Aria of the Ascending Soul

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta By: Me...

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It was surreal to be sure as the group loaded up on the bus to travel to Mina's home, the Hakuba shrine. Two average college students, Soma the Dark Lord, and two Lolitas who were cheerfully chatting with Mina. Was it any surprise that such a set up would earn a few questioning/concerned expressions? There was also no way they were going to be able to sit together, with the bus moderately full.

Soma found himself a nice spot next to a little old lady, Mina sat on the edge of her seat so she could turn and talk to the two lolita's who were cheerfully slipping into the only fully empty seat on the bus. Leaving Kazu a chance to have a moment to himself and take in the pleasant madness that his day had suddenly turned into.

And yet...

Yet...

Somehow the pair had made his day not so dark as it had started out. All the weight of his birthday and the truth of his family lineage no longer weighed him down. Instead the only weight on his shoulders was the antics that he was now involved in. In all honesty he never saw himself in a situation where he was attempting to 'save a plushy'. Literally, he was sitting on a bus with a pair of lolitas who were invested in dressing up a stuffed lion. Said lion was a plushy toy with the soul of an ancient vampire hunter. With the cherry on top being said hunter was a one time friend of the DARK LORD who was ALSO on the bus.

This was the stuff of cartoons, not real life.

"Pick up your phone Kazu," Trevor called out from inside the bag. He might not have been able to move as much with the Lolitas near by but he was able to position himself so he could peek out. In doing so he figured it might be safe for them to have 'some' type of conversation at the moment. Kazu never really dealt with actual vampires, all he had were those stupid books and movies and such to go by and that was never really good.

He felt the subtle vibration as the bus rolled along and Kazu's weight shifting as he pulled out his phone. Once he heard the appropriate greeting he continued chatting while aware that Kazu would now be going into 'coded' answers. Since well to the world it would appear that Kazu was chatting to someone else over the phone and not a dog in his bag. "So... I realize I can't see outside the bag, but if I had to guess, I'd say that Soma has rolled the minds of those two girls.

"Is that even real? I mean are you sure that's what happened?" Kazu asked, leaning against the back of his seat and gazing out of the window at the world passing by.

"Vampires have an ability to overwhelm the mind of a human, the weaker the will of said human the faster they go under. Now I'm not saying that I believe Soma has actively done that to these girls. But at the same time, its not like he has been trained to be a vampire since he's been raised as a human."

"I see, yes well, I suppose he's not been given the chance to get comfortable with those changes. I hope Grandfather doesn't mind this interruption," Kazu answered with a passive uncertainty in his voice.

Trevor acknowledged Kazu's awareness of Soma's human/vampire state as well as using 'Grandfather' as Kazu's way of talking about Leon. Kazu always had to figure out on the fly ways to ask questions that might not have been considered 'normal'. "I'm more curious about what you see when we get to the shrine considering what Sophia told me. That place is going to be a possible hot bed of arcane energies, good and or bad."

"Yeah, it sounded like a mess, hopefully it won't be a bother or keep us long," Kazu agreed sounding amiable. His eyes drifting from the various ads posted about the upper walls of the bus, before drifting outside the window and in the distance he could see the shrine as they approached. From a distance he couldn't see anything that made it stand out to him amid the afternoon light.

"Kazu? Hey are those two girls wearing name tags or something? Because unless I lost my mind, we're traveling with a pair of girls with no clue as to the names of," Trevor asked thoughtfully. After all the first part of the conversation had been regarding a vampires' ability to roll the minds on of others. And well, those girls were still happily traveling with them, was the notion of dressing up a lion 'really' that interesting?

Trevor honestly hoped there was something else causing the girls to keep this up, he didn't want to believe that the human population had finally been reduced to dressing toys as a type of entertainment. Maybe he was being delusional as he had many hours in front of the television and seen enough to know it probably was true. The technology of this modern age had been wonderful, making life so simple and easy for everyone that it literally made humanity near obsolete. Which was a tragedy all its own in his eyes. If Trevor had been restored back to a human life at that very moment, he would still have taken pride as a wood cutter. While the modern age turned their noses up at such hands on jobs and found ways to make it done as fast and easy as possible.

Truth be told, Trevor was starting to think this age was an outright boring one, and he was developing a fear that one day. Just one day, he was going to have to rely on Simon for some form of activity. After all, somehow Yoko had managed to create a new version of soul binding spell which wasn't something that Sophia even thought was possible.

Just another of those little digs that knocked the wind out of Sophia's sails about how powerful she was when she had been alive. Not that he didn't love his wife, Trevor very much loved Sophia. However; that didn't mean she didn't have vices that occasionally got under his skin back when they both were alive. Like, Dark Children, Sophia had never been anything but professionally polite towards Alucard for their brief time interacting.

