Chapter Nine: Life Isn't Fair

I woke up after a fitful nap, reminding myself that I was in a Charactering world. I yawned and stretched before sitting up. I glanced around the room and noticed that there were clothes folded and placed on top of the dresser. Curiously, I climbed out of bed to investigate; there was a khaki colored shirt with a red and black crest on the left side, a set of similarly colored shorts, and white over-the-knee stockings. A pair of brown boots was sitting by the door and there was a note beside the clothes.

After your nap, please be dressed in uniform and meet your training partner outside your room. I've taken the liberty of supplying you with proper sleepwear and mourning clothes, should the occasion call for it. Walter

Walter is the butler who was keeping an eye on me in the hospital. He must have realized that I was still recovering from the incident and when he showed me to my room, he told me to wait at the door and I think I went to bed immediately. Glancing down at my rumpled clothes, I just shook my head and started to undress.

Surprisingly enough, the uniform suited me, it was a little more form fitting than I was used to, but I was sure that there was a reason for that. I noticed that a hairbrush was placed in an obvious location and I tried to tame the monster that was my hair. I slipped on the boots and tightened the buckles accordingly before standing tall and tested walking in them. Despite their looks, they were rather light on the feet, not much to say for quiet, but I could walk in these for long periods of time if push came to shove.

I walked over to the door and opened it. I yawned once more and prayed I didn't have morning breath as I left the room, closing the door behind me. I noticed the man in red was leaning against the wall opposite and a little ways down from my room. He glanced up, his shades glinting red and his smile returned. I walked towards him and he stood tall, and I was struck by the realization that this guy was like, really tall!

"So you'll be my training partner?" I tried not to fidget in front of him and he just smiled wider. He started to lead the way downstairs. While walking with him, I noticed a lot of people moving in the hallways wearing a similar uniform to what I was wearing, though none of them were wearing shorts. Some of them stopped what they were doing to watch us, and it made me feel a little annoyed. We reached the main floor and were heading down another hallway in this maze of a mansion when I saw Walter. He was talking to an older man in uniform before he saw me, and nodded over the man's shoulder. The said man glanced over his shoulder casually before performing a double take. I noticed a group of the men watching us had followed us to see this person.

"I suppose that she can learn, but I don't see what good she will do for us." Walter seemed to be annoyed with the man but kept his face neutral. "I guess I could give it a shot, though. Orders are orders."

I stared at the man, not quite understanding what he was saying to Walter and I glanced up at the man in red as the older man turned to face me fully. The man in red's smile grew in width and the older man sighed, and looked like he aged ten years.

"Well now, little miss; do you know how to use a gun?" I glanced back at the older man with a surprised expression and several of the men laughed at my reaction as I flushed and shook my head. "This is going to take a while then. Alucard, I think you should wait a couple of days before you join us for training."

"If you say so, Fargason; I was looking forward to watching her though." The man in red turned on his heel and disappeared swiftly. I was still staring at where the man had left until the older man, Fargason cleared his throat loudly.

"Come on then, and a word of advice: don't space out on the battlefield, or else you won't survive very long." He led me down the hallway along with Walter and some of the men. We seemed to have walked down several hallways before a heavy metal door was opened and I gasped.

The room inside was huge! There were several people already in here practicing their shooting. I was trying to observe everything at once and a couple of the men chuckled as I swung my head from side to side, trying to see everything. Fargason cleared his throat loudly and nodded over to a stand closer to the door. I joined him at the stall and noticed that this was a targeting range. He placed a small pistol on the ledge along with an ammunition clip.

"You see that over there?" All the men seemed to stop what they were doing to watch as I nodded at the set of targets that Fargason was pointing out. They looked something out of a cop show; cartoonish profiles with vampire teeth, innocent terrified civilians, and mischievous looking monster children.

"I want you to shoot every vampire in those targets. Remember, looks can be deceiving and that there are proper innocents in there. Don't go shooting wildly; now this is how you load your weapon."

After observing Fargason's demonstration and proving that I was paying attention to what he had said by unloading the clip and reloading it, was I allowed to try shooting at my "targets." I pulled back the safety, mirroring what I remembered from that night when the white haired man shot me at the theatre. The first vampire's head blew off almost as quickly as I heard the loud blast and I felt the gun jerk back, almost throwing me out of alignment.

"Any idea what happened there, girly?" One man questioned, amused by me losing my balance. I closed my eyes, trying to remember the term I once heard from a TV show.

"Was that the recoil?" Several men hooted in appreciation, as if I was taking this seriously. I lined up with the next target and pulled the trigger. A clip and a half later, did I deem myself cleared of the "vampire threat" as Fargason called it. Only to find out that I missed one target, though I was told that for my first time, I did a decent job. Walter escorted me back to my room, and I had a whole new appreciation for law enforcement and anyone else that was authorized to shoot a gun; it was not as easy as it looked on television, and now I was exhausted.

A/N: School is almost done for me, though I'll have to start looking for work soon. I'll be able to write on my spare time, though I'm sure that everyone else manages.

Yes, I know Fargason is from the first anime series of Hellsing, but I really liked that guy; so I put him in here even though I'm trying to follow the Hellsing Ultimate universe, (because that anime series follows the manga.) Rate and review, you'll be credited for it!