Dimension, or even universe, traveling sucks. Especially when you have to constantly make blind jumps through time and space.
Yeah yeah, I can hear the insults coming to me. 'You made blind jumps, what did you expect?!' Or 'You have to calculate where you want to go before you travel! That's common knowledge, b!tch!' Or even better 'Learn to do Math first, kid!'
Oh I'm not saying you are wrong, your points are valid actually. The thing is that, do you have the full grasp of how time and space move? If not, then you should shut up and listen to the guy who had to endure that BS time after time.
Now, why did I bring that matter up? Well…
"Where am I? I seriously hope I'm still on Earth."
It doesn't take a genius to tell me that I got jumped against my will, again. And where I landed doesn't really give me an idea of the place I'm in. All I can see in my naked vision is pine, pine, and pine trees. At least it's not dense enough so I can still tell it's daytime, probably early too. Though I would say there's a good sight: I see a nearby rock cliff that easily bypasses the tallest tree in the forest. And there are points on the top of the cliff that don't look natural, meaning there's something on it.
It takes me a couple of minutes to climb that cliff, and once I reach the top, I see a clean way that's clearly human-made. Dusting off my clothes, I look around to see some small dead trees lining up through the road, and when I look afar, it seems to lead to a Western castle isolated in a small area. "...Am I in Castlevania?" That's all I can guess to myself. I mean, it's so typical to see those kinds of…
My thoughts are interrupted when I hear sounds of crunched dirt under running tires. I look back to see a car running to my direction that reminds me of those TV shows reminiscing the days of the 90s. I wave my hand in the air to see if they would stop so I can ask some questions. And luckily, they do stop right when the door of the front passenger's seat is in front of me.
The driver lowers the window down, and I look into the car to see him being a sort of butler in middle-age. I notice he already has a customer on the back, but I decide to just ignore a bit and ask the driver, in English: "Sorry for stopping you. Can I ask where and when we are right now?"
The driver looks clearly shocked for some reasons, though I can guess of one: Who the FK would ask the day of the present if they're sane? Unless you drop your watch, but even if that happens you can still use the Sun and Moon to count.
But, to my surprise, the driver turns to the 'customer' and asks, in Japanese: "Do you know this person, Sir Chairman?"
"I would have to answer 'no'." The passenger's voice is in a low yet somewhat intimidating voice. The tone that I'm all too familiar with.
"Okay, my apology." I switch to Japanese to gain their attention. "I was under the impression that we're somewhere in Europe due to the castle afar. Can I at least get the time of…"
Again, another interruption in the form of earthshake and sounds of breaking items and monster roars draws my attention. And I turn back… to see the castle is partly destroyed by some sorts of huge monster with tentacles sprouting out of everywhere.
"...Okay, that's unexpected." I raise my eyebrow. "Are you guys here to beat that thing?"
"Of… of course not!" The driver replies in panic. "What is that thing?"
"I had a bad feeling…" The driver and I turn to the 'Chairman', and NOW I see the person is wearing a sort of a white robe that reminds me of a Church Pope. "When the daughter I'm meant to take in never showed up. But I have no idea it would be something like this…"
'...Wait a sec.' I start running through my memories. 'A Western castle in Japan's land… a monster under the house… a daughter is involved…'
"What's your order, sir?"
"We need to hurry up."
"Right!" The driver turns to me and says: "My apology, we need to get to…"
"...What's that thing's name?" I interrupt, lowering my tone to show them that I'm in serious business. "Mister Chairman. Give me the name of that thing, and I can help you deal with it."
I look directly into his eyes, though all I can see right now are just two glowing orbs. However, he definitely can sense my current will, so he answers: "Alucard."
"...OF COURSE!" I slam my hand on the roof of the car. "Mister Chairman, you need to get there ASAP, correct? I'm your man, let's go!"