And while they both knew that future generations would get inherently stronger, Sophia had always a touch of arrogance about her place in the family tree of her clan. Which one could see in who inherited what just by meeting some of the other hunters. Simon clearly getting the 'not human equals monsters' outlook from Sophia, while Juste and Richter had gotten his more open minded world view. Christoper was a bit of a papa wolf, but given that Trevors' son wasn't here and he was traveling with people either older or younger than himself. Well, there was little for the man to get protective about, especially when one was a plush toy.

"You know, that's an excellent question, I'll see about finding out for you," Kazu answered realizing that yeah, they didn't know the two lolita girls by name, in fact did they even introduce themselves to the girls? "Sorry about that, I'm usually not this bad at remembering stuff."

"Its fine, Kazu," Trevor answered rubbing his chin with his paw. Unwilling to give voice to the fact that Soma could have rolled Kazu's mind as well. Again unknowingly, because if Soma only was up to his pre vampire memories, it meant he had stuff in his own natural arsenal that he didn't know about yet. With that thought in mind it occurred to him that he never asked about how Soma's powers were sealed. He understood that Soma was wearing a holy ring that sealed it, but 'how' did it seal those powers. Could Soma just not access them? Did he suffer some type of adverse effects if he tried?

"Well, was there anything else you needed before I go?" Kazu asked politely as the span between comments began to grow into something beyond normal.

"Ahh, just keep an eye out as we approach the Shrine, given what Sophia said I'm curious about how far out the damage has become." Trevor suggested wishing he could stick his head up enough to peek out. But even if he did, being stuck in the bag meant he couldn't look outside the window. He couldn't be allowed move around if he was visibly outside the bag either and that was always a level of hell to him.

"Alright, I'll do that, see you later," Kazu answered before 'hanging' up his phone and putting it away.

With that in mind he did another check of the rest of the 'party' he was in. Soma was still sitting beside the old lady, but the Lolitas and Mina had now moved to their own group seat in the far back. Given how animated the girls were, he was starting to seriously worry about the fate of Leon. Just that the poor esteemed hunter was about to become a fashion model. He honestly doubted that this was what Leon was looking forward to when he allowed himself to be plushed.

Even so, he had made the choice and somehow found a way to manipulate circumstance to allow him into the living world once more. Which was interesting in itself, because Yoko never realized she was summoning a particular spirit when she cast the spells. So she knew she wasn't getting something evil and went along with it. But how did Leon figure out how to place himself into a position where he would be grabbed? Or even get Mina to select a lion shell for him, given his name. It was just beyond coincidence that his name was Leon and his shell was one of a lion.

Kazu was going to give himself a headache if he kept this line of thinking up so he finally just let the thought patterns go and resumed keeping an eye out for what Trevor asked about. He had never been called out to the Hakuba shrine, so this was going to be a first for him. Thus he turned his gaze towards the city outside and tried to see if there was any visual hints of disturbance upon their approach.

But the Hakuba shrine 'was' pretty high up a hill, he was sure he would have seen something if there had been anything to start with. Thus the report from Sophia had been an interesting story, threads damaged and or frayed. A source of supposedly pure evil was the only force holding the seals in place which wasn't what it was supposed to do, but whatever.

And that was the thing that bothered him, that idea that Soma was 'pure' evil yet how could he even still exist. Here was someone who was, essentially, the eye of a hurricane of pure evil and he was surprisingly engaging, friendly and social given what Kazu had seen. Trevor did not sugar coat anything he had said about Soma, nor did the other fellow hunters. Soma was supposed to be a threat to all things and yet it felt impossible. The teen had a near 'it is what it is' attitude about life, and treated meeting the Lolitas like a momentary distraction or game rather than anything malicious.

But if he wasn't rolling Mina's mind, then Kazu doubted that he was rolling the girls as well, so this was just a natural result. 'I am sitting on a bus, with two lolitas, a shrine maiden in training, a Vampire Lord in human body, and a whole bunch of normal innocent people. People who could be killed horribly if said Vampire Lord in human body willed it. And I'm more concerned about plush toys and shrine status. Doesn't sound at all like Soma even registers as a threat and realistically he should.' Kazu thought as he watched the high walls that protected the sacred space of the shrine rise up slowly in the distance.

The wall that protected the shrine looked in place, the hill that he could see rising above it looked as green and vibrant as expected. From the distance everything looked fine, but that didn't mean there weren't changes on the grounds themselves. He didn't fully understand what the Castle was on its own, in fact he hadn't been filled in on a lot of things. So just 'checking on the Castle' was pretty limited in terms of what he could actually 'do'. Knowing context was important for him to be able to translate visual cues.

So all he had to work with was Soma and that this shrine was tied to him somehow... In retrospect he could only shake his head in amazement. Given how Soma acted and what he admitted to, it was possible that the seal was keeping appearances on the external side and not the internal. Like a chick holding a crumbling shell around it to keep itself safe. However that only created an image in his head akin to the neural network of the human body. Which then made him more interested in having a casual conversation with Soma.

