I'm glad that people liked the last chapter. It was the one I was most nervous about, since it had five OCs when people were complaining about them. I was even more nervous about that one than Evil Hammer.

Since there are so many characters, I thought that this chapter would be a good recap for them.

After Halloween passes, this chapter is going to be really dated. I doubt that people actually celebrate Halloween in Japan, but whatever.

This chapter has a very large ratio of SMT characters to Castlevania characters, but since I'm trying to bring in everyone…

OMAKE: Halloween

"We're having a costume party?" said Soma, the main character of this story and the soul devouring reincarnation of Count Dracula who still managed to be on the side of good. For the last chapters, he was in his first year of college, but for this chapter he is in his second year.

Mina, his not-girlfriend and part time miko, nodded. "It's Halloween, after all. Everyone in the SSS is invited. There'll be free food, as long as you turn up in a costume."

"Where are we having it?" asked Soma. "At the beach again?"

"The really rich people rented a large cabin in the woods nearby," said Mina. She gave Soma the address. "Are you coming?"

"Anything for free food," said Soma.

"What kind of costume?" asked Mina.

"I'll be ironic and dress up like a vampire," said Soma.

"I would have thought you'd do something a bit more imaginative," said Mina.

"What were you planning on dressing up as?" retorted Soma.

"A witch," said Mina.

"Aren't you already a female magic user?" said Soma.

"I just like witches," said Mina curtly.

"So I guess we'll be the ironic couple, then," said Soma. "This should be fun."

"Is that even what ironic means?" asked Mina.

"I think it does," said Soma.

X

"Is everyone else here trying to be ironic, or just lazy?" asked Matthew Harker, who had dressed up as Iron Man. He was a descendant of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and had weird magical powers because Mina had gotten some from Dracula.

In front of them, Mina's two roommates Chihiro Makimura and Margarita Yamamoto were talking about chocolate. Chihiro was a Magical Girl who used to hunt monsters, and Margarita was a hitman for the Portuguese mafia. They were dressed as a Red Mage from Final Fantasy and a generic Assassin from Fire Emblem 7 respectively. Soma had met Chihiro when he had turned into a vampire and she mistook him for a target, and he briefly encountered Margarita when she abducted him from his dorm.

"Um…" said Soma, sweating in his opera cape.

"I didn't sew a costume this nice by hand to be called lazy," grumbled Kazuya, who was dressed up as Faust. Kazuya was Soma's roommate from an alternate dimension who summoned demons with computers, and was actually a 68 year old man inside a 19 year old's body. This had prevented him from dating anyone but his wife from that same alternate dimension.

"I'm not saying that you didn't work hard on your costume, just that you didn't go very far thinking about it," said Matthew.

"All right, fine, this is the same dress I wore as the leader of the Resistance," said Aoi, who was dressed up as Mon Mothma. She was a mage warrior and former Rebel Leader. She was also Kazuya's wife from that same alternate dimension, and that had also put a crimp in her dating life.

Soma looked at the married couple. "How did you not find each other for four years?"

"We didn't know each others' surnames," said Aoi. "I couldn't disclose mine when I was the leader of the Resistance, because I was afraid that my family would be targeted if I was overheard."

"Same here," said Kazuya. "I wasn't leader, but I didn't want to endanger my relatives."

"And then after the nukes hit, I saved Kazu by teleporting him, but I couldn't save myself," said Aoi. "I died, but I reincarnated thirty years later. I could remember Kazu from my past life, but nothing else."

"And that included Aoi's surname," said Kazuya. "Even when we could talk freely, I didn't know her surname."

"Kazu never told me his, either," said Aoi. "He said it wasn't important anymore."

Soma nodded. "You were reincarnated in this world like Kazuya was, right?"

Aoi nodded. "And it was freaky, because unlike Kazuya, I hardly had any memory of anything from before the nukes. So I woke up in my own bed, not knowing my own parents or that I had a brother. For once in my life, I was glad that I didn't have any friends. And don't feel sorry for me. I'm older than your mother, remember?"

Soma nodded. "What is your surname, again?"

"I never told you before, but it's Belnades," said Aoi.

