Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: You know, I dream of a Bearmont stuffy comic or animation... It would be so cute!
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"We need Kazu, there's simply no other choice."
It was the first words out of Christopher's 'mouth' after Simon finished reading the messages that were being sent between Yoko, Valencia and Alex. The news that Alucard was 'missing' brought all the Belmonts over to the chair where Yoko had dropped down to sit. The candles flickered wildly for a moment before returning to their stable bright burn.
The Belmonts watched as Simon struggled to get back to the cellphone without speaking among each other. Not that their voices would have helped Yoko, what with the fact that she lacked her brothers' abilities. Leaving her in this, almost pointless, conversation with her mom and Alex regarding Soma. It was becoming a back and forth discussion on his mentality, behavior patterns that he had established in the church and if they were different than when he first arrived.
Having to explain that the first time he arrived he had yet to fully recover from what Celias' own stunt. She didn't put Simon down, instead she held the phone at an angle when she finished typing so that he could read what was being said. Undoubtedly Simon would relay the information to the rest of his clansmen, proof found in how they all stood at her feet, probably with fixed intense focus.
But what were they supposed to do 'now'?! How were they supposed to find Alucard, or at least keep Soma settled down? Soma trusted her, and having the trust of 'Dracula' was a rare thing, something probably on par with maybe Death. What way could she possibly inform him that Alucard was missing that wouldn't ignite his reactions?
"He could ask Sophia to find Alucard again, and this time beyond just 'oh he's sleeping' like pin point it on a map or something," Christopher suggested. His voice the first to break the silence among his clansmen.
"Valencia has mentioned Kazu, but does she know that Kazu can see and contact Sophia?" Simon asked from Yoko's lap, watching as the conversation continued to scroll past his eyes. The various wordless sounds were all he got for answers as he continued watching.
It was almost amusing watching since there was probably about four different conversations going on, three of them taking place between the still humans. Undoubtedly Valencia was discussing things on her end with Alex, then the pair had to tell Yoko. But at the same time Valencia was holding a more private conversation with Yoko in regards to the fact that Kazu even provided a possible option.
"They are discussing having Alex and the Freelance Police go looking for Alucard," Simon reported.
"Simon get the phone and let Yoko know that Sophia can be reached," Christopher ordered.
"Grandfather? What's a 'Freelance Police'?" Richter whispered to Juste only to get a plushy puppy shrug for an answer.
Roughly meaning 'hell if I know'.
Simon gave a disgruntled sigh as he began reaching for the phone like some idiotic baby reaching for their bottle. Honestly, now that she knew who they were, she should have been working on getting them their own phones or something. Even if they couldn't talk, they could still text after all! "Give me that phone you dumb ass witch."
"Simon are you going to be brutally de-stuffed or something if you don't say something verbally crass every second of your life?" Juste inquired with a flat voice, irritated by Simon's near constant verbal abuse towards everything.
Richter and Christopher both gave Juste a marginally surprised expression internally, after all it was usually Juste who kept his cool longer... All the same Richter reached out and gave his grandfathers' pup back a small rub... "Its going to be ok grandfather..."
"Yes, Simon isn't crass 'all' the time... just all the times he opens his mouth and lets words out," Christopher offered, which resulted in both Juste and Richter to turn and look at him. "Is something the matter?"
"Simon, if you could text in a request for a joke book as well," Richter replied to Christopher by way of request to Simon.
"Fine be that way... You know my son had no problems with my jokes!" Christopher argued his arms crossing his chest.
"Didn't Dracula kidnap him and turn him against you as well?" Juste countered politely as one ear quietly dipped down.
"Then shouldn't Richter find my jokes funny as well?" Christopher shot back for which Richters' mouth twisted to the side.
"I still had a better sense of humor."
"Stop gossiping they're actually getting around to planning." Simon snarked as he kept reading the texts that were being sent as well as Yoko's own replies.
"Oh you wanted the phone..." She suddenly remembered that Simon had wanted to say something so she switched to the private chat she was having with her mom. Flipping up the text board she let him go to town. And surprisingly he 'could' type at a pretty good speed for one with those nubblies.
Sophia visits Trevor.
Simon popped the 'send' button and watched as Yoko quickly typed out a text letting Valencia know who typed the sentence.
Can you reach her and see if she can find Alucard? That would shorten this greatly.
Valencia's reply got Yoko busily typing out the word 'sure' when Simon began straining for the phone yet again.
"What?" Yoko asked as she brought the phone to Simon.
