soma.
"Let's put it to a vote," Rita continued. "You have to vote for someone other than yourself."
Soma voted for Rita, but he won. "But I don't want to be leader!" protested Soma.
"That's the best kind of leader," said Natsumi Holmwood.
"I don't even know what's going on," Soma added. "I barely even know who you are."
"I'm glad you asked," said Stacey Wren, standing up dramatically. "We're the Shadow Knights."
"No, we're the New Crusaders," said Rita Van Helsing.
"We're still fighting over a name," said Matthew Harker. "We kind of call ourselves the Team."
"That tells me nothing," said Soma. Actually, it did. Knowing that they didn't have a real name and that these kids could have a say in choosing one told him that they weren't part of a large organization like the Agency.
"Basically, we're a group of friends who went to the same school and fought off threats to our town," said Rita. "We all have some power that helps us fight."
"You know that I know magic," said Matthew Harker, levitating a book.
"I can make animals do my bidding," said Stacey Wren, making a mouse that Soma didn't notice do a backflip. She glared at Soma as if to dare him to mock her.
"That's actually a really useful power, and I'm not just saying that," said Soma, who was in fact sincere. After all, he did throw cats, crows, and bats at people.
"I'm very good with technology," said Martin Seward. "Don't laugh! I made a laser cannon!"
"I wasn't laughing," said Soma.
"I'm a ninja," said Natsumi Holmwood.
"Is it a good idea to tell me that?" asked Soma.
Natsumi shrugged. "I might be lying."
"I'm a sword wizard!" said Peter Morris. "My grandparents had this room full of weapons and spellbooks, and I taught myself how to fight!"
"And your grandparents let you use them?" asked Soma, eyeing the sword he was waving around. It was about the same quality as the weapons he had in his coat. Soma wondered where he got it from.
"Um… no, but they'd be happy to know that I'd be fighting monsters and protecting people!" said Peter. "And they'd be happy to know that I'll be safe because I have such strong weapons!" He opened up a book, and a bunch of maces came out.
"I don't have any powers, but I know everything about monsters," said Rita Van Helsing.
"Everything?" said Soma, raising an eyebrow.
"All right, absolutely everything would be ridiculous," said Rita. "But I know a lot about monsters."
Soma nodded. "So how did you find out about Dracula being here?"
"Rumors fly around," said Matthew Harker. "You won't believe the stuff people talk about. There was a cult in the basement of this apartment building. They were arrested for killing these girls, but when the cops caught them, they laughed and said they were too late. Their master was already resurrected."
Soma realized that his English pronunciation was horrible, and that he left in a real hurry on the night he was kidnapped by cultists in Julius's apartment. When he announced that he was not Dracula, it was a very crowded and loud room, so they might have misheard him as saying, "I am Dracula" instead of "I am not Dracula."
"Matthew asked me to do more research, and I found all this stuff on the internet," said Martin Seward. "You'd be surprised about what you can find on the internet. Turns out the tsuchinoko was discovered in the 1960's in Russia, but they couldn't tell the world because the guy who discovered it was on a secret mission."
Soma almost regretted that he couldn't prove the existence of the tsuchinoko without revealing that he found it in a castle made from dark magic inside a solar eclipse.
He stood up. "Matthew, I'm sorry, but if all you have is rumors and possibly photoshopped images on the internet, I can't waste my time with you. I thought you had more proof, but I can't go gallivanting with you after someone who might not exist. I have exams, too."
When Peter Morris and Rita Van Helsing protested, Matthew Harker said, "I understand. I can't force you to help us."
"Then why did you come?" asked Rita sharply.
"Well, last night…"
X
The evening earlier, Soma was jumping from rooftop to rooftop so that he could dodge the traffic coming back to the dorm from Julius's place. After dealing with the whole vampire thing, he didn't want to take his chances with dark alleyways. Soma didn't want to deal with rush hour foot traffic either, so he told Julius that he would fly home, but Julius vetoed that. "Trust me, people will notice," Julius had said. "An albino bat flying around the city would get every nature enthusiast out at night with video cameras. You can do it once or twice, but not every time."
"So can I jump from rooftop to rooftop?" asked Soma.
"That works," said Julius. "Parkour exists. Just don't double jump. I once had this guy follow me everywhere shouting 'TEACH ME YOUR SECRETS, MASTER!' at the top of his voice after he saw me climb a fire escape that way."
So then Soma climbed the stairs to the top floor of Julius's apartment and then hopped over to the next rooftop. Soma had pulled off harder runs in Castlevania, not even factoring the evil skeletons or lack thereof, but now that he was in the city he could appreciate how ridiculously agile he was. Never once did he slip or stumble, not even in the reservoirs. He could crouch on ledges without overbalancing. Even if he fell, he survived jumping from the top of a tower without hurting himself. Most people would be jealous of how high or far he could jump. It reminded him of when he had to take gym class. He always thought that no one else was trying when they did long jumps. He wasn't interested in gymnastics, but he probably could have won tournaments if he had joined a team.
Soma was wondering how every single person in Castlevania was athletic enough to get through the castle at all when he crashed into a guy on a broomstick in midair.
They managed to land on a well lit rooftop, Soma breaking the other person's fall. The guy yelled what were probably English or French curse words at Soma (he wasn't very good with any language except for Spanish, Japanese, Latin, and Romanian. Actually, Soma was a pretty good polyglot). When he looked up and saw Soma, he said something else that was probably a curse word and tried to hide his face. "You didn't see anything!" he said in bad Japanese.
"Yes, I did," said Soma. "Are you a witch? I've never met a male witch."
"No!" said the guy, edging towards the edge of the roof.
"It's fine," said Soma, raising his hands. "I know magic, too." He made a cat appear from nothing.
The guy stopped covering his face and stared at the cat. "Who are you?" Now that he wasn't afraid that someone might find his secret, his Japanese was much better. "How did you do that?"
"I'm just a guy with magic powers," said Soma. After Chihiro attacked him for being a vampire, Soma realized that telling people about the dark nature of his powers might get him targeted before he could explain. "I don't mean any harm."
"I'm Matthew," said the guy. "Matthew Harker."
"Aren't you Tatsuya and Jun's roommate?" asked Soma. A name like Harker stuck in his memory. "You're the American transfer student. I'm Soma Cruz, the Spanish transfer student."
"Yeah, you're the guy who bet that you could hold your breath longer than Michelle," said Matthew. Soma got a good look at the broom he was holding. It was a sturdy looking old fashioned one that his grandmother might use, with the addition of a stiff looking couch cushion duct taped to the center and a bunch of bungee cords strapped on. Matthew turned the broom over so that it was parallel to the ground and let go. It hovered in midair, and Matthew straddled it by sitting on the cushion and grabbing the broom with his knees. He then secured himself with the cords. "Fine. I'm a witch. Or warlock."