"Hm," said Soma. "Are you related to Yoko, by any chance? Yoko Belnades?" He indicated Yoko Belnades, a witch who worked for the Agency of Supernatural Investigation and Mina's teacher in fighting magic. Yoko, unsurprisingly, had on green face paint, a pointy hat, a black dress, and red shoes.

"She's my cousin, but I don't remember how exactly we're related," said Aoi. "The last time I went to a family reunion was when I was thirteen."

"Were you also trained in monster hunting?" asked Soma.

"Not like Yoko was," said Aoi. "We're supposed to have at least one person fighting the darkness at a time. Yoko signed on, but I didn't want to. But anyone who has magic has to be trained in it, because magic can be dangerous if misused."

"Did you know about Dracula?" asked Soma.

Aoi shrugged. "I might have, but I forgot when I reincarnated and I never asked."

Matthew looked at Soma. "I challenge you to find one non ironic costume other than my own."

"You're on," said Soma confidently.

Two minutes later, he found that Hijiri (a reporter who was the cursed reincarnation of the Messiah who had killed God) was actually dressed as Brian from Life of Brian and not as a Tatooine resident like he thought, Mitsuru Kirijo (the insanely rich head of both the Kirijo Group and the Shadow Organization, a Persona user, and the one who funded most of the SSS's activities) was trying to be Batman, not Catwoman, and that Toph is awesome. He got an earful from Ginko (a martial artist named Lisa Silverman from an alternate dimension where everything was destroyed except for Sumaru City and also a Persona user) when he didn't recognize the clothes.

Soma walked around with a sinking heart, discovering that the spies the Agency hired to keep an eye on him were allowed to attend the party. The spies were named Saitou, Saizou, Suzukaze, Seiji, Seto, Seta, Souta, Shinichi, Shinpachi, Shinji, Sanosuke, Sho, Saburo, and Hikaru. He found out that they were dressed as various fictional ninjas such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kaze, Gurei, and Saizou from Fire Emblem, Shadow from Final Fantasy, and apparently Hikaru missed the memo and instead dressed like James Bond.

Soma then went to get some cider. Other Tatsuya and Other Jun, Matthew's two roommates who were Persona users from alternate Sumaru City and also a couple, were drinking sodas. Other Tatsuya Suou was in a Greek tunic and was carrying around a lyre, and Other Jun had dyed his hair green and put on creepy clown makeup.

"So, um… nice costumes," Soma said.

"Thanks," said Other Tatsuya. "We wanted to dress as something that we technically were. And I guess you decided to be, too."

"Um?" said Soma.

"I'm Apollo, and Jun is the Joker," said Tatsuya.

"I used to be called The Joker, and Apollo is Tatsuya's Persona," added Jun.

"I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person who didn't dress as what they secretly are," said Matthew, a tad smugly when they went to the cupcakes.

"Yes, because then you'd be wearing a dress," said Soma.

"Witches can be male," said Matthew. "They're called warlocks."

"I'm not a witch," said Mina. "I'm a miko."

"And I'm not a vampire," said Soma. "But we're close enough. And Naoki's true demon form is just him with glowing tattoos, not plastic horns and pitchforks."

Mina pointed at Hammer, a former US Marine who became a shopkeeper who was trying to learn how to control the demons that his ancestor Hector left for him, who was dressed as the Happy Mask shopkeeper. "He's not dressed like what he secretly is," said Mina.

"Yes, but he's still a shopkeeper with some strong connection to sealed monsters," said Soma. "And no one knows his real name."

"Mark Colin Hamilton," said Mina.

"Really," said Soma.

"His friends in middle school realized that his initials were MC Hamilton," added Mina.

"MC Hammer," said Soma. "Very imaginative."

"It's more interesting than just Mark," said Mina. "Oh, hi Julius. You're not dressed like a vampire hunter today."

"There isn't a standardized vampire hunting costume," said Julius Belmont, vampire hunter, head of the Belmont family, the last person to kill Dracula, and the one Soma trusted to kill him if he ever became Dracula, interrupting the conversation to get at a chocolate cream cupcake.

"Yes, but you're dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the most famous vampire hunter in history," said Soma.

"Yes, but he's not famous for being a vampire hunter, so that doesn't count," said Julius.

"Is Hilda here?" asked Soma. Hilda Heinrich was Julius's adult niece who worked for the Portuguese mafia. She kidnapped Soma to ransom his father's debts, but Soma escaped. They didn't like each other very much.