The other Belmonts watched calmly as Simon began typing on the phone, yet Justes' ears began to dip down in concern. "She does not look pleased... Simon what are you typing?"
Both Christopher and Richters' own eyes shifted from the phone that they had been more fixated on, over to Yoko's deepening frown. There was something about her posture that made them feel wary as though something had offended her.
"You already..." Yoko bit her lower lip as she pushed away the candles to give herself some room on the desk.
"Simon, what did you 'write'?" Juste repeated his question as they listened to the sound of Yoko pulled out a sheet of paper, followed by the rattle of the cup she held her pens in. The hard click of the pen sounded ominous especially considering the sharp swipes of it that followed.
"I told her that Sophia reported that Alucard looked fine, sleeping like any other vampire." Simon answered, though without his usual snark as he strained against her hold so he could read what she was writing.
'He's a Dhampire, elaborate.'
The words were almost slash marks along the paper with the word 'elaborate' underlined several times. Simon read the words out for his clansmen before he began typing on the cellphone again, "does anyone recall anything specific that Sophia might have said?"
"He was sleeping in a hotel, fully dressed and laid out like he was in a coffin..." Richter reported warily eyeing Yoko as he spoke. There was something troubling over the fact that she corrected Simon's use of the world 'Vampire'. Reminding Richter that Yoko was already a grown woman when he and his fellows were placed in their plush prisons, save Simon. Yet Yoko had known Alucard since her childhood, it appeared that there might have been something important that they missed out on. Perhaps there was a nuance they had missed, something that only Yoko would have recognized?
While Christopher focused more on Yoko, recalling that they had spoken of how Yoko was strangely underutilized. It felt so long ago when they were talking through the night and wandering through the Vatican. Finding bottles of what was supposed to be 'holy water' and still unable to get Soma alone and in a private conversation to find out what was in there.
Seeing an angry Yoko was not something they had ever seen before, and personally he would have said she looked to be increasingly more upset the more Simon typed on the screen. "I fear what is upsetting her," he finally voiced his thoughts for the others. The soft sound of fire consuming the wicks of the candles was comforting in how it reminded them of their lives. Before the flip of a switch turned on a light, there had been candles and lit fireplaces. If they just ignored the fact that Yoko was still human and they were in these small plush bodies, it felt almost like being alive again. Regrettably unable to actually 'talk' to Yoko, yet there was clearly something going on.
Yoko sat there growing more and more agitated as she saw the words Simon was bringing to the screen. Above the screen there was a small number indicating the continuing conversation being sent from her mom and Alex. She 'seriously' needed to talk to them, coordinate plans and figure out where she would need to go. Yet the more Simon wrote the more her insides twisted with feelings of anger, betrayal, and disappointment. From various sources and various reasons, extending from the fact that this was hidden from her to the idea that they figured she didn't deserve to know. Despite being the current representative of the Belnades clan.
She tried to calm herself by reminding herself that they wouldn't know how Alucard slept so maybe the information made sense to them. Simon wrote 'vampire' so clearly he didn't consider the fact that Alucard still had very much human blood in him. Really, how would the group know that Alucard only 'slept like a vampire' when he was gravely injured? Or that he actually 'did' change clothes when he slept in a normal bed?
Simple answer was that they didn't. Why would a bunch of grown men know how a Dhampire slept, they weren't young girls curious about Princes? At least that was what she kept telling herself as she watched Simon finally finish typing. He sat back in her arm and pointed to the screen as though that explained everything. Leaving her to try and write words on a sheet of paper without ripping through said sheets of paper.
And it was most certainly a struggle to write out the response, explaining in written words that Alucard had clothes he wore to bed. That he slept on his back when he was alone, but would roll over towards any threat if one entered the room. Or just flat out wake up if the threat level was high enough. That if he was in a hotel sleeping in full clothes on his back like a vampire, it was the loudest of SOS's.
But that they knew and never told her hurt all the same. As much flack as she gave Alucard, he was literally her most precious friend. Regardless of how he viewed her presence, he had always been patient with her, if cold and aloof. However; he had given her shelter, a place for her toys and games, a place where she could be 'Yoko' not 'the daughter of the Belnades'. He had supported her despite her half blood status, and lent his aid when Kazu needed her.
He remembered her favorite snacks, her birthday, the games she liked to play, and all this time he was a prisoner of a group of cultists. If they captured him it meant they knew he was important or, worse, who he really was. Who knew what he was being put through and here she was sitting at her desk trying to explain this to Simon and the others.