"Interesting," said Soma. "I've never met a witch that could ride a broomstick."
Matthew turned red. "I might not be a real witch, just someone with magic. I got it from one of my ancestors. Have you ever read the book Dracula? It's true. All of it is true."
Soma had read it for reference after going through Castlevania. Yoko told him that Stoker was commissioned to record the events of the story. When Stoker realized that it would be a very interesting novel, the people involved allowed him to publish it, on the condition that Stoker had to change a lot of it. Everyone involved received a copy of the original, but apparently, Matthew didn't read that version.
To protect the Belmonts and their relatives, Stoker cut mentions of John Morris, Eric Lecarde, the Vampire Killer, the fact that Quincey was a widower who was nervous that Lucy might not like his young son John, as well as the fact that he used the Vampire Killer alongside his knife. This was impossible without cutting out all of Quincey Morris's entries.
Jonathan Harker also asked Stoker to not tell about how he managed to escape Castlevania because he thought that no one would believe that someone could escape with just a cross that a villager gave him that turned into a boomerang. When Soma asked how the untrained Jonathan Harker could escape from Castlevania when Dracula didn't want him to escape, Yoko said that Jonathan Harker bypassed most of the traps by wall climbing, and that unlike the Belmonts, Jonathan was free to roam a good part of the castle without monsters attacking him for over a month before he escaped. Not only did this mean that he had a fairly accurate mental map of the place, this also meant that he was free to explore the Keep.
And, of course, the Keep was where all the best weapons were kept. Jonathan managed to evade all the strong monsters, and all the weak monsters didn't stand a chance against Isaac's magical anachronistic laser cannon. [1]
Soma had thought that Renfield must have had some sort of relationship with Dracula or the Belmonts that was cut to protect them, but Yoko said that no one actually knew what was going on with him or why Dracula chose to enslave him. Their best guess was that Renfield was another solicitor like Jonathan, and Jonathan would have ended up mad like him had he not escaped.
When Soma asked about how garlic flowers apparently repelled Dracula, Yoko said that garlic was only sometimes effective against certain types of undead, but it wasn't well known that garlic plants grown with Holy Water were extremely effective against almost all creatures of the night. That was why Van Helsing had to import the garlic instead of just going to the market. However, Dracula's power was so great that holy garlic simply vanished in his presence. Stoker thought that was ridiculous, so he added that Lucy's mother removed the garlic from the room when Van Helsing had in fact told her that the garlic was for her health beforehand. Stoker also cut out the part where Castlevania collapsed upon Dracula's death, because he didn't think that anyone would believe him. [2]
Otherwise, it was pretty much the same. Soma privately wondered if Dracula really did cook all of Jonathan's meals or if he just made it appear from nowhere. The vision of Dracula in his black opera cape making Jonathan an omelette made Soma giggle a bit. The vision of Dracula in a maid outfit making Jonathan pot roast made him unable to breathe.
"Yeah, I read it," said Soma very seriously. "Cover to cover."
Matthew sighed. "Good, I don't have to explain that Hollywood got the book wrong. Tons of people think they know the book just by watching the movies. I'm descended from Jonathan and Mina Harker. As you know, Mina Harker was kind of turned into a vampire but not really. And since you read the book, you know that she wasn't in love with Dracula."
In reality, none of Soma's friends had any idea what had happened with Mina Harker (it was weird using the name of his friend for a total stranger. That was probably how the people of Sumaru City felt). It was pretty apparent that she was in the process of being turned into a vampire but never fully became one, but no one was sure if killing Dracula released the curse or if someone just knew the Sanctuary spell [3]. That was all right and no one particularly cared which one was true. The real puzzle was the whole mind link. The others thought that it had something to do with Dominance, since Arikado told Soma that turning someone into a vampire was like killing them and leaving their soul ripe for picking, but Soma said that he could only Dominate something once it was dead and you can't just halfway take someone's soul. They figured that holding half of someone's soul to track them down was just a Dracula thing and solved the problem by carefully ignoring it. "I never really got that part," said Soma truthfully. "She drank Dracula's blood, right?"
"Yeah… so this didn't make it into the book, but she and some of her kids had these strange powers," said Matthew. "They're not always the same kind of powers, and they're not quite what you would call standard vampire powers. All of the descendants have a small chance of getting those powers, and it's never guaranteed if you're going to get them or not. They manifest on the sixteenth birthday. My father didn't have them, but my grandfather and my cousin Madeline had them. We're not supposed to be told until we get them, but Grandad lives in Albuquerque and Madeline lives in Ottawa, so I was on my own for the longest time. I thought I was a witch when I woke up as a black cat one day. Madeline was lucky when Grandad happened to visit on her 16th birthday."
Soma had never heard of former vampires having powers (Stella and Loretta had turned out completely normal, but given that they were already magical they might have chalked any strangeness to that), but he figured that it was just another 'Dracula Thing'. Besides, the Harkers would be afraid to tell Stoker about their powers in fear of staking. "So why do you have a broom?"
"I thought I was a witch, so I tried riding brooms, and it somehow worked," said Matthew. "I'm not sure if they're just an emotional crutch or if I really do need them, though. Vampires can fly without them, right?"
"How should I know?" said Soma. As far as he knew, vampires couldn't fly without transforming.
"Not sure why I can make fireballs appear, though," said Matthew. "Usually they come in threes, but sometimes five come out. Normally, my powers can do lots of things, but they almost never do what I want them to do. But fireballs, broom flying, and turning into a cat are easy."
Matthew gave Soma a good look. "You're a magic user too, aren't you? What can you do?"
Soma's hands filled with knives using the Evil Butcher soul. "I can make things appear from nothing," he said, trying to look cool without showing how hard it was to keep several knives between your fingers. "I can only make a few types of things, though. Cats, cream pies, curry, and some other stuff."
"And how did you get that power?" asked Matthew. "Got it from your parents? Met someone who gave you a lucky charm? Chosen One? Actually an orphan descended from an ancient race of wizards?"
"It turned up one day, actually," said Soma. "I was being attacked by monsters, and then suddenly I could make spears appear." This wasn't a lie, Soma told himself. He just didn't tell him that he stabbed a flying skeleton to death with a pocketknife and then devoured its soul in between.
Matthew looked up and down at Soma. "Hey… my friends and I really need your help. You see, we want to take down Dracula."
X
"I couldn't just leave you when you said that," said Soma. "I thought you had his location and everything pinpointed and you just needed extra muscle."
"Coward," said Peter Morris.
"Do you just say that whenever someone disagrees with you?" asked Soma. "I'm not saying that I wouldn't be willing to fight. I just don't have the time to go searching with you." He paused. "How do you have the time?"
"I do my homework as soon as I get it," said Matthew.
