Phaid led the group to a small western-style house in the southwestern section of the city. From it, Arikado could sense a very faint presence of dark magic; he probably would not have noticed if he were not looking for something to distract him from Julius and Reo's annoying chatter.
"Hmph. That's rather small," Reo commented, looking annoyed. "It would have been better if we'd just gone to my mansion."
"Whatever," replied Phaid, and Arikado nearly sighed in relief that the vampire hadn't started yet another pointless argument. "It's bigger on the inside." Phaid stepped up to the door and pushed it open, revealing a rather large living room that seemed to serve as an entryway. It was actually rather lavishly decorated compared to how normal the outside looked.
"Wow, it's actually pretty nice," Julius said as he looked around.
"Morgan, I've brought some people here!" Phaid shouted as he shut the door behind everyone. "Don't freak out when you see them!"
"There's no way..." Reo looked around suspiciously, as if expecting a monster to jump out from behind the furniture. "This is way too big!" And then it suddenly made sense to Arikado; the magic he had sensed earlier must be doing some sort of dimensional manipulation.
"It's dark magic, isn't it?" Arikado turned to Phaid, whose eyebrows went up at the question.
"You could tell?" He nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Ten times as big on the inside as on the out."
There was a creak of a door opening to the group's side, and from it stepped a relatively elderly looking gentlemen with grey hair and a rather large mustache. His attire suggested that he was a butler or similar servant, though Arikado could sense from his aura that he was a vampire as well. Upon noticing who was with Phaid, however, his demeanor changed to shock.
"Young Master–!" he began, but Phaid cut him off.
"Wait, wait. Don't worry about them, Morgan, they're not here to start a fight or anything," the younger vampire said quickly. Arikado stepped up as well.
"Genya Arikado," the dhampir introduced himself. "Forgive us for intruding; we do not bear any ill will. We will make our stay as short as possible."
Morgan, as Phaid had referred to him as, considered this for a moment, before saying something in hushed tones to the vampire next to him. Phaid replied, the two exchanged a few more replies, and then Morgan returned his eyes to the other three.
"Please forgive me for acting rudely. You are guests of the Young Master, after all," he apologized, bowing his head. "Please, follow me, just in here." He opened the door widely and stepped into what appeared to be a dining room of sorts; suitable for the discussion Arikado wanted to have.
"Well, at least he knows his place," said Reo aside, only really audible to Julius and Arikado.
"Oh shut it, you arrogant–" Julius started to reply, but Arikado interrupted him.
"Enough," the dhampir said simply, leaving out the part that the pair's need to incessantly belittle each other was driving him mad. Once in the room, the four took seats at various locations around the table.
"Make yourselves at home," said Morgan. "I will return shortly with some tea."
"Thanks, Morgan," said Phaid. He then turned to Arikado and Julius. "So, how do you want to start? Introductions?" Arikado nodded, and started to speak.
"As I said, I am Genya Arikado. This is Julius, of the Belmont clan of vampire hunters." Julius nodded as Arikado spoke his name.
"I'm Phaid. I guess you already know that I'm a vampire. This here is Jinguji–" Phaid started to introduce hunter next to him, but was interrupted.
"It's Reo," the blonde hunter said as he leaned back into the chair, prompting a 'yeah, whatever' comment from Phaid. Arikado and Julius noticed the name Phaid used, but said nothing of it. At that moment, one of the doors opened, and Morgan entered carrying a tray of tea. After he had given some to each person, Arikado continued speaking.
"Julius and I are here for one reason. I assume you have heard of Dracula?"
Phaid nodded, but Reo spoke up. "You make it sound like he isn't just a story." Julius rolled his eyes at the comment, but thankfully didn't start another shouting match.
"He exists," stated the dhampir. "He has been a menace to humanity for many years, and it is due largely to the efforts of the Belmont clan that he has not become a major threat."
Julius smirked at Reo, who made only a non-committal grunt.
"It's true," said Phaid as he turned to Reo. "He's pretty well known for actively attacking humans when most of us prefer to stay hidden or blend in with them."
"Before we continue," Arikado started, looking to Phaid. "I had a few things I wanted to ask you specifically, Phaid."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Phaid replied in confusion. Arikado stood and motioned to the door to the right.
"Arikado? What are you doing?" Julius asked as Phaid stood and followed Arikado to the door.
"It is of no particular importance. Just a small matter I wish to attend to," Arikado replied as he exited the room.
Phaid flashed a smirk as he stepped out as well, saying, "Play nice!" Reo apparently took offense to the condescending comment, but Phaid had shut the door before he could reply. The blonde hunter sat back in his chair for a moment before sitting forward again.
He turned to Julius. "Julius, you can carry crosses, right?" Julius's eyebrows went up at the questions, but he nodded, wondering what Reo could possibly want them for.
"Yeah, but why would you...?"
"Give me one," Reo said, his eyes focused on the door.
"What?" The red-headed hunter said in confusion. "Just use one of the 50 that you're wearing!" Julius indicated the cross in Reo's tiara and the one on the latch that held his mantle.
"I can't!" Reo replied, sounding annoyed. "These ones are important. Just give me one of yours; trust me, you'll see." Julius sighed and produced one of his crosses from his coat, strung together on a necklace of beads, handing it to Reo.