…
"Be careful, Akua. If you are caught by them, your body and blood will be absorbed by Alucard…" Slowly standing up after destroying the tentacles aiming for her adopted daughter, the lady of the Shuzen family slightly gasps as the cut on her body heals up. "It's hungry after 200 years. You will make yourself a target if you carelessly unleash your power."
"How… how can you…"
"This body won't fall that easily." The younger vampire makes a defensive stance, but the elder one just approaches her with a sad smile and tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Akua, for not taking care of you earlier. I want to help you more, but at this rate Moka is going to be absorbed. Surely you don't want that to happen, right?"
Thankfully, the little girl is not too hard-headed, so she lowers her stance in understanding.
The lady smiles and whispers into the girl's ear: "Then I will tell you what…"
Her whisper's interrupted when something lightens in front of both of them. The two vampires turn their attention to it, and when the light dies down, they see a duo standing there, with one of them wearing Priest clothes. And Akasha knows him. "Mikogami?"
"...Lady Bloodriver?" The Chairman takes a look around the area to see that he and the unknown man are already in the castle, despite being very far away a few seconds ago. He then turns to the vampires and asks: "What happened?"
"THAT happened." The unknown man points his finger towards a direction, and all see that he's looking at the restricted Moka. "I hope we all know what needs to be done, correct?"
"...We need to seal this monster again." Despite being suspicious of the man, the priest has no moods to deal with it now that he has more urgent matters.
"Of course." The elder vampire smiles sadly. Her hand clutches on the rosario without everyone noticing…
"And we are NOT trading YOU for her, Lady Akasha." Her eyes snap back to the unknown man, with his left hand glowing up and dissipating quickly to reveal a sheathed katana. "I didn't come here to see a broken family. Keep that rosario, but don't use it on your own daughter."
Mikogami instantly imprints that conversation in mind so he can question the man later.
"...Who are you?" Akua questions.
"Rescue first, questions later. Good?"
The final nail in the man's voice shuts the little girl up, and now the whole group's attention is towards the monster, and the girl it captured.
Without a single signal, all of them rush out. Akua uses her signature move, Hougetsu Jigen-Tou, to try and cut the tentacle parts of the monster. However, right before her eyes, the cut parts reconnect in less of a second, and the thing immediately continues the strike. Mikogami sees it coming and quickly grabs her out of the way of the attack, leaving behind a cracked ground.
Seeing that her other daughter is saved, Akasha goes for the kill as she keeps destroying the tentacles with her brute force. Though she doesn't have much time as the hand that captured her biological daughter is slowly retreating into its main body. She sees it and takes a leap directly to the destination. Parts of the hand start morphing and turning into small tentacles and all of them aim at her. The woman braces for impact knowing she won't have time if she tries to deal with them… only for the tentacles to be slashed into thousands of pieces with no chances of recovering.
She then lands on the hand, just in time for the unknown man to teleport right next to her. Using the unsheathed blade, the man stabs it right into the middle of the enormous palm. A second later, electric sparks through the monster's body, causing it to roar in pain. And somehow, this move causes the tentacles that bound the young vampire to retract back, giving her mother the chance to grab her back. For a second…
"I. Said. Don't!" The woman startles, as she feels the intense glare from the unknown man. "Jump out of here, now!"
"What about you?"
"Just to make sure that thing doesn't aim at you for now! Go!"
With no further words exchanged, Akasha quickly carries her pained daughter and aims for a solid ground to jump away from. Thanks to the shocking treatments, only a handful of tentacles can attack them, and they're immediately intercepted by Mikogami who arrives to secure their escape.
When they land back to safe ground, they quickly check on Moka to see if she has any fatal wounds, then look back to the hand just in time to see multiple tentacles start aiming at the unknown man and their locations. Akasha leaves her daughter to Mikogami, and starts kicking/punching the attackers into oblivion, then notices the other group of tentacles being decimated like before as well. She then notices the sky turns dark as black clouds gather, and a few seconds later, thunder strikes from Heaven down to Alucard, slowly burning its exposed body.
