Well, one day's enough. I wanted to post the chapter immediately, so you know what? Here it is. The suspense was killing ME, and I'm the one who wrote the damn thing. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for the reviews so far- you guys are awesome, as always! Kind words never fail to make me smile!
CHAPTER 1: A WHOLE NEW WORLD
Grassy, rolling plains in bright sunlight assaulted his eyes next. It was late afternoon, roughly an hour before the sun set. Alucard grimaced. It figured he would be dropped in the sunlight. Although it wasn't too bad. At least night would be falling soon enough.
And he was weary, too. By God, was he weary. He had battled millions of soldiers, then Anderson, and then Walter, all in one quick procession. Which wasn't to say that Alucard didn't enjoy the opportunity to come up against a worthy opponent. He was simply tired and wanted to retreat to his cool coffin.
He wanted to go home.
Funny. He thought Hellsing was his home.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that the least likely place he had been dropped was Hell. And, assuming he didn't have everything completely wrong, there was no way he would ever see Heaven's pearly gates. So, that left three possibilities.
One, he was still alive, and trapped in some alternate dimension for the rest of his life. Which, to be fair, didn't sound all that bad, and was definitely not what he deserved after all the blood he had spilled.
Two, he was in Hell, but the devil was currently toying with him, and his punishment would be realized soon enough.
Or three, Alucard was not anywhere at all, and he only existed inside of his own dreams. But, that option somehow seemed the least plausible. If he was dreaming, he would be seeing a lot more carnage.
He would find out soon enough, he supposed. Though this was a bit of an improvement from the pain he had been feeling earlier. Even still, his stomach disagreed with him. Talk about a case of indigestion. If he ever got back to Integra, he was going to down a flagon of Pepto-Bismol, regardless of whether it was mixed with blood or not.
Seras would surely pitch a fit. "I thought vampires could only drink blood!" she would cry in outrage. "There's much you still don't understand, Police Girl," would be his response, a mischievous grin to back it up.
Although, perhaps she wouldn't. Seras had undergone quite the change in his absence. Those innocent blue eyes had turned into crimson pools of darkness. She had become a right and proper vampire.
Would he ever return to teach her all the things she needed to know? Would he ever see her again?
He could just picture it now. Seras and Integra, weary but victorious, returning to the ruined manor that had once been their fortress. They would mourn his death. Seras would be more open about it, because, well, that was Seras. She would visit his coffin, wherever it was stored, and perhaps speak to his grave, and let spill her crimson tears. He could feel her anguish through the bond as it was slowly torn apart, bit by bit. She was not one to let go so easy.
Integra would bottle it. Deep, deep down, down into the dusty recesses of her shattered heart, she would loathe him for disobeying her order. She would curse his name. Perhaps she would take after her father and drown her sorrows in a bottle of fine brandy. Or, perhaps she would carry on and put up an indifferent façade. She had become skilled at putting on the mask, especially in her later years.
But he could always see it in her eyes. Letting go was not easy for her, either.
Damn that traitorous bastard of a butler. Damn him. Now he couldn't die in peace. Integra was bereft of nearly everyone she had ever loved. Walter just couldn't keep his fucking head straight, could he? He had to give it that one last go. He had to see if he could come out as top-dog, be the big man that could never be forgotten. Spoiled, stupid brat.
Everyone was forgotten eventually.
A cool breeze brushed his sweat-dampened locks from his brow, and he closed his eyes. They were all such idiots.
He slowly breathed in.
And his eyes flew open.
He smelled blood.
/.\/.\/.\
Alucard paused as he gazed up the steep hills. He could just make out the yellow flames of the campfire within the decrepit castle. From what little bits and pieces of conversation he could detect, these voices spoke Japanese. He himself was not familiar with the language, but it sounded as though two men were arguing about something, a third cutting in every so often.
He cocked his head as he watched the figures dashing in and out of the window. The scent of blood led there.