"Winter break," everyone else said in unison. "You might not get it in Japan," added Rita Van Helsing. "It's because we have Chris-"
"Yes, I know what winter break is," said Soma. "I lived in Spain for half my life. My surname is Cruz. That's Cruz with a z; I'm not related to Tom Cruise." And before any of them could say the next words, he said, "And don't tell me, 'Oh, your Japanese is so good!'"
"I was actually going to ask you how good my Spanish was," said Rita.
"Ask me later," said Soma. Then he looked at the group in front of him. Matthew would know Japanese from living in Japan, and he was sure that American schools taught Japanese. But he doubted that everyone in this group would have the same level of fluency, especially the middle school aged Peter. "How are you all speaking such good Japanese, anyways?"
"Translation spell, coupled with a bit of telepathy," said Matthew. "As long as it's a language or word I know, it gets translated to people in my general vicinity."
Soma accepted this. He couldn't go and say that it was ridiculous, since he knew modern and ancient Romanian (if Romanian was indeed the name of the language from back then) from his past life as a vampiric overlord/tactician. "All right then. If I have a lead, I'll drop a note off at your dorm," he said. "Bye now."
X
"The book actually happened?" said Mina over a bowl of ramen. Earlier, Soma had texted everyone about these kids, the fact that they were the descendants of the characters from Dracula, and that they were hunting him in case they accidentally let slip that he was Dracula. Daisuke had wondered how he got his number. Mina had asked to discuss it in person.
"Julius told me that," said Soma, slurping his bowl. "It's not all true, just the basic plot. You can ask him for more details. Have you read the book?"
"I picked it up after we were trapped in Castlevania, but I figured after the first chapters that it wasn't true," said Mina. "I couldn't believe that it was the same castle. Where were the zombies and the killer mermen?"
"Did you see the movies?" asked Soma, worrying a bit.
"Just the parodies," said Mina. Soma tensed again. "But after seeing the castle, I'm taking those with a grain of salt, too."
Soma explained as best he could the basic plot of Dracula. "So there's a solicitor named Jonathan Harker, who goes to Dracula's castle because Dracula is moving to England for some reason and needs a solicitor. I don't know what a solicitor does, but apparently you need one if you want to move to England. Jonathan is married to a woman named Mina, who is best friends with a girl named Lucy. Three different men propose to Lucy on the same day: Doctor John Seward, Quincey Morris of the Morris branch of the Belmonts and the then wielder of the Vampire Killer, and Arthur Holmwood. She gets engaged to Arthur. Also, Doctor Seward is the head of an asylum which contains Renfield, a man who was somehow enslaved by Dracula. I don't know how Dracula did it in real life. Doctor Seward was once the apprentice of another doctor named Abraham Van Helsing."
"Isn't there a manga called Hellsing?" asked Mina. "And I've heard of Van Helsing before."
"Yes, Van Helsing is probably the second most famous person, after Dracula," said Soma. "He's the second most famous vampire hunter with the first name of Abraham. Even though the other one was more famous for his work outside of vampire hunting."
"Who's first?" asked Mina.
"Abraham Lincoln," said Soma. "All right, so Dracula holds Jonathan prisoner but Jonathan escapes. So then Lucy becomes engaged to Arthur, and still remains good friends with Quincey and Dr. Seward. The book doesn't mention that Quincey's two year old son John was there most of the time and that Quincey was a widower, because the Morris family requested safety in secrecy while still taking credit."
"That seems counterintuitive," said Mina.
"I don't know why they didn't just strike Quincey out of the book," said Soma. "They already cut out all of his good parts. Leon said that Quincey was absent for stretches of the book because he was busy killing and angsting about killing child vampires. The Lecarde family was happy to have Eric struck from the book."
"Who is Eric?" asked Mina.
"He's a member of the Lecarde family, who are descendants of the Belmonts," said Soma. "During WW1, he and John went on another quest that resulted in them killing Dracula."
"Did Eric do much during the book?" asked Mina.
"Not really," said Soma. "He was five at the time. Eric's parents had to go do a job somewhere and left him with Quincey. I guess it was really easy to just exclude him." He took a deep breath. "Anyways, Dracula moves into England, and Lucy is his first victim. Only Jonathan has actually met him at that point, and he never formally introduces himself to anyone else. He keeps coming back to bite Lucy for more blood, and she falls ill. Mina Harker takes care of her. Dr. Seward worries about her, and he calls in Van Helsing to look at her. Van Helsing suspects that she's being attacked by a vampire but keeps that to himself, so he tells her that covering her room in garlic will help her (it has to be garlic grown with Holy Water) and gets the three suitors to give her blood. She dies and comes back as a vampire. By the way, this is before blood clotting was known as a problem, so it's theorized that Lucy died because she received blood from three different men without testing for compatibility. It makes a bit more sense than Dracula coming back for the same person over and over when there's an entire town full of people."
"If I were a vampiric overlord and I had the power to turn people into undead slaves, I'd try to turn as many people as possible," said Mina. "But then again, too many vampires would destroy the human population, leaving the vampires to starve."
"Actually, that's a good point," said Soma. "I did think that Dracula would want more souls, but blood would be the priority. So Lucy dies and comes back as a vampire that attacks small children. The book just has her drink from them and they're all right before there's any lasting damage, but she really did turn them into vampires and Quincey hung around so that he could take care of them (the book says that Quincey was with Arthur, who moved back home because he was so upset about Lucy's death). The book just has Van Helsing suspect that Lucy is the one who's attacking the kids and confirms it when he enters her tomb, but they really found out when when she tried to bite John when he was playing with Eric. Eric recognized and fended her off long enough to save John (he was five, but Lucy had just become a vampire and was afraid of any new pain), and then told Quincey. So then Van Helsing finally tells them that Lucy is a vampire and gets Arthur to stake her. And cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic."
"And tear off her ears?" asked Mina.
"Ah, I saw that movie, too," said Soma. "It was hilarious. Quincey actually had a fight with Van Helsing over whether to stake her and cut her head off or just whip her repeatedly."
"I mean, Dracula kept coming back," said Mina. "How many times was he whipped with the Vampire Killer, and it took over five hundred years for it to take?"
"Let's see, Trevor was once, Christopher and Simon got two turns each, then Richter, and Quincey, John, and Jonathan, and now Julius, so ten times?" said Soma. "Juste doesn't count, since he only killed a shade. Then again, Dracula is a soul stealing abomination with Death on his side. Most vampires aren't like that."
"So what did they do in the end?" asked Mina.
"They had Arthur stake her, and Quincey stood next to him in case she jumped at him, since it's really hard to whip someone who is lying inside a coffin," said Soma. "Quincey had his fun the night before, anyways. Van Helsing tried to repel Lucy with a cross, but it didn't work. Quincey grabbed it out of his hands and threw it at her. Apparently, Van Helsing was livid."
"How did Van Helsing feel about being upstaged by Quincey?" asked Mina.