"She is," said Julius. "She's Indiana Jones. She said something about how every 'woman with a whip' costume was too light on clothing to wear when it's this cold out."

"Look at Yukari," said Mina. "She looks like she came straight here from filming and didn't bother to change." Yukari Takeba has not been introduced in this story, but she is a Persona user who works as an actress for Phoenix Featherman.

"And there's Daisuke, telling her that her costume looks like she bought it in a half off bin," said Soma. "And he's dressed as Koji Kabuto." Daisuke Higawa is a delinquent who works for a government organization called FALCON to fight against the evil Cyber Hell and their cyborgs by piloting giant mechas. He picked on Soma for a while, until he found out that Soma was stronger than him even inside his robot. Daisuke's four pilot mates, Rei the token tsundere love interest, Haruka the token 'big sis' and Hikaru's younger sister, Vicky/Becky the token non Japanese person, and Midori the former token child before she grew up, were dressed as the Mazinger Angels. None of them were ever formally introduced, but did appear in one chapter and were mentioned once or twice before.

"And Aigis is the Terminator," said Julius. "I didn't know that she could make her voice that deep. Then again, synthesizers." Aigis has also not been introduced in this story, but she is a robot with a Persona and a slight stalking habit.

"Oh, look, Teddie's dressed as Alice from Alice in Wonderland," said Soma. "And… there's Kazuya, running away in panic. I didn't think he was serious about him being afraid of Alice." Teddie has also not been introduced, but he is an abomination springing from the darkest depths of the human unconscious. He also likes crossdressing and topsicles.

Julius walked off to talk to Michelle, who was dressed as Hades from the Disney version of Hercules. Michelle, real name Eikichi Mishima, was Daisuke's roommate and a Persona user from alternate Sumaru City. He played in a band and has managed to progress to merely bad since his high school days. He and Soma once had a contest where they tried to keep their heads under water for a long time.

"I'm going to go get some pizza," said Mina, leaving Soma alone.

"You look like you're having fun," said Leon, who somehow changed his clothes from his usual longcoat to his Dark Knight avatar from Eternal Punishment online. Leon was the first member of the Belmont family to become a vampire hunter and Dracula's old friend. He died long ago, but his ghost remained to haunt his descendants by squealing over how cute they were.

Soma looked at Leon. "You're probably the only person I've met who isn't wearing an ironic costume, but I can't prove it to Matthew."

"Actually, Leon is the name of the Dark Knight in Final Fantasy II," said Leon. "I was stuck between the Dark Knight and Nearly Headless Nick. Even though I died of disease instead of beheading."

"Never mind then," said Soma.

"This Tatsuya Suou is Spock," suggested Leon. "The two Katsuyas look like they both wanted to be Robocop." This Tatsuya Suou was the Tatsuya Suou from the current dimension, and he was a relatively weak Persona user. This Katsuya Suou was a cop with a Persona almost as strong as Other Tatsuya's. Other Katsuya Suou used to be a cop, but couldn't keep his job in the new reality because a) the only place he had ever been a cop in already had one version of him, and b) there were background checks in police jobs. So he was living his dream as a pastry chef who didn't need to use oven mitts before his Persona protected him from fire. To avoid complications, all four Suou brothers decided that they were all brothers regardless of which reality they were from. They were also Kazuya's cousins.

"This Tatsuya's Persona is Vulcanus, and Spock is a Vulcan," said Soma. "Who else?"

"I think that Ken and Koromaru are trying to be those people from Old Yeller," said Leon. Ken and Koromaru had not been introduced to the story, but Ken is the youngest (human) Persona user, and Koromaru is his dog.

"You seem to know a lot about TV," said Soma.

"Julius watches a lot," said Leon.

Soma remembered something. "Hey, Leon… you said that the Belmont family hideout doesn't get TV, right?"

"Yes, we're paranoid and we think that it's possible to track someone with a TV signal," said Leon. "Is that possible?"

"Ask someone who knows about that," said Soma. "But a while back, you said that you watched cage wrestling matches and didn't like it when your descendants changed the channel. How could you, when your descendants didn't get TV?"

