Song of the Day: Ishiki - Shiina Ringo
Time for a bit of original story unlinked to the direct OVA adaptation once again - I was basically doing a run-through of the main story with some adaptations involving Ranma's presence for the last few chapters - might have been a little lazy, but it's helping me structure things in my limited time frame.
While Alucard, Seras, Integra and Walter had left Hellsing HQ for the meeting with Iscariot, Ranma had been left with the mercenaries to hold down the fort. She had learned their leader's name: Pip Bernadotte. He was an interesting character to the draculina, since he was so unintimidated by her while most of the men were only just starting to warm up to her. She was sitting idly by the wall, almost falling asleep on the floor in the meeting chamber they had convened in the previous evening, since it was around noon during daylight hours. The only reason she was up at that time was the fact she'd been put in charge of keeping the place guarded, although it was questionable how alert she was keeping herself. The Geese were taking rotations keeping watch at the entrance points of the Hellsing compound in shifts of five at a time.
Noticing the draculina nodding off, Bernadotte decided to push his luck with the girl, getting out a marker pen. One of the men tried to advise him against it, having seen what the girl was capable of the previous evening. "Captain, don't try it, she'll rip you to shreds..." He whispered, grabbing his arm. Shushing him with his finger, Bernadotte shook off his warning grip. Despite Ranma nearly having fallen asleep, she'd heard the warning with her enhanced hearing, but decided to play a prank back on them by pretending she was yet unaware. Bernadotte ignored his comrade's pleas, creeping over to the girl who was in a vacant, slumped position. Just as he was about to touch her face with the marker, she flicked her eyes open, and 'lightly' jabbed the prankster in the gut, rendering him a squirming wreck on the floor.
"I could still hear ya, idiot." She sputtered, chuckling at his pained writhing.
Standing up with a wheeze, he held himself up with a hand on his knees and the other out in front of him in resignation. Whistling, impressed by her power, he commented through deep breaths, "You're quite strong, eh, mignonne?"
"Stronger than all of ya combined, no contest." She smirked.
"You say no contest - why don't we make it a friendly little competition?" He returned a smirk at the draculina boldly, then turning to the men who didn't recoil, but looked unsure. "You beat every one of the Geese in an arm wrestle, and you can draw whatever you want on my stupid face, otherwise, you let me do the same."
Ranma grinned at the proposition, already knowing the outcome. He was seriously underestimating her brute strength. Although speed was more her forte, and Seras' strength overall seemingly had a higher potential, a true vampire's strength still meant they had no chance. One of the men stepped forward, the largest looking of all of them. He was a tanned, moustache wearing, stocky, well-built man, of around 6 foot 5 inches in height, who was wearing a distinctive red beret.
"Well then, little girl, let's see if this vampire strength of yours is as impressive as you say." He spoke, with a deep rumbling bass of a voice in an American accent.
They made their way over to the long, ornate, wooden table in the corner, moving it over to the centre of the room and setting a chair on either side. Sitting down assertively on one side, Ranma crossed her arms with her eyebrow raised, waiting for her opponent to sit opposite her. The men seemed more excited than anxious now that they were doing something more their speed. One of the Geese started to walk around taking bets down on a small notepad as the massive, Robert Redford moustached man finally took a seat. He put his muscular, corded arm out towards her, offering a start to the competition. The men started to get giddy, some of them cheering on their comrade, others throwing out snide comments that he was completely screwed.
The draculina met the man's gaze as she gripped his hand, making sure not to squeeze so hard as to break his hand, but just enough to make his brow furrow. The one with the notepad who was taking bets aligned himself between them at the end of the table as the crowd started to close in in anticipation. "Alright, three, two, one, begin!"
Instantly Ranma understood why they'd sent this guy forwards first. He was incredibly strong, for a human. Deciding to play to the crowd and give them a show, she feigned a struggle, allowing him to push her back a few inches and putting a strained expression. After a moment of simulated excitement, she gradually started to increase her output, pushing their arms back towards the centre. Her opponent's eyes started to widen and his forehead became covered in beads of sweat, his teeth gritting as he laboured harder and harder to hold her back. All of this unfolded as she shifted her own expression from strained to cocky, the opposite of what it should have done from the appearance and size of the two competitors. It was time to end this. She pushed just hard enough to slam his hand down, ending the match.