"It should be enough to knock it out for years." The unknown man teleports back to the safe group, and Mikogami sees the clear sight of complicated spell symbols on the man's right arm. The thunder still hits constantly as the group watches the monster slowly being subdued. "Damn, just how sturdy is it?"
"...Are you trying to knock it down?"
"Isn't it obvious, mister Chairman. A sealing process is still needed, though." He then turns to the girl in his arms and asks: "Hey, is she okay?"
"She's not dying, thankfully. But we need to somehow seal it down…"
"Why not just let her release it? It's not good holding back."
"...You clearly know how this happened, don't you? And yet you still suggest that…"
"And I'm here to make sure that thing won't wake up to that."
"...Is she okay?" The unknown man doesn't need to turn his head to see who just asked it.
"*Sigh* We're going to need a long talk after this."
Let me remind you all again: Dimension/Universe Jump sucks. This is the perfect example of it.
When you make a Jump, there's a fifty-fifty chance you will end up in a world you knew, and a ninety percent chance to end up in an event you know the outcome of. Now, you have two choices:
Either watch from afar and let everything run on its own
OR
Intervene, for better or worse.
And my job, fortunately or unfortunately depending on the person viewing it, is to do the latter.
Aaaaannnnndd of course, by doing so, I create an AU. Put a lazy *Hooray* here if you want.
What would you do next, you ask? Well…
…
"This would at least knock it out for a decade, unless someone's dumb enough to break the seal." Placing his right hand with the rosario on the floating barrier, the unknown man mumbles a few more words before the barrier turns invisible, sealing the unconscious monster. He then throws it to Mikogami who grabs it with ease. "Let's go and check that family, should we?"
"Who are you?" The Chairman repeats his question like a third time, he needs to know as quickly as possible.
The man groans as they start heading back to the surface. "For all Heaven and Hell, after beating that monstrosity of a monster, I would not like to repeat the conversation."
Mikogami watches the man with suspicion, and a great deal of interest. The man, who looks like just reached adulthood, just subdued a centuries-old monster which took the three Dark Lords to seal it away on his own. A Youkai like him should have been known before them, and possibly hunted down for ages. Yet they have never heard of him before…
"...Is something on my face?" The man notices the stare and asks.
"...Nothing. Just curious." The Lord decides to keep it down for a while, and sends out a creepy smile.
The other man groans.
After a while, they're outside of the ruined mansion, where the family and the servants are checking on the wounded. The head of the family, Issa Shuzen, notices their arrival and greets: "I would like to express our thanks to you for subduing the monster. What can we do to repay it?"
"My contribution is little in this event. The one receiving such praises should be him." The Chairman gestures to the man standing next to him, who just cracks his neck in boredom.
"Hm, I would have doubted it, but Akasha told me the story, so I suppose I can believe you."
"I don't do this for rewards." The man replies. "Well, rewards in physical form to be precise. We can discuss a bit further after we talk to the rest of your family."
"...And may I ask why?"
The two old men then watch the unknown man take a deep breath and release it out…
And clap his hand and smile brightly. "I'm a sucker for happy endings!"
The lords raise their eyebrows, curious and amused at the change of attitude and how the unknown man just dropped a statement completely out of place.
"...We can continue it with my family, if that's what you want."
"Sure!"
Even Issa has to chuckle at the man's new attitude, and he leads the duo to his family, while the other children are worried about the third child's conditions.
"Issa, Mikogami, and… well, my apology, but we haven't gotten your name yet." Akasha greets the trio as they approach.
"Ah, it's my fault anyway." The man scratches his head while laughing. "Can't think of anything else other than saving you all back then."
"For that, I'm greatly in debt. I hope we can find a way to repay it."
"Well, a couple of promises that you don't break would be nice." The man lets out a toothy grin. "Keep your family safe and happy. And don't try doing moves that I stopped you from performing. I really hate seeing you pulling those out when I'm around."