"Not all my descendants live in the hideout," said Leon. "Some live in the nearby town. We can't just keep marrying our cousins, so we usually find someone in the town. We'd have some of us moving into the town after marriage, some villagers moving into our home, and some skipping town completely."

"Makes sense," said Soma. "Leon, I'll let you into my body if you want food, as long as Mina is there to get you out. That will be a non ironic costume."

"If you can prove that I'm not you pretending to be me," said Leon.

"Well, there goes that idea," said Soma. "What's with Aoi, anyways?"

"What do you mean by that?" asked Leon.

"She couldn't remember her childhood, so what kind of life did she live?" said Soma. "I mean, I got the impression that the Belmonts were holing up in the mountains somewhere, but what happened to the Belnades?"

"The Belnades are like any other family," said Leon. "Sons and daughters make their way into the world, get married, don't get married, have children, join other families, move to new places, become disowned, disown themselves, and whatnot. They don't always stay in one place. Yoko and Aoi's grandfather moved to Japan decades ago. Other than the magic, they lived fairly normal lives."

"Yoko said that the Belnades also have a duty to kill Dracula," said Soma. "And Aoi said that only one person needs to be trained. Does everyone in the Belnades clan know about Dracula? Do they live with that hanging over them?"

"Well, it's hard to tell all of Sypha's descendants, but in general, yes," said Leon. "Unlike the Belmonts, the Belnades prioritize training their powers, and they are told about the family duty when they become of age. Or at least when their parents tell them. After they are told, they can choose to train as a warrior that will fight evil and train the next generation, or drop the matter for the rest of their lives. Aoi probably refused in her alternate timeline and forgot when she reincarnated."

"What about the Belmonts?" asked Soma. "Does every Belmont know about Dracula? It seems like a stupid question."

"Not everyone with my name, no," said Leon. "My descendants move out, start new families elsewhere, and forget about their ancestors. The Belnades family is closer knit in general because when magic runs in the family, it is the parents' responsibility to ensure that outsiders do not find out. Before Richter, the only Belmonts who knew about our duty were the ones who were relatively closely related to the wielder of the Vampire Killer, or simply lived close by. Today, only those who live in the hideout or the village know."

"Huh," said Soma. "What about the other branch families?"

Leon shrugged. "Branch families are families that my descendants married into. They're only considered branches of the Belmonts if they associate with us, and if they're associated with us, then they're usually hunters. The Morrises seem to have given up, barring Peter. The Lecardes are still hunting. The Schneider line technically ended with Reinhardt's daughter Olwen when she married a man named Fred, but the descendants are still hunting monsters under different names. And there are many others that you have never heard of."

"I think I get the point," said Soma.

Leon nodded. "Anyways, are you having any luck looking for people with non ironic costumes?"

Soma looked at Yu and Yosuke, who were a samurai and ninja respectively. They were Persona users from the town of Inaba, and Soma only really met them in passing inside the baths before they started attending meetings. "I'm pretty sure that they're dressing like their Personas," said Soma.

"What about Teddie?" asked Leon.

"Good point," said Soma. "He's not dressed as a bear, a Japanese historical figure, or a monster born from the deepest depths of the id. He looks really cute, too."

Matthew, who happened to be standing next to Soma, gave Teddie a long, hard look, as if he expected him to sprout tentacles. "That's a guy?" he said. Or that.

"Well, as male as you can be when you're the spawn of the collective darkness of mankind," said Soma.

"I'm sorry, but whose idea was it to invite him?" asked Matthew.

"Come on," said Soma. "We wouldn't bring someone evil to our parties. They'd eat all the chips, and then we'd have to clean up their corpses." He cleared his throat. "All joking aside, you seem to be the only one who has trouble with seeing people with dark magic or origins as good. Why is that?"

Matthew shrugged. "I guess it's because for the longest time, if I met someone with dark powers, they were evil. No exceptions. You were the first."

"I suppose so," said Soma. "Teddie's not wearing an ironic costume. Go talk to him."

Matthew nodded shakily, strode over to Teddie, and cleared his throat. "So you're Alice from Alice in Wonderland?" he asked Teddie.

"No, I'm dressed as one of sensei's Personas, Alice!" said Teddie. Not for the last time, Soma wondered how he managed to sparkle like that.

"And why did you dress like her?" asked Soma.