The room went silent for a second, then erupted into chatter as some of the men patted her on the shoulders and told her how insanely strong she was. Her opponent put out his hand again, but this time for a handshake with a jubilant expression on his face. "Hahah! You beat me! Nobody's been able to do that for years."
"Tell ya what, it might notta been hard to win, but I can tell you're a machine of a guy." Ranma tried to offer similar respect to the man as she shook his hand with a smile. "Now, Bernadotte! Gonna assume I can't beat all the rest of ya, or are you gonna bring your mug over here so I can have my way with it."
Bernadotte, who was purposely hidden behind a couple other men, resignedly emerged with his hands up. "A deal's a deal... but go easy on me?" He requested, with a worried grin.
"Ya look so scared! I know exactly what to do." She chirped, an amused smirk returning to her face. Pulling the captain of the Wild Geese in close, she drew six lines and a dot on his face. "There. Now ya look like the scaredy-cat ya are." She had drawn a nose and whiskers, leaving Bernadotte with a beaten expression as the men all started to laugh at him.
"You know what, I probably deserve that." He paused for a second, before his bravado seemed to return out of the blue. "I have another idea, mignonne."
"The name's Ranma - but sure go ahead, you're only makin' it worse for yaself." She taunted.
"This time, say we keep it between us. If you can guess which hand I have a coin in after I toss and catch it, you win." He proposed.
"Eh? Ain't that just down to chance?" Ranma protested, narrowing her eyes in vexation.
"You have vampire sight, no? Surely the one who is at an advantage is you, ma chérie!" He exclaimed with a mischievous smile.
She thought for a moment. He surely had something up his sleeve, otherwise she would be able to clearly see which hand he caught the coin with easily. She couldn't come up with any method for how he could possibly deceive her eyes. Sleight of hand relied on speed and misdirection, both of which wouldn't work on her. Her, curiosity piqued, she decided to accept his challenge. "Fine. I know ya must have a way to win otherwise ya wouldn't look so damn cocky, but I'll let ya try it."
"Magnifique. I'll throw it after a count to three. Un, deux, trois." He launched the American quarter coin high into the air, reaching almost to the lofty ceiling of the meeting room.
Ranma watched as the coin descended, her eyes following it with inhuman precision. It finally fell right in front of Bernadotte, and he snapped his right hand out, almost catching the coin, but bluffing, to then swish his other hand underneath, clearly catching it with his left hand which he cupped his right with to hide the trickery. He hadn't hidden it very well at all, at least not to her eyes. He put out both of his hands, now clasped tightly into fists. "So, which will it be?" He asked boldly.
"Ya thought ya were slick about it, but I saw. It's the left, ya dunce." She scoffed, with an amused, jeering expression.
With an even more amused, roguish grin, he turned over and opened his left hand to reveal no coin contained within. "Tut tut tut, looks like it's my win, mignonne."
The draculina couldn't believe her eyes. He must've known that she'd see him pulling the trick to catch the coin with his left hand and switched it to the other hand when he clasped them together. That was pretty clever, she had to admit. "Wow. You're a sly guy, Bernadotte." All the Geese, who had been watching attentively, broke in to a roaring clamour as their leader bested the vampire girl.
"Hah! Now bring me that pretty face so I can make things even." He beamed, grabbing the marker pen and beckoning her to take her punishment with his gesturing index finger. Begrudgingly, Ranma shuffled over to him and sat down on one of the wooden chairs, ready to receive her penalty for losing.
"Ya better make it quick, or I'll get pissed off and bite ya." She grumbled, as he started doodling.
About 30 seconds later, he backed away with his fingers jokily framing her face and one eye closed. "'Tis a work of art. I am finished."