"Van Helsing was pretty important, actually," said Soma. "He was the one who diagnosed Lucy, tried to treat her, and had the initiative to stake her. Quincey knew about Dracula from stories, but he had no idea that Dracula was in England for a while. You see, Jonathan was very shell shocked after coming back from Romania, so he didn't get much of a chance to tell anyone. Mina—not you, Mina Harker—translated his diary from shorthand, and then gave it to Van Helsing so that he could help him recover from his nerves. In the novel, Van Helsing deduced from the journal that Dracula was a vampire, but in reality Quincey heard Mina—Harker mention the name Dracula and pressed her for more information. He knew about Dracula from his grandmother, who was Richter's niece."
"That sounds very anticlimactic," said Mina.
"But it does explain a bit," said Soma. "The book just has Van Helsing speculate that Dracula is probably Vlad the Impaler going by his name without any real evidence. Knowing that Quincey knew about him from his family makes more sense. Although I don't know how the Belmonts thought that Dracula was Vlad the Impaler in the first place."
"Where's Renfield in all this?"
"He was in the asylum, just hanging around," said Soma. "I didn't really get what was happening with Renfield, other than that Dracula was controlling him against his will and that it took three quarters of the book for them to figure it out. Renfield isn't his real name. Yoko said that Renfield is the only person in the book who had his name changed (except for Dracula being Mathias Cronqvist, but they had no way of knowing that). Stoker was worried that Renfield's kids would be upset to have their father immortalized as a madman. Even if in the end he attacked Dracula when he was trying to drink from Mina Harker."
Mina opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. "I would say that it is a good moment of redemption, but since now we associate Renfield with 'imbecile insane slave', I'd say it's a good thing that it's changed. How did he control Renfield?"
"I have no idea," said Soma. "Everyone thinks that he used hypnosis, but if Dracula had that power, then one of us would have heard about it. They'd mention precautions. Even if they wouldn't tell me because then Dracula can access my memories, they'd tell you because you're with me a lot."
"Sure," said Mina. "What happened next?"
"Dracula drank Mina—Harkers's blood and then forced her to drink his, which somehow made it so that she would become under his control eventually, and she would turn into a vampire then," said Soma. "We really don't know how he did it. It just happened."
"Probably has something to do with Dominance," said Mina.
"That just brings up more questions," said Soma. "I can only take the souls of things once they're dead. Arikado said that it's possible to take the souls of vampirized humans, but I don't know how Dracula could have taken Mina's soul without killing her, and if he did how she managed to keep her own will without her soul. And you can't just take a part of a soul."
"What about Leon?" asked Mina. "A witch split his soul."
"That might be it," said Soma. "Anyways, the hunters ran around looking for places where Dracula might be by destroying his lairs. They previously established that Dracula can only sleep on earth from his native land and he imported boxes of soil and spread them across England as sleeping places, but he actually called up monsters and they put them down. And then they chased him to Romania and killed a bunch of monsters. Stoker cut out most of the fights because they were basically just Quincey killing them or the others using the prototype squirt gun full of Holy Water."
"Did they bring along John and Eric?" asked Mina.
"They had to, unfortunately," said Soma. "They had to hurry, and they didn't trust anyone with the kids, so they brought them along. Quincey left them with the Belmonts when they got to Romania."
"So they knew where the Belmonts live?" asked Mina.
"No, Quincey went alone," said Soma. "He took the secret to his grave. Quincey killed Dracula with a knife (he actually used the Vampire Killer and a throwing knife) but died shortly afterwards from the battle. That's the end of the story."
Mina whistled. "You have a really good memory."
"Oh, and the Harkers had a son named Quincey a year later, and he wasn't Dracula's son because he was born over nine months after his death," said Soma. "That's the end of the book."
"What happened to John and Eric?" asked Mina.
"The group spent a long time in the area looking for the Belmont family, but they couldn't find anything because they were so well hidden," said Soma. "They eventually gave up and returned home. The kids were all right. One of the Belmonts brought John and Eric back to their homes, which the group didn't find out until they went to America to break the news to his family."
"And now the descendants of those characters are looking for Dracula's reincarnation?" asked Mina.
"They think he was resurrected, actually," said Soma. "I don't know how they plan on finding me."
"And what are you going to do about this?" asked Mina. "Are you going to come clean?"
"Why would I do that?" asked Soma.
"Because if you don't, then if they find out, they'll assume that you deceived them by not telling them," said Mina. "If you don't tell them, you can't control what they know about you. Any protests will but cut down with accusations that you might not be able to counter."
"Ah," said Soma, waving his chopsticks. "That's the thing. They don't have to know. If they're led on a wild goose chase, they'll give up."
"You haven't done a very good job of hiding," said Mina. "How many cults have tracked you down?"
"Lost count," said Soma without thinking. "Mina, I… I don't know how I can break it to them. And I don't know how they'll react. We've already had an entire meeting where I didn't say anything. If I came and told them now, they'll think that I set up an ambush and attack me."
Mina nodded uncertainly. "I'm sure that if you tell them, they'll understand."
Soma nodded, not really agreeing but unwilling to argue. "Maybe we should find someone else to talk to."
So they decided to go to Julius's place. "Does Julius even have a job?" Mina wondered on the way there. "He's never doing anything when we go to his apartment."
"Yes, he's a vampire hunter," said Soma. "But yeah, I don't remember him ever doing any work outside beating me up and running around in Celia's castle."
"Julius isn't a layabout," said Leon firmly.
"I never said that," said Soma.
"Never said what?" asked Mina.
"I said that," said Leon.
Soma did a double take. Leon was floating right next to him. A lifetime of not fitting in as the intimidating half-Japanese half-Spanish kid with white hair and a cold attitude made Soma not care about being seen as strange in public. "Leon!? What are you doing here!?"
"I get bored sometimes," said Leon. "I love Julius, but I can't spend every moment with him. And no one likes to know that someone is invisibly watching them at all times. I wander around and watch people."
"Hello, Leon," said Mina, facing where Soma was facing.
"Hello, Mina," said Leon, and Soma relayed that.
"How long have you been standing there?" asked Soma warily.
"Since you ordered your ramen," said Leon. Soma relayed that to Mina.
"Why didn't you say anything?" asked Soma.
"Who am I to interrupt a romantic outing?" retorted Leon. "I remember taking long walks in the woods with Sara. And deliberately getting lost so we could spend time with each other. And then we spent over a week in the woods because we somehow wandered into…"
Soma cleared his throat and told Mina that he just didn't hear Leon over the chatter in the shop. "Anyways, what do you think about these kids? Should I come clean, or let them guess?"
Leon sighed. "I can't say which one is better. Not everyone is going to react the same way. If I were in their shoes and you told me that you were Dracula's reincarnation, I would suspect that you really are up to something. I wouldn't attack you right away, but I would spy on you until I found proof of your wrongdoings."