Just when he had made up his mind to interrupt, a new development was brought to his attention. He was not alone at the base of the hills.
This voice was so quiet, so soft, he almost didn't catch it at all. But, sure enough, the camouflage-printed tarp betrayed a figure lying prone beneath. There was only the one there, as far as he could tell, and yet a second voice, a male one, responded. A radio, he thought. A spy!
His grin was wide and manic. How interesting!
Alucard chose to approach the mass beneath the tarp instead. It would be easier to interrogate one human rather than three at once. Groups seemed to induce courage, and he needed someone compliant if he wanted to find out just where the hell he was.
The exchange went on for a little while, though not so long as to be irritating. It would be politer (and more hilarious) to wait until she had finished her little communiqué before introducing himself.
Finally, when it seemed she had gone a decent enough time without speaking, he stepped in front of where the tarp was lifted. He spied a pair of binoculars and grinned all the wider. Most definitely a spy.
The girl seemed puzzled (what on earth could be that red thing blocking her view?), and removed them from her eyes. What she saw standing right in front of her nearly gave her a heart attack.
Alucard's fangs glinted in the moonlight. "Konnichiwa," he purred.
Her mouth fell open, and she would have screamed if the ground had not suddenly ceased to remain solid beneath her.
The girl, the tarp, and the monster all disappeared in a flurry of shadows.
/.\/.\/.\
"I'm going to die! I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die!"
Why did he ever think it was a good idea to greet her in Japanese? Everything that had come out of the girl's mouth since they landed in a remote section of the forest (out of the earshot of the men in the castle), had been nothing but pure gibberish. He was sure she was just pleading for her life or simply crying about her fear, but her hyperventilating was getting annoying.
"I have no idea what you're saying," he finally snapped. She froze, taken aback by the language barrier and the tone of his voice.
As soon as he spoke in a different language than the one she was familiar with, she seemed to realize something. She held up one hand in a halting gesture before rummaging through her bag. Alucard watched curiously as she pulled out two thin strips of paper with a triumphant grin. She stuck one onto her shoulder, then offered him another. He accepted it enquiringly, searching the paper for something that he might recognize. Much to his annoyance, there was nothing on there of use.
"There!" she exclaimed, and Alucard's eyes widened when he recognized the plain English. "That'll make it so I can understand you!"
He looked down at the paper again, then back to her. So, that was what it was for. "Nifty little tool you have there. Is it magic?"
She nodded. "Yes. I am Olminu of the Octobrist Organization. Who are you and why have you kidnapped me?"
"The name's Alucard. And I have no idea where I am, so you're going to explain it to me."
Olminu blinked. Up close and unobstructed, Alucard could finally get a decent enough look at the girl. She did indeed look a part of some sort of organization, judging by the crisp white outfit and the six-pointed star patch on her arm. Her appearance reminded him somewhat of a blend between Sera and Integra; her hair was about as long (though fairer and done up) as Integra's, and she even had round glasses to boot. Her pale skin, muscular (and curvaceous) body type, and facial structure mirrored Seras's almost eerily. "Are you a Drifter?" she asked.
His eyes narrowed. "Is that some sort of joke?"
She shook her head vigorously. "A Drifter is a warrior transported here from another world. But… I've never seen any human do what you just did."
"I'm not a human. But, I guess you could call me a warrior," he grinned in amusement. "In the strictest sense."
Olminu's heart skipped a beat. Inhuman. He's inhuman. Oh no. "T-Then… do you possess any particular hatred for humanity?"
"That's a complicated question: do I hate humans?" Alucard chuckled, and Olminu wished with every ounce of her being that it didn't sound so insidious. "I suppose not. I'll kill a human, very easily. But I wouldn't say that I despise them. Why would it matter?"
She stiffened her spine. If she was going to get out of this alive, she was going to have to put up a brave front. "Do you wish for the complete eradication of mankind?" she asked firmly.
"No," he answered. "After all, it would be counterproductive for me if every human were deceased."