Taking it in his hand, Reo moved up to the door and hung the cross on the handle before returning to his seat, chuckling. Julius didn't really see what was so funny.
"And the point of that is...?"
"You'll see, just wait..." Reo replied with a devious smile. There was silence as neither Reo nor Julius spoke before the Belmont thought of something to say.
"So what's with the pseudonym?"
Reo looked surprised for moment, but then settled down. "Hmm, I guess Murasame gave it away..." Julius looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
"I'm Akira, of the Jinguji clan of vampire hunters," Reo continued, looking at nothing in particular before returning his gaze to Julius. "But as a hunter, I am Reo." Julius looked at him as though he were crazy.
"Any particular reason?" Julius asked.
"Hmph. I suppose you couldn't understand," Reo said, adopting an arrogant-looking smirk. "You do use your real name after all."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Julius replied angrily. Just what was Reo trying to imply? Before he could go too far, however, Julius caught himself. It was probably just Reo's way of saying 'I don't have a reason' while simultaneously being a jerk. "What about Phaid? You called him Murasame." Reo was silent for a moment.
"I first met him at school three years ago, and that was his name...the 'human' name he was using," Reo said thoughtfully. "I guess I got used to calling him that." Julius got the feeling there was more to the story, but was interrupted from continuing to pry by a shocking sound and a shout from the other side of the room, beyond the door.
"Jin–Reo! What the hell?" Julius heard Phaid call from the other side of the door, and then he understood. It was just a stupid prank; Reo would hang the cross on the door, and Phaid would try to open it...
"You're a jerk," Julius said and he got up and took the cross from the handle. Just as he did so, the door was opened by Arikado, who was not looking pleased.
"It wasn't me!" Julius insisted, despite the fact that he was standing in front of the door holding a cross in his hands.
"Oh?" Arikado said in mock disbelief. The dhampir had a feeling it was probably Reo but felt like making Julius sweat now. It was his way of revenge.
"It does sound like something Jinguji...Reo would do," Phaid said from behind Arikado.
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Reo haughtily, not sounding offended in the least. This could only mean a counterattack. "I got the idea from your girlfriend, after all."
"Hey! Leave Seira out of this!" Phaid said angrily as he slipped past Arikado and into the room. Both Arikado and Julius turned to look at the two.
"Huh," the blonde hunter said thoughtfully. "So it is her that you like." Julius couldn't help but find the path the conversation was taking to be amusing. It was made even more so by the obvious blush that covered the young vampire's face.
"Wh-what? That's...!" Phaid stammered, but Reo kept speaking.
"No worries. It's not like it wasn't obvious, anyway." The hunter waved his hand dismissively.
"You...! S-Shut up before I make you...!" Phaid said, his hands curled tightly at his sides. Reo leapt to a standing position at the comment.
"That a challenge?" Reo said, clearly interpreting it as such.
"Hey, wait...!" Julius started, trying to move between the two. Unfortunately this only added to the problem when he was dragged into yet another nonsensical verbal sparring match.
Arikado, still standing in the doorway, put his hand to his forehead in frustration for the second time tonight. It seemed that things were not going his way at all. About the only information he had managed to obtain was the name of Phaid's girlfriend and some information about the political situation of the non-human groups Phaid knew of. His plan of speaking with Julius about Dracula apparently had gone out the window as well, meaning that the entire series of events he had been forced to put up with so far had been a complete waste of time. He was quite tired of it, and briefly considered letting the three of them go at it, if only to relieve him of having to deal with them.
"Stop this, all of you!" Arikado said loudly, managing to be heard.
"Don't tell me what to do, old man!" Reo retorted immediately.
"You sound like a spoiled kid, yourself!" Phaid shouted in response. "Any vampire could take someone like you on without any trouble."
"Don't push your luck!" Julius said to the vampire. "Vampire hunters aren't as much of a pushover as you think!"
"I don't need you to defend me!" Reo said to the Belmont, raising his own voice above the others.
"I wasn't defending you, idiot!" Julius replied.
All Arikado could do was sigh and step slowly out of the room, closing the door behind him.
"Why do I even bother...?" he wondered aloud. Arikado looked up and became aware of Morgan standing nearby him.
"I've found that it's simpler just to let the Young Master do as he pleases," said the vampire, chuckling slightly. "I think they enjoy the arguments, really."
Arikado raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"I think is how they show friendship to each other," Morgan said thoughtfully. "Julius as well."
"Perhaps so," Arikado said, staring out the window. He chose not to add that they would do well to do it in a less irritating way.
"Or perhaps they simply need someone to beat some sense into them," the vampire added with an amused smile.
Arikado actually smirked at that.
And that's the end of that. I probably won't go any further unless I actually get motivation to write a real story. (You know, something with more than two chapters.) Funnily, despite it's length it actually felt like it was dragging on to me.
I think I might of overdone the argumentativeness of Reo and Phaid in the name of humor, but it was interesting enough to write even if it was a bit much compared to their original game.
As always...read it and tell me what you think. Comments on characterization especially, as that it one of the most essential elements of fanfiction. Other critique is, of course, welcomed as well.