"Not to mention that they would waste a trip to Japan if it turned out that nothing was wrong," Mina added after Soma relayed Leon's words.
"But I haven't done anything wrong," said Soma. "Besides, well, blowing up people's drinks. But that doesn't count. I can just wait until they have to go back."
"No, you can't," said Mina. "Matthew lives in your dorm. If he finds anything suspicious about you, then he'll call the others over."
"I've went a year without anyone finding out that I'm Dracula," said Soma. "Cults don't count."
"Yes, but that was a year you went without telling anyone about your powers," said Mina. "It's different if they already know about them. They'll ask how you got them, and if you say you don't know, they'll try to experiment and find out."
"I think that it's just you who's like that," said Soma.
"Not to mention that Matthew will rub shoulders with people who know that you're Dracula, and they're liable to slip up," said Mina. "Remember how we have 'weirdest experience' contests in the SSS? Ginko and her friends are winning, but someone's bound to mention the soul eating reincarnation of Count Dracula."
"Or I would suspect you until I found the culprit behind whatever case was going on," said Leon.
"Wait, what?" said Soma.
"What did he say?" asked Mina.
"He said that he'd suspect me until he caught the culprit," said Soma. "What do you mean by that?"
Leon blinked. "Well, most of my hunting excursions involved hanging around places where a mysterious monster was killing them or their crops. Don't laugh. Crops are a farmer's lifeblood. I would have to track down that monster, which might have been a villager in disguise. If I found that someone was actually a vampire or a werewolf or something, I would suspect them until I found proof that they are innocent."
Soma relayed that to Mina, and added, "I have an idea."
Mina sighed. "Don't tell me. You're going to make a decoy that will claim to be Dracula, so you can help them defeat it and then get them to leave?"
"That's even better," said Soma. "I was thinking that I could terrorize a farmhouse somewhere and fake my death. But your idea is better."
"Soma, you're not going to frame an innocent person," said Mina, her voice rising with a warning tone.
"Of course not," said Soma. "I can use a doppelganger, find a place that makes a convincing creepy hideout, tell Matthew that I found Dracula, forge some evidence, and then have them kill the doppelganger."
"No, that isn't going to help," said Mina. "If you're living in close quarters with someone who wants to kill Dracula, you're never going to have a moment's peace. And if he finds out, he'll be furious and actually try to kill you. He won't manage it, but it'll be much harder to calm him down. If you tell him now, he'll understand."
"All right, so I'll tell Matthew," said Soma. "I'll see if he's reasonable."
Mina was satisfied at this. "I'll come with you as a character witness."
So then they set off for the dorm. But first, Mina had to use the bathroom.
"Soma, you said that the boy was named Peter Morris?" said Leon while they were waiting. "Are you sure that he's really Quincey's descendant and not just someone who happens to have the same surname?"
"He said he's descended from Quincey Morris," said Soma. "I'm not sure if he's telling the truth, making it up, or if he's just mistaken."
"What does he look like?" asked Leon.
Soma described Peter. "Yes, that's Arthur's son, all right," said Leon. "He is one of Quincey's descendants. And one of mine, too."
"That means that he has to be John and Jonathan's descendant," said Soma. "Quincey and John only had one son each, right?"
Leon nodded. "Jonathan didn't overuse the whip, so he lived a very long time. He had several children with Charlotte Aulin. He also forbade them from touching the whip even though he trained all of them. Understandable, given what happened to John and Quincey. If I remember correctly, Peter's grandfather Joseph (Jonathan's grandson) married Leila Ricardo, who was Loretta Lecarde's granddaughter. Joseph was the last person in the Morris clan to be a vampire hunter, and he didn't want to pass the trade on to his son Arthur. Arthur was born in the May of the year that Mathias died for good, so Joseph thought that the war against the darkness was over this time. Whenever anyone says that, that always means that Mathias will come back."
"Ahem," said Soma, tapping his foot.
Leon shrugged, nonplussed. "Since then, the Morrises retired from monster hunting. I only found out that Peter was hunting monsters when you told me."
"How do you know all this?" asked Soma.
"I try to keep track of as many people in the family as I can," said Leon. "I know that it's impossible to know everything about my millions of descendants, but at the very least I want to know about the Morrises. And the Aulins. And the Lecardes. And the Belnades. And the Fernandezes. And Schneiders. And the-"
"I get it, you have a lot of descendants," said Soma. "What d o you think about Peter, from what you've heard?"
"He isn't very good with math and he frustrates easily, and he doesn't like doing things that are hard for him," said Leon. "He should be taught that you can't duck out of everything you don't like. I think that he's looking at monster hunting as something for fun. If you asked him, he would say that he's serious and he doesn't think of it as a game, but I believe that he thinks of it the same way sports players treat their tournaments. It's serious, but it's still a game."
"I do wonder what he's playing at, with a sword like that," said Soma.
Leon blinked. "What was that?"
"Peter was carrying around these swords and books," said Soma. "I'd say that they're the same quality as mine. Do you think they belonged to his great great grandparents? Jonathan, Charlotte, and Loretta?"
Leon's face darkened. "I believe that they might be," he said.
"Is that bad?"
"He shouldn't be allowed have such powerful weapons yet," said Leon. "It's not because he might hurt himself with them. It's because he shouldn't take for granted that he can kill anything with them with no effort or training. When we trained our hunters, we did start from around the age of seven or so, but we never gave them the whip until they were ready. They were taught to rely on their own strength and skill, and only after they could kill a zombie with just a length of rotten rope were they allowed to use the Vampire Killer. In retrospect, the sheer power disparity might be the reason why we have such a bad track record with horses. The idea was that the hunters wouldn't think that just because they had the whip that they were invincible."
"But wouldn't they be even cockier with the whip?" said Soma. "They'd say that they were fine without it, and then they think that they're invincible with it?"
"Well, there was that," said Leon. "That's why we always made sure that the wielders had a healthy fear."
"What about Maria and Carrie?" asked Soma. "Weren't they twelve when they faced Dracula? He's their age, and Julius said that Maria just found her powers like Peter did. Oh, wait… Matthew said that they all started when he was sixteen. He's what, nineteen, twenty now? Peter was something like eight or nine."
"Soma, I'm over a thousand years old," said Leon. "Everyone looks young to me. Age doesn't matter to me. But Carrie and Maria are different from Peter. Carrie had to train to make her fireballs more than just hot air. Maria had the power of the gods given to her, but she learned very quickly that she couldn't just run in with no plan and expect to be all right. She had to be saved by Richter, after all. Both girls fought against enemies that were much stronger than them, so they were forced to grow and adapt. They knew that they had great powers, but they also knew that they weren't invincible because of them. I hope that Peter learned that lesson already. Have you ever seen him fight before?"
Soma shook his head.
"Next time you see him fight, see what he does. Check his stance and his movements, and see if he's trained or not. At the very least, he should look like he practices. If he doesn't, tell him that he should learn that having a powerful weapon does not excuse him from training."