Olminu observed him curiously. "Do you suffer from amnesia? Or did you meet a weird man in glasses who forced you through a door?"
"I came through a door after meeting the spectacled man." Alucard said. He tilted his head and stepped closer until he loomed over her. With the pale moonlight shining behind him, he cast a dark shadow over her. His ominous red eyes glowed as they gazed upon her. "Now, I'm through with being interrogated. It's time to answer my questions, now. Where. Am I?"
A cold bead of sweat ran down her cheek and down her neck. With all the other malevolent souls in this realm, none of them had ever felt this dangerous. He did not seem particularly interested in killing her (yet), but at the same time, it felt as if she were teetering on the edge of a dark precipice, with only her words to latch onto. Everything that she said right in this moment would decide her fate. If she spoke one wrong word, she would undoubtedly wind up dead.
She took a deep breath, then nodded. "As you might have noticed, you're no longer on Earth. But I don't think you're dead yet. In this world, you can be killed. It's possible that this is just another plane of existence, but many believe that Drifters and Enders are snatched away from their battles right before they do die. Not everyone here is one of the two races I mentioned; many are humans born here (like me), many are demi humans, and many are wild animals or inhuman altogether. Each Drifter or Ender are carefully selected. Murasaki (the man in the glasses) chooses the Drifters, EASY chooses the Enders. The reason why I asked you your feelings towards humans was because… I've never actually met a demi human Drifter."
"And these so-called Enders," Alucard said. "They wish total human eradication." And there it was, that terrifying grin again. Combined with the sinister glee in his eyes, Olminu thought he looked more akin to a demon who had just ripped out someone's spine. Which wasn't too beyond the pale, considering he probably was someone who could and did do exactly that. He did say he was not a human, didn't he? Could it be possible he really was the spawn of Satan? "The Drifters and the Enders; warriors fighting for humanity and against humanity, the pawns of their mysterious puppeteers, left to their own devices to fight their battles. Do you suppose the clash of Murasaki and EASY are some bastardization of the dispute between God and the Devil?" He laughed again. For someone who had only just been dropped there, he sure found this entire situation just a tad too amusing. "What fun! Tell me, little mole, which am I?"
Olminu gulped. "W-Well… I would normally say you are a Drifter, but… given your, er, circumstances… I have no idea."
"Of course." Alucard crossed his arms, then nodded slowly. "I see. So I have been dropped into this world, chosen to be a pawn of an ambiguous chess player. Not too different from the way things were before. So that brings us to now. Who are those men you were spying on? Are they Drifters?"
She nodded. "Yes. Three of them. But anything beyond that, I have no idea."
"And you were sent to gain information from a distance, to figure out if they are reliable for your organization. And every Drifter you have come across thus far has been a warrior of some kind…" He smiled again, though this time it didn't seem as if he was contemplating murder (though it was no less scary- it seemed he had an affinity for smiling too, unfortunately). "And no doubt, your leader will be curious about this new otherworldly stranger who has popped in out of nowhere."
Olminu furrowed her brow. "What are you getting at?"
Alucard stepped back, and suddenly, it felt as if she could safely breathe again. The threat of her death seemed to have diminished. "I'm going to let you get back to it."
"Wh- REALLY?" Olminu gasped.
"Indeed. I'll even let you tell your boss about everything- including me. I'm sure he'll be very interested to know that there's someone else who's entered the chessboard. But I'm also going to be sticking around you while you watch them. I have a feeling this has all been set up accordingly. I am supposed to meet these men. Otherwise, I would have been sent off to join the Enders."
And that, Olminu thought, would have been very bad- for everyone.
"This spell you gave me- will it make it so that I can understand them, too?"
She nodded. "Any language another person speaks while you hold that receipt, you will be able to understand it."
"Good."
And with that, once again Olminu found herself pulled into darkness.
What's Alucard going to think about Toyohisa, Yoichi, and Nobunaga, I wonder? Next chapter, let's find out, shall we?