Save the whole, Soma didn't remember and they were in public.

How could Soma, a living breathing embodiment of all things that shouldn't exist but did, not cause chaos where he went? Sure the Lolitas were a thing, but they were harmless. For some type of focal point of evil, Soma sure couldn't do it right. And while the Hakuba shrine was known for purification and cleanings, the fact that Soma was fine with visiting it? Visiting the 'Vatican' seriously, if he was walking through all manners of consecrated ground unchallenged it raised the question of if Soma was even really 'evil'.

Was what Kazu saw and felt from Soma even Soma himself? Or was he a victim of some type of smear campaign that just made him 'act' out. That the evil was less 'him' and more how he thought he should appear to others? Was Soma's power purely neutral and just shifted with the passage of time or was there something actually 'evil' about this guy?

As the bus approached the shrine he started to see what Sophia had spoken of before, as thin strands of what looked to be webbing stretched across it. Spiritual energy that wasn't disturbed should have been as invisible to him as the air they breathed. But he could 'see' the energy all about the shrine the closer they got until the shrine looked like a spiderweb of several families worth of spiders, large, powerful, spiders...

Literally cocooning the whole shrine...

While he wasn't afraid of nice normal earth bound spiders, there 'was' a certain number of spirits that he had encountered that gave him the creeps. Spiders were on that list, and he wasn't thrilled at the thought of there being demonic spiders that Soma 'ruled'. Being trapped in a spiders' web was NOT an experience he wanted again.

So as they pulled up to the shrine, and he got up and prepared to leave the bus, catching sight of the girls in the back and Soma standing up. More over, the old lady did as well and he was starting to wonder if Soma 'was' rolling minds. It seemed plausible as they made their way off the bus and he was able to stand out in the light of day. There was a type of waviness to the air, like it was super heated though he didn't feel it.

"Wow, I can see it and I'm in a 'bag'," Trevor commented idly from Kazus' side as the poor Medium waited for his group.

Distantly one might note, for Mina seeing the old lady exclaimed excitedly and seemed to know said old lady. So maybe Soma didn't roll the elderly lady's mind and she 'did' come of her own consent. For which meant there were now 'four' women with them and only Soma to keep Kazu company as he began to get a little worried. What if someone remembered Trevor and wanted to dress the poor hunter up too?

Though what would you give a dog?

Soma quietly parted from the gaggle of girls and rejoined Kazu with a patiently amused expression on his face. He gave a slight toss of the head towards where the girls were and shrugged before he made his way up towards the steps. His eyes expressing an expectation that Kazu should follow him.

Which Kazu did just to avoid the girls remembering that he had a stuffed dog in his bag. Though he was also curious about how Soma was dealing with the shrine, after all, the shrine sealed away 'him'. So he was curious about how the shrine reacted when Soma made trips to it, for the young lord 'was' still uncontested in his visits. Something that Kazu found rather peculiar given what Soma 'was' and what the shrine was supposed to be doing.

For which the answer was, surprisingly interesting.

Now that he was on the stairs ascending to the top, he could see the original seals torn raggedly asunder. The dark cords he had seen, blood red now that he was up close, were holding onto the original seals. He could see ahead of him various small holes were these cords spewed out from, and that they were holding the original more natural seals in place. As though someone saw a rope snap and grabbed both ends to keep them together. Surprising to be sure, to think that maybe the prisoner was trying to stay in his prison.

It was unnatural, weird, and almost uncomfortable to think about as they walked along and for every supposedly 'evil' cord they passed. It seemed to swell with strength from being in Soma's momentary presence. The image of Somas' indifferent stroll up the steps made Kazu finally bring himself to ask, "Soma, given what this place is to you. How do you feel coming here?"

Soma blinked at the question, giving Kazu a sideways glance before looking up the steps and thinking about it for himself. It wasn't a question he ever really focused on before and as he did so, he began trying to find ways to express this sense of 'home not home'. Because there 'were' different things between the shrine and Arikado's sanctuary after all.

"Like I'm home. I know I can go back, but right now? I'd rather stay out here," Soma finally answered with a quiet voice. It was a simple answer, and while Kazu meant well, Soma didn't want to discuss the details. The shrine felt more like he was sitting at the Castle gates, that he was willingly letting a perfectly good Castle sit there and rot when he could just open the gates and go home. And yet here he stood outside, sometimes glancing back at it and wondering if he could just go back and... and what?

Where as Arikado's sanctuary felt more like someone else's home yes, but there was just enough undercurrent similarities that he didn't mind being there. Of course watching Kazu's bag suddenly jerk and knowing Trevor didn't like hearing anything 'Dracula like' out of Soma made him smirk as his eyes stayed on the bag.