Soma nodded. "Would you think the same if he were older? Like my age?"
Leon nodded. "Adults have a better sense of their mortality than children do, and generally avoid danger, but no matter how old someone is, they can always fall into the trap of thinking that they're all right just because they have a powerful weapon. You need experience and temperance before you should have that kind of power." Leon shrugged. "My point is that if you're to be a hunter, you need to understand the strengths and limits of you and your weapons. You need to understand that your greatest asset is yourself, but also that you're not so strong that you don't need any weapons. You also need to understand the limits of your weaponry, but also that you need them to live."
"So basically, if you're going to be a fighter, you need to know how strong you are," said Soma. "Or how weak you are."
"And you also have to know that you're facing very strong enemies," added Leon. "You need a lot of courage to know your limits and still fight."
"I'm impressed," said Soma.
"I'm back," said Mina.
"You were gone a long time," said Soma.
"I really had to go," said Mina.
"And that's all we're going to say," said Soma.
X
No one answered the door to Matthew, Tatsuya, and Jun's room, so they decided to go to Soma's room to figure out what to say. You couldn't just tell someone that you're the reincarnation of the evil vampire king without expecting some violence.
However, when Soma opened the door, he found that it had been broken into. Drawers and closets were opened. The floor was a mess. Bedsheets were ripped. The window was open. And six people were scrambling to hide behind nearby objects.
"What the hell are you doing in my room?!" roared Soma.
Rita Van Helsing shoved a cross in Soma's face, but it wasn't blessed, so Soma just slapped it away. "All right, get out."
"I shouldn't have trusted you," said Matthew in a low, growling voice.
"Easy," said Soma, raising his hands. "I didn't want to tell you before. But I guess you know now."
"That's right," said Stacey Wren, raising her whip.
"Your stance is very good," said Leon, knowing that no one could hear him.
Mina moved into the room and stood in front of Soma. "Let's not jump to conclusions," she said. "I swear on the names of all of the gods that I haven't been brainwashed. But if you want to kill Soma, you'll have to deal with me."
"It was in your diary," said Martin Seward. "How much more conclusive can you get?"
Soma whistled. "So I guess your Spanish is pretty good after all, Rita."
"What?" said Rita Van Helsing. "Matthew's the one who read your diary."
Matthew blinked in confusion. "It was in plain Japanese," he said.
There was an awkward pause. "Are you sure you had the right diary?" asked Mina.
"I'm multilingual and I intend to stay that way, so I try to write my personal records in the language that isn't the national language of the country that I'm in," said Soma. "When I'm in Spain, I write in Japanese. When I'm in Japan, I write in Spanish. And I got that diary at the start of this year."
Matthew looked down at a black book and opened it up. "Whoops," he said. "It says Naoki Kashima. So I guess you're not a demon. Sorry."
Everyone relaxed.
Mina nudged Soma. "Go on," she said. "Tell them. It's a good time."
"So we should wait for Kashima, then," said Rita. "Soma, when does-"
"I'm Dracula," Soma said.
Everyone stared at him. Rita's jaw dropped. Peter looked like he wasn't paying attention and was wondering why they were so quiet. Martin laughed before realizing that he was serious. "What did you say?" said Natsumi.
"I'm Dracula," Soma repeated. "Before you try to kill me-"
Matthew launched five fireballs at Soma, who ducked.
"I said, before you try to kill me, hear me out," said Soma irritably.
"Get out of my friend's body, you monster!" shouted Matthew, but Mina tackled him to the ground and held him in a headlock.
"Perhaps you should have worded that a bit better," said Leon. Soma rolled his eyes at this comment, which just made Matthew angrier.
"Trying to kill someone who's being possessed isn't the best way to save the victim," Rita remarked, and Mina agreed. "Let's try an exorcism. I have a bottle of Holy Water here somewhere…"
"I am not being possessed," said Soma, raising his hands so that they could see that he wasn't holding anything. "Before you try to kill me, hear me out."
"Why should we?" said Rita Van Helsing, surreptitiously taking out a water pistol.
"Because you could be convicted of first degree murder if I die," said Soma.
"Good of a point as any," said Stacey Wren, lowering her whip. Leon pointed out to Soma that from that angle, she could still hit him.
"I'm not being possessed by Dracula," Soma repeated. "I'm his reincarnation. I have some of his powers and memories, but I am my own person."
"And why should we believe you?" asked Rita Van Helsing.
"I have no desire to destroy the world," said Soma. "If I wanted-"
"No, why should we believe that you're Dracula's reincarnation?" said Rita. "Do you have any proof?"
Both Soma and Mina were speechless. Neither of them had anticipated this. "Soma, how did you find out that you were Dracula's reincarnation?" asked Mina.
"I got his memories," said Soma. "But I can't prove that."
"How did you prove it to everyone else?" asked Mina.
"A knew—I'm using initials so that these people can't look them up—about it before I did and I'm guessing it had something to do with dark magic, J knew because he already knew Dracula from before and could see the similarities, and I don't know how Celia found out," said Soma. "Everyone else who knows was told by either them or me. Also, Celia died in another country, so don't bother looking for her."
"So only people with some sort of relationship with Dracula could actually prove it," said Mina. "And H, Y, and I (myself, not someone named Ivan) all trusted A to tell the truth because he actually knew what was going on."
"And none of you think that I'm a reliable source of information at the moment," said Soma. "The other people I told believed me because they didn't have a reason to doubt it. Well, D did, but that had more to do with the existence of magic than anything else."
"We need to know without a doubt," said Rita Van Helsing. "If you weren't Dracula and we thought you were, then we'd stake an innocent person and leave the real one to kill more people."
"Let's not do any staking," said Mina.
"You can show us your fangs," said Peter, as if this was obvious.
"My canines are just as normal as anyone else's," said Soma.
"We can check trivia," said Rita. "When were you born?"
"October 31st, 2017," said Soma. "If you're wondering about Dracula's birthdate, it was… I don't know. Sometime in the 11th century."
"Aha!" said Rita. "Vlad the Impaler was alive during the-"
"Fifteenth century; I'm a bit fuzzy on whether the Dracula you know about was really Vlad the Impaler or not," said Soma. Since Vlad the Impaler had such an extensive history that Mathias couldn't have gone through (Vlad had to be a hostage as a child because of his father, long after Mathias had grown up), he was pretty sure that it was coincidence that they both chose the name Dracula. If Arikado's real name wasn't Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, Soma would have written it off as coincidence. "I should probably ask Leon about this one of these days." There was a pause. "I said, I should ask Leon about Dracula and Vlad the Impaler."
"No need to shout; I can't tell you right now since it's a long story and you're in the middle of a conversation," said Leon.
"How can you not know?" asked Peter Morris incredulously. "Doesn't everyone know that Vlad the Impaler is Dracula?"
