Castle in the Sky
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: These have been rare chapters, allowing a continued narration, but it 'will' go back to moments in time... this was never meant to be a full fanfic after all.
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Soma turned, peering over the top of his riceball to confirm if Mina was actually greeting Arikado. Finding that he wasn't really sure how to handle the situation now that the proverbial cat was out of the bag. Sure the messages being sent to Arikado kept putting in the word 'plushy' but that didn't mean Soma wanted the Guardian to show up and see it for himself.
He watched as Arikado coolie scanned the grounds, taking in all the women before settling his eyes on Soma. When his eyes dipped down and locked with Soma's, one elegant black eyebrow rose up as the only sign of his surprise.
"Young Master!" Sailor Chaos called out with a cheerful wave. Earning multiple looks of surprise as the scouts managed to look away from the new comer before returning their gaze back on the hottie.
Soma included in the surprise as he found himself asking aloud, "how is he 'young' when he's older than me?" Only then he recalled the 'other' part of his existence and shook his head. "Never mind I get it."
"Well he 'is' your son," Sailor Chaos casually answered promptly, her voice overriding his 'never mind'.
And because she wasn't facing Soma, she didn't see the expression on the guys' face. But she 'did' catch the shocked looks as everyone turned to look at her, then down at Soma.
Which made sense because said person's big blue glass like eyes had turned into swirls, smoke was puffing out of the sides of his head, and he had question and exclamation marks dancing around his head. Coupled with his cheeks puffed out from being mid bite, and that he was now swaying it was pretty clear that Soma was as clueless to 'this' revelation as the rest of the girls in the group.
"And you would be?" Arikado asked, completely dismissing every other person and zeroing in on the slip of a girl who would know 'that' bit about him. He began walking towards Sailor Chaos and Soma with the intensity and focus of a hunter. His tone was as cold and efficient as a sword of ice, cutting away any potential chatter. And his fixation on those two was giving every other princess a chance to enjoy the sight.
Black business suit with a sheen of high quality fabric, with a white shirt underneath the coat and a vivid red kerchief peeking out of the front chest pocket. His shoes were polished and there wasn't a wrinkle in anything he wore. While his face was a chilled beauty, not thick or corded with muscle more like a refined statue from some long ago sculptor. His hair was a deep brown on the boarder of black that flowed thick down just past his neck and near his shoulder blades. Not a hair out of place, or a blemish to mar perfection, he could have been a master sculptors' greatest work.
A manifestation of perfection of human flesh made a living person.
He didn't need bulky huge muscles, or scars to indicate power or control, he moved with the expectation that others obey him on command. But that he was supposedly the 'son' of Soma and that Soma was a Vampire it raised a question about what he was. After all, if he was also a Vampire than how was he out in the day? Soma made sense because he was human now, and had to bring out the vampire attributes. Or have Rei smack him with an ofuda.
Sailor Chaos shrugged nervously, moving back a bit closer to Soma, "I'm your Fathers' Castle."
"The Castle."
She nodded and Soma made no effort to step out and face his Guardian.
"And you took this form and came here because."
"I want to be with Master."
"I want a word with you Soma." Arikado announced ignoring the Castle's reply, crossing his arms and looking down where Soma stood. Treating Sailor Chaos like she no longer existed and that he could see the plush Dark Lord.
"Can we discuss the fact that apparently I'm your father?" Soma asked as he stepped out, begrudgingly. He stood there with his half eaten riceball and his mouth in a small frown.
"No."
"Hey you said you would tell me everything about the Castle, back when we first were in it!" Soma protested as Arikado watched him like a hawk, showing no emotion to the fact that he was looking at a toy version of his father.
"You asked 'about the Castle' you never once asked about myself, and I am not an accessory to the structure." Arikado retorted shortly, before turning his steps away from the crowd of humans and towards the other side of the Shrine.
Soma looked down at his half eaten rice ball, then towards Mina and Makoto who had the drinks and extra food. His lips turned into a wavy line before sighing, "save me a sandwich and drink!" he called out before turning to walk after one of his grumpy guardians. "I'll have you know I wrote you and you never replied..." Soma began as a warning for any potential accusations he was about to receive.
"The castle itself, turned itself into a Sailor Scout so it could escape the seal... You realize this is your fault." Arikado began, his irritation evident in his voice, as he turned to face the plush version of Dracula and glared down at said Plush.
"No she turned into a normal girl who can change into a Sailor Scout. And how is it 'my' fault that she did this?" Soma corrected before demanding an explanation while taking another bite out of his rice ball. At least then he wouldn't say anything that he might regret, given this constant run of 'everything is your fault' issues.