The men peered around to get a look, and all started laughing to themselves. She gave them a piercing glare, shutting some of them up, then got up, her eyelids hanging low wearily as she padded away in to the corridors. Meeting the nearest mirror on the wall, she slowly turned her head to discover what manner of tomfoolery he'd been up to. He had drawn big, cartoonishly angry eyebrows, along with ridiculous round glasses, some dotted freckles, and a swirly moustache. Chuckling to herself, she acknowledged that she had been outdone in terms of how hilarious he had made her look. Bernadotte's sly, confident nature somewhat reminded her of Nabiki and her wild schemes, although he wasn't a capitalistic psychopath like her. She traced her way back to the room, and was greeted by further laughter from the Geese and Bernadotte, which she sarcastically returned in kind.
"Yeah, yeah... get your laughs in while ya ribs are still in one piece. I've heard laughing is pretty difficult when they're broken." She playfully threatened, pointing up smilingly at Bernadotte. She made him flinch by jerking towards him, stopping herself at the last second. "At least my face can clean itself." She boasted. The redhead concentrated on manipulating her skin to absorb the ink, making the doodles disappear before his eyes. Since she'd become a true vampire anything residue or liquid-like could be easily removed or consumed by her body, as she had learned from Alucard's guidance.
"Wha- What? You can do that?!" The captain of the Wild Geese was dumbfounded by the draculina's ability. To rub salt in the wound, she batted her eyelashes at him, showing off her now pristine face. "At least you're much more beautiful like this, ma chérie." He teased.
"Told ya before, don't flirt with me." Ranma muttered quietly. She was silently appreciative of his compliments - he was a breath of fresh air compared to the creepy advances of Kuno Tatewaki - even if she wasn't attracted to men. "Ya'd better clean that off before Integra comes back and finds the captain of the great Wild Geese with cat whiskers on his face." His eyes widened as he understood that he wasn't going to be able to point the finger at Ranma - especially now that her face completely lacked ink. After pausing for a few seconds, he hurriedly ran off in to the corridors to find the closest bathroom.
The redhead watched the Geese's captain disappear off with amusement, but realised she'd been joking around for too long. It was time to get back to keeping alert. Leaning against the wall once again, she closed her eyes and tried to maximise her senses' scope of the area, tuning out the men and concentrating on sounds around the grounds. In her focused state, she suddenly realised something: Luke's soul had been previously mixed up with her own, but had now gone quiet. Was she getting the hang of it? She tried to located Luke inside of her mind's eye, and found that indeed, his soul that before was somehow interspersed with her own was now something separate she could manipulate. His being was without personality, a shadow within herself, but it still held some intelligence. With that thought she decided to try something, she tried to think about how she had manipulated and transformed her body and clothes, and applied that process to Luke's soul. She felt his presence seep out of her skin, and manifest before her as an amorphous shadowy figure which quickly condensed into a straight-faced Luke Valentine. He stood at attention before her, bowing to signify that he was ready to follow her command.
"Go patrol the building." She ordered.
With that the shadow of Luke dispersed into an amorphous presence once again, disappearing into the walls of the hallways. Closing her eyes once again, she felt that Luke was still linked to her, but now outside of her. She could remain where she was while Luke alerted her to anything suspicious.
- - - Meanwhile at the Royal Museum - - -
Having barely avoided a chaotic confrontation between Alucard and Anderson - owed to Seras' resourceful distraction - Integra had finally sat down with Enrico Maxwell to discuss the true nature of the Nazi Organisation, Millennium. Since the information that Ranma had been able to extract from Luke Valentine's memories had been fairly incomplete, she had concluded that it would be worth the trouble to retrieve some more concrete detail from the Vatican.
"And the vast majority of this group fled to South America, where a number of German-supporting states resided." Maxwell explained, having handed her a notebook that listed various sources and excerpts containing accounts of the whereabouts and undertakings of this 'Millennium' offshoot of the Nazi German state.
"So this is... Millennium." Integra mused to herself.
"That's right. The classified military unit that experimented with the undead and transported people and supplies, is this Millennium." Maxwell reiterated. "I imagine you're wondering why we have access to all of these data - it's because we, the Vatican, helped and supported them wholeheartedly during the war!" He blurted, with a psychotic grin.
Integra reacted in a rather subdued manner. "I'm not surprised the likes of you would stoop that low."