"That's the duty of a mother, mister." Akasha can't help but giggle. "But thanks for the reminder."
"May I ask what kind of Youkai you are?" Mikogami then changes the subject. "You seemed to manipulate electricity very well…"
"Nope! Just human!" The man proudly says without hesitation.
Everyone's expression stays the same, but the air is filled with silence that even a water drop can be heard.
"...Well, at least that's how I still see myself." The man tucks out his tongue childishly. "I'm serious! I don't know which category I would be in if I'm a Youkai, so I call myself a human!"
"...Interesting. May you share your stories with us?" The Chairman is very interested to hear what kind of man he is.
"Eh, sorry, but my time is almost up." The tongue is still out. "Can only have a few more minutes before I get thrown into another place and time."
"Why are you helping us?" The group turns to the newest member of the family who is sending the unknown man a look of suspicion. "You claimed to be human, yet you helped rescue us vampires. Why?"
"Does it need a reason to do good things?" The man replies with a question that takes Akua aback. "Also, vampires, oni, kappas blah blah." He even makes a hand gesture to mimic himself saying. "Like, does it really matter? I think simple: I help the good, I try to reverse the bad to good or just beat it up until surrender, and I just kick the evil's a$$."
The eldest sister hides her surprising face under her gloved hands. The one who caused the problem and the youngest one just hang their mouths in shock. And the second youngest just looks at him in surprise. The elders also start chuckling at how this 'young' man just claimed how he lives so easily.
"Anyway, before I completely vanish out of here…" Another hand gesture that causes more chuckle from the Chairman. "Lady Akasha, it's better to help your daughter to learn how to control it rather than sealing it again. If her power suddenly outbursts, just let her beat the crap out of something."
"...As amusing as it sounds, may I ask for a reason for such a suggestion?"
"It's just the body's response, Lord Shuzen. When you suddenly receive or unleash power, letting it out would help your body instead of holding it in." He then turns to Akua and continues: "Keep your emotions and your hatred for humanity in check, okay? Alucard didn't seem to care what it wanted to eat. If you try calling it again, expect some smacks on your butt the next time we meet."
The girl's face instantly blazes up as she tries to cover the area while glaring at the man embarrassedly. "Don't you dare."
"Oh I dare. Even if you become an adult, I'm not ruling it out."
"No you don't!"
"Oh I do!"
It repeats for a while that everyone starts chuckling to a full blown laugh.
"Welp, a good teasing after that BS fight." The man lets out another breath after the laugh. "Okay. So I'm not sure if I'm going to meet you again. Kids, be sure to behave around your Mama Bear, alright?"
The children nod while the lady turns away to hide her embarrassed face.
Issa then notices the man's body starting to fade away. "Mister…"
"Hm? Ah, this?" The man raises his left arm to see it slowly losing color. "Haiyaa. Time for me to go to another land then. Goodbye everyone!"
"Thank you for saving me, mister!" Moka bows slightly to the man before he completely disappears. "Can we ask for your name?"
"Ah… nope!" This man says with such a proud voice. "Like my mystery and funny times. Bye bye!" He makes a last salute gesture before completely vanishing out of existence.
"...Interesting fella." Mikogami chuckles.
"...Is what he said true? About him being human?" Issa questions, putting up his serious face.
"I don't smell any Youkai scents from him, so he probably is." Akasha replies. "But… if he's truly human, then maybe it's a good thing there are people like him still out there."
"I think he's the unique one… if we can meet again, then your dream might come true."
Third time. Dimension/Universe Jump sucks.
At least I can get myself some good times. And oh boy, don't know what after-effects I caused after that. So in summary I kinda saved the mom? That siscon sister… yeah, just hope she wouldn't try breaking the seal I applied on Alucard. No more Outer or Inner Moka, I believe (Hope they take my advice. Wishful thinking).
So let's see where and when you threw me into this time. Hope that I don't have to follow the timeline again. Haha!
…
…
…
I jinxed it, didn't I?