"She got the idea of transforming from 'someone' and given she didn't appear until today and you've had a pair of encounters with those scouts. Encounters that show off the use of transforming ones form and that you are more empathetic to the suffering of human like life forms..." Arikado began earning a vibrating white eyebrow on Soma.
"Oh sure, everything is my fault!" Soma finally exploded, "well in that case I'm going to go and sulk, at least 'then' I shouldn't be doing anything that results in world destruction!" Soma cried out in offended outrage. Though as a viewer, watching a stuffed toy that stood almost waist high, stalk across the shrine grounds while taking an angry bite out of a large felt rice ball was hilarious.
Soma threw himself under a tree, taking more angry bites out of the rice ball with angry puffs of smoke rising up from him. While Arikado fixated his attention back onto Sailor Chaos who had made her way to Makoto and was sampling a rice ball herself. Though the moment Arikado laid his eyes on her, she proceed to give a shiver as though she sensed it.
"Like father like son, they're both nice on the eyes," Minako muttered as she accepted a cup from Mina. Who nodded, her lips tight in a straight line but her eyes bright with amusement.
"I would never have realized they were related though..." Mina confessed as Rei took another cup.
"Surprise..." Rei answered in a tone normally reserved for low whistles.
"Father and son... hmmm..." Michiru noted as she reached the small group and took a cup for herself and one for Haruka.
"But it seems inverted, the son oversees the father," Hotaru noted as she approached with a sandwich in her hand. "Though Soma seems to lack memories so more than likely his son looks after him for his own safety... eeep.."
Hotaru had looked over at Arikado and caught his clearly displeased expression, and realized that he was a 'Vampire' prince. Regardless of how he was out and about during the day, he apparently had heighten senses and could... hear them...
Oh dear.
"Ladies I believe we're being rude..." Hotaru muttered, with a slight head tilt towards Arikado.
Mina jerked her head around just to see the look and gave a small embarrassed squeak of dismay. Before shrinking herself down further, while the other princesses proceeded to zip their lips.
The Prince in the group however...
"So you're the prince of Vampires," Haruka turned and walked towards Arikado in all casualness.
Arikado didn't answer beyond a small nod of the head while Usagi finally opted to climb to her feet. Only to have Soma's voice carry over in that same huffy angry tone he had started to develop. "I don't hear you answering! Were you raised in a barn?!"
The retort earned a few raised eyebrows and Haruka actually gave a small twist of the lips to indicate her own sympathetic amusement over the situation. Her expression turning sympathetic as she saw Arikado's expression darken in irritation towards the tree where Soma was sitting with notably less felt rice ball.
"Are you involved in this conversation?" Arikado coldly inquired, though he didn't raise his voice by much, trusting that Soma could hear him.
"Are you going to continue addressing royalty like they are a bunch of commoners? You're in the presence of royalty and a Priestess in Training, act like you were raised to know how to behave!" Soma shot back glaring at Arikado with his plushy face doing its best to look infuriated.
Arikado stiffened at the sudden disciplining he was receiving from Soma, partly because it was 'Soma' who was too young to remember proper European nobility training. While the other part being that because of what Soma 'was' and because he was angry, Soma's order was triggering the 'Power of Dominance' aspect of his abilities. Forcing Arikado to have to actually 'obey'.
Some days it didn't pay to get out of the coffin.
"I fail to see a proper receiving line so I can do such a thing," Arikado retorted, his voice cold enough to put a rim of frost on the cups that Mina had been carrying.
Makoto blinked and deciding maybe, while it was odd for 'her' to do this, it was more Usagi's thing, she needed to take charge. Hoisting the tray a little higher she moved a bit into Arikado's frame of view so he would notice her.
"Well, we're all reincarnations of princesses if that helps any... That's Tenou, Haruka who is the Princess of Uranus, and her spouse Tenou, Michiru she's the one with the light green hair and the Princess of Neptune. Next to her is with the long dark hair Meiou, Setsuna the princess of Pluto, and the younger one next to her is Tomoe, Hotaru; the Princess of Saturn. Then theres', Hino, Rei who is the..." Makoto began when Soma cut her off.
"Trigger happy fire starter with black hair and tastes like knock off hot sauce!"
"YOU WANT TO FIGHT?!" Rei shot back waving a fist in fury at Soma.
"Princess of Mars," Makoto continued with her eyes closed, "Aino, Minako is the Princess of Venus and she's the blond... Then there's Mizuno, Ami our resident doctor and Princess of Mercury. And that leaves our superiors, the Chibas, our Usagi who is the Princess of the Moon and her daughter who we call 'Chibi Usa' since well, her name is also 'Usagi'." Makoto finished giving a soft sigh at the long list of introductions.
