Carnifex Abbey

March 31, 2005

It was about half an hour after dark on the second night after Riku's first meeting with Sephiroth and the funeral of Uncle Vladimir and the young man was anxiously sitting at the dining room table with Sora and Kairi, the three all dressed in their Sunday best as they waited for the guest to arrive. Riku was starting to tremble while Sora seemed like he was off in his own little world and staring blankly into space while Kairi sat there quietly and unaware of why her husband was so nervous.

Suddenly, the dining room door opened and everyone sat up in attention as Sebastian held the door for the guests. First was the Count himself, still clad in the black tuxedo from before but making sure to hand Sebastian his cape. Following Sephiroth were six other figures, three male and three female.

The three women were in the front and the three men in the back. Each one wore identical outfits, the women in black gowns and the men in black suits with white dress shirts and silver pinstriped dress vests. But while Sephiroth's entourage were all dressed alike, they all had a distinctive physical appearance and each one had a unique demeanor.

Among the ladies, there was a tall woman with long black hair who seemed energetic and physically fit and to be quite blunt, was kind of busty for someone of her physique. The second was a shorter and younger woman of East Asian heritage who looked no older than eighteen or nineteen with short black hair, and the third was a woman with light purple hair and piercing eyes with demonic red irises.

The men all looked fairly young, no younger than eighteen and no older than twenty-five. Two of them appeared to be brothers with raven black hair and piercing dark eyes, the younger one with a stereotypical emo-style duck butt style haircut and looked very dangerous and shady. The third was also black-haired but also pale and kind of energetic, holding a notepad and a calligrapher's pen.

"I suppose I should introduce myself and get these formalities out of the way. I am Vladislav Sephiroth, one of the two last surviving men in the House of Sephiroth alongside my son Riku and one of the few remaining sworn knights in The Order of the Dragon. You may also know me by the name Count Dracula. And before you start to laugh, that's my actual title. "Dracula" means Son of the Dragon and it is a title bestowed on the Grand Master of The Order of the Dragon. These three ladies are my brides. Their names are Tifa, Yuffie, and Ayane. They are accompanied by my three adopted sons, Itachi, Sasuke, and Sai."

Sephiroth sat down directly across from Riku with his brides and his sons sitting beside Sora and Kairi respectively while Sebastian served glasses of wine. The guests were served what looked like dark red wine served chilled while Riku, Kairi, and Sora were given white wine that was served at room temperature.

"Now, I know what you're thinking and I want to make it clear that I don't want to discuss any vampire shenanigans tonight because of my title. We've got a lot of serious issues to discuss, namely that my brother Vladimir was murdered and I think it may have something to do with a business deal gone wrong."

I've received similar threats and attempts on my own life in the past few months and when I found out Vladimir was murdered, I made sure to travel put all the way from Hungary to the United States. I'm not quite sure who's behind all this but I have my suspicions. As such, I'm going to stay here at Carnifex Abbey to protect the Order's assets and also watch over my son and his wife and friend."

Sora raised his hand, confused by all this...

"Um, Mr. Sephiroth...if you're Riku's dad, where the hell have you been all these years?"

"I'm an immigrant on a business Visa and I had to head back to Hungary shortly after Riku's seventeenth birthday. Thankfully, I got it renewed again so I could come over here and get my full residency status. Still, even with my wealth, bureaucracy is a slow and arduous process, especially when it's international. At least I got to fly from Budapest to Pittsburgh on a private flight."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense...oh, shit. Looks like my brother Cloud's sending me a text. Mind if I go into the other room and call him back? Pardon my language."

"No problem at all, my good man. Besides, I'm not bothered by swearing. I'm actually pretty uncouth outside of formal events or occasions. As for the rest of you, feel free to go about as you please. We're the guests here, and you're the owners of the mansion and its grounds from now on. I just arrived here so I can be with my son and make sure my brother Vladimir's killers get the justice they deserve."

Kairi and Riku sat up and walked off to the living room where they viewed Vladimir's will the day before, Sora having gone into another room to talk to his brother on the phone.

Meanwhile, Dracula just sat there in the dining room with his sons and brides, smiling quietly.