Embarrassment 47: Keitaro and the Rat


"...And in other news, there were two more disappearances in a nearby neighbor hood. Police are still baffled by these unexplained disappearances. This time, a note was left at the family's home. The note reads, 'more people will disappear unless the pushuke is released.' Police officers refuse to comment on this..."

"Turn that shit off," Yukio hissed before taking another swig of his beer.

The soldier stood up and turned off the television before turning to Yukio. "So I guess the vampire's really are attacking."

"No shit, dumbass," Yukio said. He leaned back in the chair, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "The demons are signing their own death warrant. They make it too easy."

"You think the police will ever catch on and figure out who's doing it?"

"They wouldn't believe it even if the vampires bit them on the neck. You give them too much credit." He paused. "Wait a minute! We didn't come here to talk about the vampires. You fell asleep on post again! Where the hell is your weapon?"
The hunter shut up immediately. "I...um... don't know. It was taken."

"You really are pathetic. Thank you for giving my brother a weapon. You're lucky I don't shoot you myself."

"Sorry, Sir."

"Get the hell out of my room. That guns gonna come out of your paycheck."

"Yes, Sir."

The soldier quickly left the hotel before Yukio did more than chew his ass out. He was lucky Yukio didn't throw him out the window. Instead Yukio pulled out his tracking beacon and stared at it with a wicked smile on his face.

"Where the hell are you at, Little Brother?" he said.

Miles away, Keitaro gulped down his fear as he reached out a shaky hand and knocked on the big wooden doors of the elder house. Karin noticed his bodily actions and knew that he was scared out of his mind. But Anju just made it worse.

"You're not so tough now, Hunter," she muttered under her breath.

"Shut up, Anju," he said, not looking at her. "I still have this riffle under my coat. Or have you forgotten?"

"I remember. You're not doing a very good job of hiding it."

It was true. Keitaro had gotten rid of his Organization jacket, which had been designed to hide weapons. He ended up buying this coat out of a cheap shop just before boarding the train out here. It was obvious that there were bulges from the flash bang and riffle that he was poorly trying to hide. Hopefully he wouldn't have to use the weapon and nobody would notice it.

Whatever fear Keitaro had inside of him he had to hold in from this point on. The door to the elder house opened and a vampire in a tuxedo with long brown hair stood at the door. He eyed the three with a questionable glance, mainly Karin.

"A lot of clan's have been waiting for you to show up," he said to her, bowing before her. "Please, come inside."

Anju and Karin stepped inside but the vampire stopped Keitaro. Smelling the air, he gave Keitaro a dark stare. Keitaro could feel those red cat-like eyes piercing through him. He knew that he wouldn't get away with it but he was surprised they caught on this quick.

"How did a human like you find your way here?" The vampire said, gripping onto the neck of his coat tightly.

"He's not a human," Anju said, immediately.

Keitaro wasn't so much surprised by the fact that she was quick to respond, but the fact that she was helping him. Instinctively, he opened up his mouth to show two small fangs that protruded from his gums. They may be very small, seeing that he wasn't full-blooded, but it was enough to prove to the man. But the vampire wasn't fully sure.

"He stinks like a human," he said, smelling the aroma of Keitaro.

That's the second time that I have been told that I stink like a human, Keitaro thought. Do I really give off such an aroma?

"He grew up in the human world with other humans," Anju continued. "Of course he's going to smell like a human."

"Do you know him?" the vampire asked.

"Of course," Karin chimed in. "He's my brother."

"You're brother?"

He let go of Keitaro's coat and let him inside. He was a vampire after all so he couldn't be denied entry. Keitaro managed to remain calm the entire time. But deep down, he was dead afraid that this trip would have been cut short. But when the vampire shut the door behind him, he started to breathe a little easier. At least the brother thing was working. Hopefully their wouldn't be many vampires here tonight.

"The sun will be rising in about an hour," the vampire stated, stepping in front of the door. "You may want to go downstairs. There are many other clans awaiting your arrival."