"You can look down on us all you want you filthy protestant, but their resurfacing provides us with a common enemy now. The time when we supported them has passed. For now, I will give you our support in investigating Millennium further. I believe Brazil would be a good place to begin."
"Very well. I'll take this as a tentative call of truce. Now, I must be going, Hellsing has work to do." She got up, finishing her tea and signalling Walter that she was ready to leave. Seras let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that everything was wrapping up. It had seemed like things were a hair from imploding into violence throughout the whole ordeal with Anderson starting a fight with Alucard to Integra and this 'Maxwell' individual acting continually hostile.
On the walk out to the museum entrance, Integra consulted with Walter. "What do you think, Walter? Should we trust them?"
"If I must give my opinion, I would postulate that their apparent disdain for the undead threat emerging would necessitate their opposition to Millennium. Although the Vatican's motives are not entirely clear, I believe following their suggested lead in Brazil would be an acceptable risk to take." The butler asserted.
"Hm. I agree. We will send Alucard and the others to Brazil tomorrow morning."
The Hellsing group swiftly filed into their transport vehicle and returned to headquarters. Integra took to her study and began to pore over the additional information she had been provided. Seras went to check on how Ranma was doing, considering how beaten she had looked from getting up so early in the morning.
When she arrived, emerging in to the room containing the Wild Geese on standby, and Ranma who was stationed with them, Seras came across a sight she didn't quite expect. Ranma was sitting around a table with the men, playing cards and looking genuinely engaged. The impression Seras had received the earlier evening when they arrived was more along the lines of Ranma being generally indifferent towards them, and them being intimidated in return - but here they were, bantering and laughing together like they'd been friends for years.
"Hey! Seras you're back!" The draculina called out, beckoning the blonde to come over.
"Ranma, weren't you... supposed to be keeping the compound secure..?" Seras questioned hesitantly, half expecting Integra to burst in and start reprimanding them.
"Yeah, I have it covered, don't worry 'bout it." Ranma casually dismissed her concerns.
"But - you're playing cards?" She asked, giving the redhead a shy but serious look, as the rest of the surrounding Geese went quiet.
Realising Seras didn't know about her newly discovered ability, Ranma explained her casual demeanour. "Oh yeah, sorry. I figured something out while you guys were gone. I'll show ya." Her eyes glazed over for a second, then she called out, "Luke, come back here." With that, the shadow rapidly returned to her, flooding in to the room as a looming presence that quickly recombined into Luke's original form, standing next to his master at attention once again. "Meet Luke. He's not the same guy he was before - he's loyal to me now." The husk of Luke Valentine politely faced Seras and greeted her with a mute nod.
"Well that's... something." Seras acknowledged, feeling off put by the fact that she was seeing the face of one of the people who had attacked Hellsing. "You can just tell him to do whatever you want?"
"Yep, pretty much, he's more a part of me than his own person, so I can control him. I will admit issa bit creepy at first." She confirmed, sensing Seras' slight discomfort. She absorbed him back into her body, since the rest had now returned. The men who had gone quiet started to ease up again now that things were cleared up; they were quite disconcerted by the shadow's presence too, not being used to the supernatural. "Anyway, how'd it go at the museum?" Ranma asked.
"It was tense. Alexander Anderson appeared again, and he almost fought with Alucard but I managed to herd a bunch of tourists in the way so they backed down. Other than that it went fairly smoothly I think. I overheard something too - I think we might be going to Brazil." She explained. As if clairvoyantly knowing exactly when to appear, Walter entered to deliver some news.
"Miss Saotome, Miss Victoria, and Mr. Bernadotte: you are to be getting on a flight tomorrow morning with Mr. Alucard as ordered by Sir Integra. It is believed there may be a lead on the case towards the activities of the 'Millennium' organisation which you will be helping to investigate. Overseas agents working with Hellsing have already confirmed suspicious activity in Rio De Janeiro involving the local police force. I suggest you prepare as well as you can in the coming evening, as we will be leaving for the private air transport at 0900 hours. That is all." Walter courteously informed them, bowing and taking his leave immediately after.