"Have you read the book?" asked Soma.
"Yes," said Peter, a tad reproachfully. "Um… I read the Cliff's notes. And Sparknotes."
"The bit about Dracula's life is mostly speculation," said Soma. "That's enough for a book, but not for real life. Van Helsing just guesses based on his name. Not you, Rita, your ancestor."
"You think it's weird hearing your surname for people you've never met?" said Mina. "Try hearing your first name being used for a major character over and over again."
"What's your name, again?" asked Matthew Harker.
"Mina Hakuba."
"That must be weird," said Matthew.
"And even if it was certain that they were the same person, knowing the Impala's—I mean, the Impaler's birthdate isn't enough proof," said Mina. "Rita, was it? I'm guessing you got the date from the internet."
"Actually, I got it from a book," said Rita.
"Same difference. You're not the only one who can do research or prepare answers."
"So that's out," said Soma.
"Do you have any other proof?" asked Rita.
Soma turned into a bat, and back into a human.
"That just proves that you have magic powers," said Matthew.
Martin stared at Soma as if he were a giant tap dancing bug. "Why the hell are you trying to prove to a bunch of vampire hunters that you're their target?" he asked. "That's like a cow covering herself with steak sauce!"
"You eat the skins on cows?" said Mina. "Only joking."
"See?" said Soma. "I'm not the only one who's thinking this!"
"It's because we're pretty sure that you'll find out sooner or later, and when that happens, you're not going to go up in arms about the 'betrayal'," said Mina. "Telling you now would mean that Soma isn't going to deceive you."
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" said Matthew angrily. "I brought you right to my friends!"
"Would you tell the Spanish Inquisition about your powers?" asked Soma. "What good does that do?"
"Your words seem reasonable, but I can't help but think that you're using them as an excuse," said Matthew.
"Not the worst thing that someone said about Dracula's words," said Soma.
"This is assuming that Soma is actually Dracula," said Rita.
Mina cleared her throat. "You can prove your weakness to Holy Water," she said slowly in Latin so that she wouldn't betray a weakness to the junior hunters.
"Sorry?" said Soma. Mina repeated herself. "Oh. Thanks. Holy Water burns me, if you have any."
"I have some," said Rita, holding up a super soaker water gun.
Martin shook his head. "But he could just pretend to recoil when you-"
Mina squirted a little bit of water into Soma's palm, where it caught fire. "Is that enough proof?" he asked.
"All that proves is that you're weak to Holy Water," said Rita Van Helsing. "To be honest, even though you can turn into a bat, the whole Holy Water thing is more like demons than vampires."
"If you were a vampire, then the cross would have hurt you," said Stacey Wren. "Why the water and not the cross?"
"I'm not hurt by crosses that aren't blessed," said Soma. "If I were, then I wouldn't be able to walk in front of four pane windows or play the NES version of Legend of Zelda. Holy Water has to be blessed by definition, while crosses are just a shape. Also, I was raised kind of Catholic, so I'm less weak against Catholic stuff compared to, say, Orthodox stuff."
"How do we know that you're not using magic to make fire appear?" asked Matthew.
Soma sighed. "Because it would have been easier to just flinch when you put Holy Water on me. Setting my hand on fire would be going too far."
"Unless that's just what you want us to think," said Matthew.
"Let's back up a bit," said Soma. "Why would I pretend to be Dracula, when I know that you'd attack me right away and there's nothing in it for me?"
"So that you can protect the real one," said Peter.
Soma and Mina looked at each other. "That is a good point," said Mina.
"If you don't believe me, then we're done here," said Soma. "Get out of my room. On second thought, clean it up."
"I'm not saying that I don't believe you, I'm just saying that it's a possibility that you're lying or mistaken," said Rita carefully.
Soma sighed. "Can we continue this conversation under the assumption that I am Dracula's reincarnation? Because I wouldn't-"
"Soma? Why are all these people in our room?" asked a voice from behind. Everyone stared at the two newcomers. The first was Kazuya, but Naoki was definitely not a pretty girl in a white dress.
"Um, hi Kazuya," said Matthew, edging towards the window.
"Don't worry about them," said Soma. He slowly looked at where Kazuya's hands were. His left hand was in the girl's right. "Um… didn't you say that you didn't like dating-"
"This is Aoi," said Kazuya. "She's my wife."
"Ah," said Soma, wishing that he could see the expressions on the faces of everyone who didn't know that Kazuya was married for longer than their parents.
"I'll explain later," said Kazuya. "Who are these people, and why is our room messed up? I'm looking at you, Matthew."
Matthew gulped.
"They're hunters who were looking for Dracula, thinking that he was resurrected, not knowing that I'm his reincarnation," said Soma.
"And why are they in our room?" asked Kazuya.
"They thought I was suspicious and broke in," said Soma.
Kazuya pointed behind him. "Everyone who isn't Soma—all right, Mina, you can stay—get out."
Matthew gaped. "Did you hear a word he said?"
"Yes, I did," said Kazuya. "What, you think you're the only person in this dorm who knows how to keep his ears open?"
Matthew looked at Soma. "You told him that you're Dracula, and he's fine with it?"
Kazuya nodded. "Tatsuya and Jun know, too."
"Them too?" said Matthew.
"Did I miss something here?" asked Peter.
Mina sighed. "This is Soma's roommate."
"So you're a demon!" shouted Peter, grabbing a water pistol, and he squirted Holy Water at Kazuya.
"No, I'm not," said Kazuya, simply striding through the stream and picking up the water pistol out of Peter's hands. "How exactly did you come to that conclusion?"
"He read Naoki's diary, thinking that it was mine," said Soma. "Peter, this is my other roommate, Kazuya Suou. He's the cousin of one of Matthew's roommates, Tatsuya."
"Naoki actually wrote that he's a demon in his diary?" said Kazuya.
"You're the one writing a book about surviving a nuclear, demonic apocalypse," said Soma.
"Touché."
"So right now, these kids are…"
"Is this normal?" Aoi asked Mina.
"It's not abnormal," Mina answered. "I doubt that anyone in this school is normal."
"I'm glad that I've been in another city the whole time," said Aoi.
"…And right when I tell them that I'm Dracula's reincarnation, they don't believe me," Soma finished explaining to Kazuya.
"It's not that we don't believe you, it's that we don't have enough proof either way and we can't risk being wrong," said Rita.
"How about this," said Aoi. "If Soma can prove that he means no harm, then that means that you can safely ignore him. It doesn't really matter if he's Dracula or not, as long as you assume that he isn't. If Soma isn't Dracula, then you'll probably find the real deal. If he is, then you know that he's not hurting anyone, and no harm done."
The group mulled it over. "All right, let's do that," said Rita. "Soma, can you prove that you're harmless?"
"If I wanted to take over the world, I would have done it by now," said Soma.