She held the sheet out for Simon, fully expecting him to read this out to the rest of his clansmen while she went back to reading the texts she missed. Reading as her mom started wanting to know what was going on with her silence and having to explain to them someone interrupted her. While confessing to her mom that it was Simon.
"She wrote that Alucard sleeps like a vampire when he's injured, and like a normal person when he is sleeping in a normal bed. That if he was sleeping fully dressed in a normal bed like a vampire, then he was probably wounded or already kidnapped."
"You mean to say we've unknowingly abandoned Alucard all this time?" Richter asked, his ears starting to droop. Recalling how Alucard had come to rescue him because of what Shaft had done, and now... well now this would be almost the same thing only Alucard wasn't possessed.
Hopefully.
"We've really dropped the ball on this... we should have told Yoko when Sophia told us originally..." Christopher covered his face with a paw as he tried to think of how these cults could have gotten to Alucard in a hotel room. Did they knock him out and carry him in? Or had he been at the hotel by his own power and then someone got to him while he was in there and set him up in the bed?
"But why carry Alucard into a hotel room?" Richter inquired worriedly.
"It makes no sense for him to be in a hotel room though, I mean he could have been attacked while in the room. But wouldn't the fall out of such a battle be obvious enough for Sophia to notice?" Juste inquired, rubbing his muzzle with a paw.
"Indeed, and depending on the type of hotel, its not like they could have just carried him into the room without causing some concern..." Christopher noted his eyes cast to the floor and watching Yoko's feet move absently.
"They could have gassed the room..." Richter began then stopped as a thought occurred to him. "What about a Black Mass? If they're doing multiple Masses what if they did one to suppress him completely?"
Simon looked down at Richter before he began reaching for the phone again, it was a pretty good point after all. Yoko 'did' mention that Blinov had sacrificed Celia to increase his powers and shut down Alucards. But she didn't elaborate much beyond that, and it made sense that Alucard would refrain from explaining exactly what she did.
The church wasn't exactly promoting trust given how Yoko had been treated, and Alucard clearly had not been telling everything to said church. Especially given the fact that he hid Soma's whole existence from it. They knew the Black Mass was meant for summoning Dracula, but could it have other purposes? In fact, Richter got taken over with just a good, long, uninterrupted session of magical abuse and torture. It might not even require a human sacrifice to get Alucard knocked out and Simon seriously had to ask a few questions.
"Ok so besides the possibility that Black Masses could be used for more than just summoning Dracula. Any other questions you want asked of Yoko?" Simon called down as Yoko begrudgingly handed him the phone again.
All three fellow plush Belmonts looked at each other then back up at him as he went about typing.
Leaving Yoko to mentally go over the rest of the conversation, her leaving to go look for Alucard made sense. She 'would' be able to communicate with her brother and get details through him from Sophia. But Soma was still an issue, she was one of the few people he interacted with in the Vatican and leaving would be iffy. Since it meant leaving Soma and he possibly would stop coming to the Vatican all together with her gone.
But it wasn't healthy for him to stay in Alucards' estate all the time, yet expecting Soma to tolerate being passed on to someone else was ridiculous. He wasn't an orphan and he would put it together that Alucard was in danger if Yoko disappeared, too. Though maybe that was the wrong way to look at the situation, perhaps it would be better to treat it like a normal assignment. At the same time Soma needed to be watched and she couldn't exactly expect him to hang out with the Belmonts..
Well she 'could' but not in a dignified way that would leave the Belmonts happy.
Though it suddenly occurred to her that she could possibly have Alex and the Freelance Police keep an eye on Soma? They really needed to meet Soma, at best so Soma could meet the others and hopefully develop a few more bonds. Reviving Yoko's loathing of Celia for breaking Soma as she did, allowing him to snap into being evil again. If the idiot had left things well enough alone, Soma would never have gotten into trouble, and they wouldn't have to deal with all these Black Masses.
Or at least Soma would have been able to help with his access to his souls and to Death itself.
So what do you remember about Blinov's spell? The one that beat Alucard back then? And do you know why Sophia has never been able reach here? We find it weird that she came to see us when we were in Japan, but never came here. Given that she's Trevors' wife and therefore knew about me.
"Oh..." Yoko blinked as she looked at that surprising list of questions. The 'spell' and apparently Sophia had never been in the Vatican? Saying she was surprised by the question would have been putting it mildly as she thought back. "Well, I don't know why Sophia wouldn't come here, as to the spell that was used. I can explain that one, you see..."