"Because I already had the dress from a pageant back when sensei was in high school," explained Teddie.

"And that's it?" asked Soma. "You just like the costume?"

Teddie nodded. "Yeah! It reminds me of when I used to see sensei and the others every day and…"

Teddie kept on jabbering, and Matthew listened politely.

Suddenly, a fairy burst into the room. "All right, who didn't invite me to the party?"

"Technically, all of us," said Hijiri.

The fairy scowled. "For the crime of not inviting me to-"

"Pardon me, but who are you, exactly?" asked Mitsuru.

"I am the fairy of the woods!" growled the fairy.

"You don't look very Japanese," observed This Katsuya Suou.

"Why does everyone think that only Japanese supernatural creature can live in Japan?" said the fairy. "I've been living here for far longer than you!"

"Actually, I don't think that a non Japanese fairy in Japan is that strange," said Kazuya.

"Thank you!" said the fairy. "You will be spared from my wrath!"

"Your wrath?" said Soma. "But we don't have any newborns."

"You don't?" said the fairy, blinking. "Oh well. I'll curse all of you to turn into your costumes!"

When this failed to get a reaction, the fairy said, "Oh, come on!"

"Well, you do realize that most people on Halloween try to dress up as things that they admire," said Mina. "Turning someone who likes magic into a wizard isn't that horrible of a curse."

"Becoming a samurai when you're already a samurai is not the worst fate that could befall a fellow," said Isabeau, who was dressed as a Japanese samurai and not a Mikado samurai. Isabeau, along with a guy named Flynn, were samurai from an alternate dimension where Tokyo was saved from being nuked by a magical sphere of earth, and they lived on top of the sphere in the faux-medieval Eastern Kingdom of Mikado. Isabeau did part time work at a manga shop. Neither of them were formally introduced, but they were mentioned before.

"Like she said, most of us here are already dressed as something that we already are," said Matthew. "As for the rest of us, it's not like we're dressed up as evil psychopaths…"

"Please don't do it," Yu said to the fairy.

"You don't like being a samurai?" asked Matthew.

"No, because Alice would turn us all into zombies if Teddie turned into her," said Yu. "That's only assuming if none of us wants to kill him if that happens."

Matthew blinked, probably wondering if he translated that right. "Come again?"

"Alice is an insane undead child with extreme magical power," said Yu. "She asks people to die for her."

"Are we talking about the same thing here?" asked Matthew. "Alice? Cute girl who falls down a rabbit hole?"

"We're not," said Yu.

"Did I mention that her adopted fathers are Belial and Nebiros of the Ars Goetia?" added Aoi. "We had to seal Belial in a magic pot. Nebiros killed my friend."

"Ah," said Matthew, sweating. He read about demons as soon as he learned that they were real. "Please, Miss Fairy, don't-"

"Pleasure doing business with you," the fairy said to Kazuya. She was holding a sack of pennies.

"Thank you, come again," said Kazuya. The fairy vanished into Kazuya's smartphone.

"What was that?" asked Soma.

"Oh, I just bribed her into making a contract with me," said Kazuya. "She was very easy to please. Just pocket change and one of your magical pies."

"That reminds me," said Mina. She produced a cake from her purse. "Happy Birthday, Soma!"

And then they partied the night away.

X

Meanwhile, Genya Arikado, aka Alucard, and real name Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, the son of Dracula and currently a senior agent of the Agency of Supernatural Investigation, was catching up on work. That was just as well, given that no one could picture him wearing a costume.

TO BE CONTINUED!

It's a bit late, but for the six Dracula hunters, I have reasons for their powers.

Rita Van Helsing has no powers, only cunning, because Van Helsing in the books fought with knowledge. She's also the main character, so if anyone has no superpowers, it's her.

Matthew Harker has magic because Mina Harker's flashiest show of power was essentially magical spying.

Peter Morris has the weapons because he's descended from Metroidvania characters with those weapons, but also because Quincey Morris is the best fighter in Dracula.

Martin Seward is good with technology because Dr. Seward helps by analyzing, recording, and other stuff.

Stacey Wren has animal powers because Renfield is strongly associated with animals, even if he tried to eat them.

And Natsumi Holmwood is a ninja because Arthur Holmwood doesn't do anything that couldn't have been done by someone else.