"I don't think that you're powerful enough at the moment," said Rita.
"I could," said Soma reproachfully.
"I mean, we'd stop you if you tried," said Kazuya.
"That's what the Cat O'Nine Tails is for," said Aoi, taking out a torture implement.
"But I haven't done anything like poison the water supply or cut your head off while you sleep," said Soma.
"If you cut my head off, you'll have to deal with Naoki, who can't be hurt by anything but guns, earth magic, water magic, wind magic, almighty magic-"
"That's a lot of weaknesses," said Natsumi Holmwood.
"And that's not counting his insane demonic resistance to anything you throw at him," added Kazuya.
"You didn't mention water magic before," said Soma.
"He had a drunken spat with Michelle the other night," said Kazuya.
"Look," said Mina. "Aoi and Kazuya have a point. In the unlikely event that Soma tried to take over the world, all of our friends would band together to stop him. I mean, a Belmont is already at the head of the queue."
"A what?" said Rita.
"A queue is a line," said Mina.
"No, what's a Belmont?"
Mina and Soma looked at each other. "They think that their ancestors were the first to kill Dracula," explained Soma.
"The first?" Peter and Matthew repeated in unison.
"But you can't kill someone more than once," said Matthew.
"Undead vampire, remember?" said Mina.
"I keep forgetting how many times Dracula comes back from the dead," said Soma. "Turned in the eleventh century, first killed in the fifteenth, and kept on being killed and coming back until 1999, when someone finally killed him for good. Quincey Morris was just one of many."
Peter looked incredibly surprised and disappointed. "But I thought my ancestor was the only-"
"Just take pride in the fact that your ancestor got to kill Dracula," said Mina reassuringly.
"Several of them, in fact," said Soma. "You've got Quincey Morris, his son John, John's son Jonathan, Jonathan's wife Charlotte, and that's just the people who got the Morris surname."
"The Belmonts are this family of vampire hunters that have traditionally been the ones to kill Dracula every time he comes back, dating back to the fifth century," explained Mina. "The Morris family is a branch."
Peter nodded shakily.
"Oh, come off it," said Kazuya. "My only famous ancestor only existed because of a rumor that magically became true because of some otherworldly gods decided to mess with one city."
"That aside, Soma, you've got someone strong enough to kill you if you will take over the world," said Rita. "So even if you're not harmless, we know that you're not going to be a threat."
"I'm glad that's settled," said Soma.
"But that's only assuming that you're telling the truth," said Matthew flatly.
Soma sighed. "Are you still mad at me?"
"Probably, but that doesn't automatically make his argument illegitimate," said Martin Seward. When Soma looked at him, he said, "I'm usually the contrarian. I have an entire list of excuses."
"Can I just use the fact that I'm still putting up with you when you broke into my room, shoved a cross in my face, yelled at me to tell the truth when I wasn't lying, led me on an insane amount of tangents, didn't call the cops on you, and I still don't want to kill you as proof that I'm not evil?" said Soma.
There was an awkward pause. "All right, fine," said Matthew. "You're Dracula, and you're not evil. I believe you now. No actor would be able to put up with us."
"I believe that you owe me something for all the trouble," said Soma.
"A video game?" said Peter.
"A puppy?" said Stacey Wren.
"Anything," said Soma. "Like a box of chocolates. Although a video game would not be amiss."
Kazuya cleared his throat. "Now that that's settled, I have something to say to the burglars."
He indicated towards the torn bedsheets, the overturned trash cans, and the unfluffed pillows. "Clean this mess up!"
TO BE CONTINUED!
[1] Isaac's laser cannon: Isaac doesn't actually have a laser cannon in the game. But I think that when Isaac left the castle to hunt down Hector, he didn't bring everything with him and he left lots of good weapons inside. And when he came back, the castle was gone.
[2] I did read through Dracula for reference. Guess what? A villager really did give Jonathan a cross, and he said that it protected him. Presumably by throwing it. And Stoker really did write one more paragraph that described Dracula's castle collapsing, but he thought that it was too ridiculous.
[3] Mina Harker being cured with the Sanctuary spell: In Portrait of Ruin, Eric says that the chance of a spell to cure vampirism working is very slim and that he couldn't manage it, which implies that the Sanctuary spell was known when he was alive.
I was this close to making 'Renfield' actually Eric's grandfather, but then I decided that Dracula wouldn't treat his descendant so horribly. In this version, the Lecardes are Alucard and Maria's descendants. The idea was that Eric was sent to live with his grandfather for a while, but then Dracula drove him insane, so Quincey, the nearest relative, was asked to take care of Eric in the meantime.
The descendants are based off of adventure cartoon characters. Not any specific one, but the ones that I saw as a kid. Ruth is the main character normal person. Matthew is the older brother figure who is still learning to control his mysterious powers that manifested on his sixteenth birthday. Stacey is the slightly older gothy character who seems like a bad person, but turns out to be very sweet underneath. Martin is the grumpy loudmouth guy who always gets the short stick and appears to be useless, but he's actually the reason why the plot moves along and is almost always right. Peter is the youngest and has the flashiest powers, but he's the least mature. I try not to make him super bratty, but he doesn't think things through. Natsumi is the hypercompetent person who's also very lazy and just hangs around the others for thrills.
I just realized that Peter Morris has the biggest Mary Sue backstory. If he's Quincey Morris's descendant, he has to be John and Jonathan's descendant, so that's fair. But if Jonathan married Charlotte, he's also descended from the Belnades if the Aulins are an offshoot. And if he's also related to the Lecardes and the theory that the Lecardes are descended from Alucard and Maria is true, he's also descended from Dracula. In other words, you get a kid who is related to almost every main Castlevania character.
I arbitrarily decided that Martin and Stacey are both Leon's descendants. That doesn't have any plot importance and it doesn't give them any powers. It's just because Leon lived so long ago, had about a dozen kids (even if he only trained two), and is confirmed to have many descendants in the Belmonts and branch families.
The names of the six kids were just names that I like, but guess where the other names came from. There's Matthew's cousin Madeline, Jonathan's grandson Joseph, Loretta's granddaughter Leila, and Peter's father Arthur.
When I was in middle school and we actually did stretches in gym, I always wondered why no one else was trying when we did butterfly stretch. It's the one where you sit on the ground with your legs flat on the ground and knees bent so that your feet are together and close to your body, and then you bend forward. Most people just leaned a bit, but I could stick my nose between my shoes. Now I can lay my head on the ground. The other day, I was doing stretches with a parkour club. We did a stretch where we sit down and grab one leg as close to our bodies as we can. I couldn't feel anything, so I asked what muscle this was supposed to stretch. Then someone said that the step up from that stretch was to put your foot behind your head. Which I did. He said that that's why I didn't feel anything. And as I was writing this, I realized that my relaxed sitting position is grabbing one leg against my body.
But… I'm very bad at pull ups and push ups.