"Well, shit. Speak a' the devil. We better get ready then, eh?" Ranma got up, dropping her cards.
"It certainly seems that way, mignonne. I am always prepared to leave at a moment's notice, so please let me know if either of you ladies need a gentleman's hand." He offered with an attempt at debonair charm.
"Ya did see me wreck that giant guy in an arm wrestle, right? Seras is probably even stronger than me. We'll be fine, ya goon." She retorted, rolling her eyes. "C'mon Seras, let's get our stuff together." She grabbed the blonde by the arm, nearly dragging her out of the room by her heels to keep her away from the womanizer.
"But- he was just..." She almost started to complain, but decided to give in, letting herself be dragged away.
- - - The Following Morning - - -
It had turned out that the timing of the flight being 9 o'clock in the morning had been even more difficult than anticipated. Ranma had already barely been able to stay awake the previous afternoon, but had managed to get a small amount of sleep during the rest of the day after packing her things. Seras, on the other hand, had made the fatal mistake of going to sleep at around 5 o'clock after not managing to have slept before. She was hoping to pack a power nap into the early hours of dawn and get up ready to leave by waking at 8:30. That was clearly too ambitious, as Ranma drearily trudged to her room to wake her at that time only to find her completely comatose, so she decided to simply take the sleeping draculina in her coffin so she wasn't left behind. As a result of being inside a loose wooden container, she was stowed away in the cargo bay, to be sealed inside for the entire duration of the 10 hour flight.
The others: Alucard, Ranma and Bernadotte boarded the jet normally, all dressed for a holiday-like occasion since they were heading to sunny Brazil. It was early spring in England, so being in the southern hemisphere, it was still in the tail end of the warm part of the year for Rio De Janeiro. Ranma had only just received the memo that it would be a casual trip initially, when she saw Alucard emerge ready to leave, dressed in a fancy black suit and red dress shirt with a tie. Bernadotte had changed into a cream suit with a black shirt underneath in a similar fashion. She was thankful her wardrobe situation was so flexible, since she could simply change with a whim. She did struggle however, with what to decide to wear as a woman. After some deliberation she came to the conclusion that a suit jacket wasn't even something she couldn't pull off - Integra did after all. She went slightly less serious than Integra's regular get-up though, going with a black shirt without a tie, under a fossil grey blazer to match her trousers of the same colour. She stuck with the slip-on shoes, since they still fit the look. She noticed that she was getting better at making clothes, although it did take some mental tweaking to get the type of materials right.
Upon seeing her new outfit, Bernadotte had made some cheeky comments as expected, suggesting that she should've gone with something more dress-like to suit her figure. Perhaps it was time to tell the guy that she used to be a man. She decided against it, finding it an interesting prospect to mess with him a little. When they boarded the jet, they sat either side of the open walkway, Alucard and Bernadotte on the left and Ranma on the right.
Bernadotte seemed quite intimidated by Alucard, so turned to the draculina parallel with him to his side. "You two can walk in the daylight, no problem?" He wondered.
"Yep. It sucks to be up this early though, I'm barely keepin' my eyes open." She yawned. "Don't know how Alucard does it so easily."
"I have had many years to overcome my nature with experience. That is the difference, young draculina." The elder vampire interjected.
"So not all the legends are true - but Seras has to sleep in a coffin, ah?" He continued his curious grilling, directing his questions purposely towards Ranma rather than Alucard. If the redhead wasn't there he probably wouldn't be engaging with him as openly at all.
"She ain't drank any blood. Means she needs to sleep in a coffin or she'll get weak." Ranma answered.
"I can see she might not be the type to be eager to consume from others. Us mere mortals can only 'ope to understand the struggle, I suppose." Bernadotte shook his head in resignation as Alucard smiled, amused by his devil-may-care attitude.
"You are an interesting man. Care for some wine?" Alucard offered, as a stewardess approached.
"Uhhh, no thanks. I am on the job, after all - and I doubt my body deals with alcohol like yours." Bernadotte reluctantly declined.