He was talking directly to Karin when he said this. Keitaro could tell that Karin was just as confused as he was.

"They were awaiting...me?" Karin asked.

"But of course, my dear Pushuke. Please do not keep them waiting."

Now it made sense. This vampire thought that Karin was Kanon. None of the vampires really knew what Kanon looked like. They had been given a description of her by another vampire and Karin matched the description. Looking at Karin, even Keitaro admitted that her daughter was the spitting image of her. Keitaro motioned for Karin to keep quiet.

"This may work out to our advantage," Keitaro whispered as they walked down the hall to the staircase. "He thinks that you are you're daughter. We could play this off to help us."

"It'll never work, Hunter," Anju replied. "If they figure out you're lying, you'll be putting Big Sister's life in danger as well."

"You're lives are already in danger just being here, Anju," he hissed. "And stop calling me Hunter while were here."

"Keitaro," Karin motioned as they neared the staircase, "if something does go wrong, how do you plan to escape?"

Keitaro shook his head. "Don't know. I never think that far ahead. If worse comes to worse I can get out during the daylight hours."

"What about us?" Anju wondered.

"I'm thinking, okay. You two came here of your own freewill. Stop complaining to me. I'm not your savior."

The three walked down the staircase into the dark underground. There were only a few lit torches on the walls. Just enough to give some light. Vampire's can't see in utter darkness. At least it was enough light for Keitaro to see fine. But the moment he was able to see the room at the bottom of the stairs, his heart almost stopped.

"That's a lot of vampires," Karin muttered.

She couldn't have been more obvious. The spiral metal staircase led down to a large rectangular room. There was a table in the center of the room with many bottles of blood. At the far end of the room was a fireplace with a very small fire burning in it. But there were a large amount of vampires in the room. Whether they were seated at the table in the center of the room, drinking glasses of blood, or leaning on the walls in deep discussion, the amount of vampires were scary. Keitaro lost track at forty-six vampires. He couldn't believe his luck. And the moment that he was in the room, all eyes were on him.

God damn, he thought as he looked at all the eyes staring him down, I wish to god that I would have thought this out before coming here.

All the eyes had even made Anju nervous. She wished that she had Boogie with her. She wasn't used to this many people, even if they were vampires. Karin was the only one who seemed calm. She had spent her human life around a lot of people so this really wasn't anything new. But even she felt uncomfortable with the muttering. She heard her name said quite a few times.

There was much hushed talking as Keitaro, Anju, and Karin walked down the staircase to the other vampires. Nobody said anything to them in general, but it was obvious that they were the ones that they were talking about. Keitaro's hand slipped to the flash bang that was in his pocket. He was seriously thinking about it. But then one of the vampires spoke up.

"It's about time the Maaka clan came," a very familiar squeaky voice said from the back of the room. "But of course they don't bring the Pushuke."

Anju may not have remembered the voice that was speaking, but there was a horrible chill that went down Karin's spine. She could never forget that little voice. The short vampire pushed his way through the other vampires and showed his face. When Anju saw who it was, she felt her face go flush red with anger.

"Glark Brownlick," she hissed.

"Nice to meet you again, Karin Maaka," He said, looking at Karin with disgust. "I thought you ran off with that human boy."

"You're the one who told everyone about her daughter," Keitaro muttered.

"Oh, and who are you?" he asked turning to Keitaro. "You smell like a human."

"And you look like a short slime ball," Keitaro shot back at him.

"His name's Keitaro Maaka," Anju said, giving Glark a deadly menacing stare.

"Maaka? He's your brother?" Glark eyed the boy up and down, completely surprised with this news. "Are you telling me that the Maaka clan has another child?"

"And what's it to you, Glark?" Keitaro asked. "Why don't you tell me how you knew Kanon was alive?"

"Keitaro..." Karin asked. "What are you talking about?"