Each woman nodded as their names were spoken in turn helping place a name with the face, with Usagi adding an almost mournful, "Though all our kingdoms were destroyed... so titles and receiving lines seem a bit much." But despite the tone she gave a polite bow of the head.
"You forgot yourself, Makoto..." Chibi Usa pointed out with a slight grin on her face.
It caused Makoto to blink in embarrassment before she began to balance the tray on one hand, as she recalled from numerous European customers that they shook hands. Thus she stuck out her own hand with a big smile and added, "and I'm Kino, Makoto, the princess of Jupiter!"
Arikado took the hand and held her hand by her fingers, before giving a slight bow over her hand his dark hair slipping down and brushed against her bare skin. Despite the many battles she had taken, somehow it made her feel like her skin was still as smooth as when she was in her teens. "My lady, please accept my gratitude that you would handle introductions."
Haruka had to hold in the laughter, as she watched Makoto suddenly freeze up in surprise, her eyes grew wide and a luminous blush took over the Soldier of Jupiter.
Suddenly Sailor Chaos cleared her throat as she straightened herself up her tone taking on the type one would expect of a Major Domo. "And you ladies are in the esteemed presence of the King of Darkness, the Lord of the Children of the Night, the immortal king of all those shunned by the light of Day for not being 'human'. Lord Dracula, though in his current form he goes publicly by 'Cruz, Soma' While here before you stands his son and heir, Prince of Darkness, Prince of Vampires, the oldest of Vampire Hunters-..."
"So Soma is Satan?" Rei asked cutting into Sailor Chaos' introduction causing her to stumble to a halt.
"I AM NOT!" Soma shouted as Sailor Chaos also shook her head.
"No, Satan is the king of 'Evil', the Master is the King of 'Darkness' I totally understand the confusion. But the Master is only like, a 'count' on the social ranking of evil, and well he's not particularly 'evil' at the moment so I thought to just drop that." Sailor Chaos explained as Arikado straightened himself.
At least he didn't have to explain that he didn't want his true name spoken in the presence of others.
Though the second he released Makotos' hand and turned his attention away from her, Haruka took the tray away from the girl. Grinning wickedly the whole time at the young maiden like blush on the poor Princess.
Ami, for her part, had been idly turning around when she caught sight of Soma sitting under the tree. He no longer had clouds angry, the clouds had frowns on their 'faces', white clouds over his head that came off more like smoke from a fire. Now, instead, he had a large rain cloud hanging over his head with felt rain drops falling on his head. Curious about this strange display of Plushydom, she walked over and with her hands on her knees she leaned over.
"Are you ok Soma?" She asked politely in her medically professional voice noting that he had those felt streams of tears coming down his face again while he ate.
"Oh... I'm fine..." he answered as he continued to eat until he had only two remaining clumps of his original rice ball in his hands. "I just was thinking of how Arikado has been since we first met since I started living this life..."
Soma's mouth turned into wavy lines before he suddenly developed a pair of large streams of felt shooting into arcs from his eyes. Apparently to indicate that he was in a seriously emotionally wrecked state, "I must have been a horrible father for him to turn out this way. So cold, calculating and rude!"
The professional responses denying such a harsh self assessment died on her lips as she tried to think of 'something' to say. After all he 'was' a Vampire Lord, a rank of Evil, and his son from his past life was an admitted Vampire 'Hunter'. Meaning that he must have done 'something' to turn Arikado against his own father right? To say that Ami felt like she was suddenly presented with a metaphorical hand grenade with the pin missing would have been most accurate.
Arikado turned to look at the pair and mentally growled at how Soma behaved before turning his attention onto this... 'sailor scout' thing that was supposed to be the castle. "Change back."
Sailor Chaos looked at Arikado in quiet concern, clearly weighing something in her mind before sighing. "Well you 'are' here and that means you have to protect the Master if these crazy scouts get trigger happy... sooo..." And with that she, disgruntle in posture, turned back into the girl that Soma had encountered the moment she introduced herself to him.
He turned his gaze back to where Soma sat watching as Soma faded out like a memory only to come back into focus as a HUMAN and not a stuffed toy. The transformation seemed to startle Ami a bit as she straightened up since Soma wasn't so close to the ground anymore and she didn't have to bend down so low to be close to his eye level.
So there was solid correlation. If the girl transformed into Sailor Chaos, Soma was going to transform into a plushy. Day just kept getting better and better...