The stewardess offered some wine to Ranma too, who also declined. "Nah I'm alright, thanks." She hadn't ever felt the compulsion to drink anything but blood since she had become a vampire. Wine was probably something that could be enjoyable, but it was something for which she'd yet to develop a taste. With the rest of the long journey ahead of her, and it still being early in the day, she closed her eyes to get some sleep.
Ranma reawakened only a few minutes before they were about to land, as if her body already knew they were drawing close before she did. Remembering Seras being stuffed still in the cargo compartment, she reached out with her mind to check up on her. 'Ya alright Seras? We're almost there.'
After a second she got a reply that reverberated loudly in her head as if she was shouting into her skull. 'I have been locked in here... FOR 10 HOURS!' She paused, as if taking a breath. 'I'm okay. I got over the claustrophobia of being stuck in here wide awake at around the half-way mark I think. I still have to say I'm glad I can finally get the HELL OUT OF THIS DAMN BOX!'
Alucard chuckled to himself as Ranma cradled her head in discomfort, recovering from the blistering noise that Seras had projected into it. There had to be a way to filter out loud telepathy like that, she just hadn't learned it yet. 'Sorry... Seras, can ya calm down? You're hurtin' my brain.'
After a few more seconds of silence, she got another reply, a much more subdued one - at least at first. 'Sorry. If we're landing soon that's good. I'M JUST SICK OF BEING STUCK IN HERE! Ah! Sorry, I did it again, didn't I? I'm not very good at controlling this yet.'
Ranma gritted her teeth and gripped onto her temple even harder after receiving another blast of blaring shout-beam from the frustrated draculina. Bernadotte raised his eyebrow in confusion seeing the redhead suddenly recoil in pain. "You feeling alright mignonne?"
"Yeah... I'll be fine, just got a headache." She said through her gritted teeth, wrathfulness rising inside of her in reaction to what her vampiric nature perceived as an attack. She lashed out as payback, finally snapping. 'YA REALLY FUCKIN' PISSIN' ME OFF SERAS. DON'T DO THAT AGAIN.'
It seemed to have worked in shutting her up, since she didn't seem to reply after that point. Alucard gave her a flat look, then spoke. "You went overboard, Ranma. Your mental prowess is a lot stronger than the police girl's. It seems I must start teaching you, lest you start losing control of yourself."
Was it that bad, what she had just done to Seras? Had she hurt her? She started to feel ashamed at having let her emotions get the better of her. Alucard quickly picked up her worries and reassured her. "You didn't hurt the police girl, worry not. Although you did knock her unconscious, it seems." The edges of his lips turned upwards once again. The elder vampire was both concerned and impressed.
Ranma was shocked. She had knocked Seras unconscious? She had no idea that was something that was possible with just a thought. Her martial arts training had strengthened her mental resilience, that was for sure. Perhaps that had contributed to her having a stronger mental powerset as a vampire? Alucard read her mind once again and confirmed her suspicions. "You guess correctly. Your mental fortitude brings your potential forth leaps and bounds. Even your ability to manifest shadows so early shows how rapid your psionic development is. You will continue to surprise yourself, but if I do not slow you down the consequences may be dire."
Bernadotte watched on as Alucard replied to her despite her not having even spoken, becoming increasingly dumbfounded. "I'm going to pretend this is normal." He turned away to ignore them, looking out of the window as the jet started to descend.
Ranma's eyebrows furrowed deeply as she considered the possibility of hurting the people around her if her powers spiralled out of control. "Please. Alucard, teach me." She requested, looking him in the eyes with determination.
"Very well. We will begin immediately. I will try to force your mind to rise in anger, and you are to supress those feelings by pressing back with an equal force." He stated flatly, then flaring his eyes wide as he tried to pierce her mind. It felt like a stabbing point pushing its way into her mind, which made her rage start to build. She remembered what Alucard had told her - try to push back with an equal force and don't let anger take over - so she tried to match the shape and power of his attack with her own. She felt it instantly, relief flooded through her body and mind as she reached equilibrium once again.