"This short rat was the one who sold out your daughter to the other vampires," Keitaro explained. "He's the whole reason this war is starting."

There was much muttering around the room. Anju had a bat summoned and up her sleeve. She was about ready to rip Glark's puny head off any second. Ever since the Brownlick clan kidnapped her older sister, she was ready to kill every last one of them. Glark was at the top of her list.

"You really don't want to start a fight here, do you?" Glark said, backing away.

Keitaro just took a step towards him and grabbed him by the shoulder. "I don't know. You seem so eager to start wars here, Glark."

"Keitaro!" Karin yelled, getting some sense back into the hunter.

Keitaro looked around the room to see that the other vampires were staring him down. He was making too much of a scene and this was not the way to handle things. Taking a deep breath, he let go of Glark and turned his back on them. Glark recollected himself and gave out a slight laugh.

"I feel like I've met you before, boy," he said under his breath. "You're definitely not a Maaka."

Without warning, Keitaro turned around and swung at the vampire only to see that he had moved out of the way. He was letting his anger get the better of him and doing stupid and reckless things. He really couldn't have expected to be faster than a full fledged vampire. Now he was feeling kind of awkward.

I'm not done with you yet, Glark, Keitaro thought.

After a few minutes, everything seemed to calm down. Everyone seemed to be so interested in Anju, mainly the males. She was after all, one of the last fertile female vampires. Not only that, but she was still single. Anju was backed into a corner by at least three men. She hated the attention. All the men seemed to be smothering her, while all the women gave her death stares from across the room. She really wished at this point that Boogie was with her.

Karin was getting no attention at all. Actually, she was being treated like scum. After all, she was the last Pushuke and had left instead of fulfilling her destiny. Even more so, all the other vampires believed that it was she who was holding Kanon in the shadows. They completely blamed her.

Keitaro didn't stick around that room. He was already walking around scoping out the area. He had a mission that he had to accomplish and he didn't feel like staying around for too long. Plus the longer he stayed back in that room the more likely somebody would recognize him. He for sure had seen some of those faces in the room. The moment they recognized him, he would most likely be killed.

But in all the rooms Keitaro searched, he never found the vampire council, or even a room that looked like it would be where they held their meetings. All Keitaro came upon was a ton of dark rooms with coffins, and another staircase that lead down even deeper to a prison. He really hoped that he wouldn't be thrown in there. Keitaro started to get impatient. Even Ren said that he was married before the council. So where the hell were they? Where was the Elder?

Keitaro ended up going upstairs and looking around in the rooms. That's when he came across a particular room that made him stop and stare. Near the center of the huge mansion, was a large wooden double door. He thought that maybe he had found the meeting room. But upon opening the door, he saw differently.

The first thing that popped into his mind was a church. It looked at least like one. There were many rows of pews in the circular room that all faced a inboard to a central platform. Keitaro walked into the room and looked up at the ceiling, seeing an elegant design of angels in the heavens. Kind of odd seeing that vampires weren't religious. But when Keitaro made his way to the platform in the center of the room, he was quite at a loss.

It was nothing more than a large bowl filled with water. The water was crystal clear and extremely cool to the touch. Keitaro sat down trying to figure out what this room was. But he had no clue. He was so preoccupied that when he heard a voice behind him, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"You want to know what this room is, right?" the old voice said.

In a bit of shock, Keitaro reached for his weapon and spun around to the door, pointing the weapon at the intruder. It turned out to be a very old vampire. The vampire smiled.

"Put the gun away, Vampire Hunter," the vampire said, completely catching the boy off-guard. "I'm not here to attack you."

Keitaro lowered his weapon. He was so surprised that the vampire knew who he was. "Who are you?"

"I'm the man you've been wanting to talk to, Keitaro Cross."


I promised a longer chapter. Hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of free reign on creating the elder house, seeing as the manga only spoke about it and you only ever got to see one room. This is how I invisioned it. Try and guess what room Keitaro is in.