"Good! You learn quickly. I will use more force now. Try to match it as long as you can, and I will stop when you can go no further." He proposed, still maintaining his ongoing attack simultaneously. She felt the pressure increase on her mind once again and she kept up the game of equalising the force she gave back in return. The pace at which Alucard increased his output began to get faster, and she began to strain to accurately maintain equilibrium. She began to overcompensate and pushed back even harder than she was receiving, and felt her emotions begin to stir as a result. Alucard's deadpan expression began to twist into a serious one, as he felt Ranma's overwhelming mental strength oscillating chaotically. She wasn't able to manipulate it as precisely as him, but her potential psionic output was possibly even higher than his own - his age experience and soul consumption meant his was still monumentally higher, but with the Control Art Restriction System still at level six, she was definitely stronger. He relented, having been able to properly gauge her mental firepower. Ranma broke her focus, letting go along with him, causing her to break out into a panting fit, the beads of sweat that had formed in her exertion dripping off of her forehead.
"You did well. I believe it would be in your interest to implement a restriction on your powers for now. When you reached the upper echelons of the attack, you began to lose control. This is the level that you should restrict." Alucard leaned over, and put his white gloved hand over hers which were resting on her knees as she recovered. The marked seal began to glow red as he invoked the words to give her the same seal. The back of her hand began to burn slightly as a pentagram shape appeared, circled by some sort of unreadable runic language. Some of her blood seeped out of the indentation, then quickly retracted as she healed, making the seal disappear along with her blood. "I have applied the Cromwell Invocation to your being. You can now lower your own restrictions through six tiers, in what is called the Control Art Restriction System. The penultimate tier - level one - is the last you can unlock of your own volition, for your own peace of mind. I have set that level at the maximum amount of psionic power you can currently safely manipulate. To use level zero, removing all restriction completely, you will require a verbal permission from Sir Integra."
She finally caught her breath, inspecting the back of her hand. "So... I don't have to worry 'bout hurtin' anyone now?" She asked timidly.
"Exactly, young draculina. Since you are now fully sealed, you may notice some aspects of yourself are changed slightly, this is normal." Alucard explained tenderly.
The jet landed not long after the whole training session and sealing, allowing Ranma to get a feeling for how her body felt after being restricted. Her senses were much the same as before, but she could see that her hair had reverted to its previous bright scarlet hue in the corner of her eye. She decided to experiment with her ability to bring out Luke's shadow, but found she could no longer do it. That was probably something she could only do at a lower level of restriction. Concentrating on the feeling of being limited, the draculina tried to lower the restriction level to one. Her left hand began to bleed momentarily once again as she felt a familiar feeling come back to her, along with her hair darkening once again to its wine red, altered hue that it had taken on once she had become a true vampire. She also felt something return that hadn't been bothering her for a while: her thirst. It seemed like the contrast between her sealed state and level one made her even more bloodthirsty than she was before. She started to notice Bernadotte's fragrance bothering her as he got up to disembark, so quickly she tried to remember what it felt like to derestrict herself, and reversed it. Much better. It seemed that a heightened thirst for blood was the price of having control over her power.
They all climbed down the stairs off of the jet to find themselves in warm, sunny, Brazil, about an hour before sunset, which gave the sky a lustrous, fiery hue. The transport to their hotel was already waiting for them on the landing strip, but before they forgot, they'd have to retrieve Seras. Ranma rushed over to the cargo bay entrance nervously, waiting for it to be opened by one of the staff. As soon as they came over and lifted the door to the side she pushed them out of the way and rushed to find the coffin. Finding the wrapped wooden container strapped to a metal stowing surface, she hurriedly ripped the straps off and pulled away the lid. Inside was a still disoriented, but otherwise fine Seras. Relieved she was unhurt as Alucard had said, Ranma grabbed her pulling her out of the coffin into a hug. "I'm so sorry Seras. I thought I'd done somethin' really bad, for a sec there."
Shaking the cobwebs out of her mind, Seras lightly pushed away the concerned redhead. "It's fine you dummy. I'm sorry I pushed you like that, I should've kept my cool."
"I won't do it again. Alucard put a restraint on me, so it'll be alright." She assured her seriously.
"Honestly, it's fine. Anyway, let's get out of here." Seras pushed her way on to her feet, and followed Ranma out to the limousine waiting for them outside.