Recent events caught the attention of many people around Tokyo, and all of Japan for that matter. The fact that it had was hardly surprising. Thirty-odd zombie-like humans bashing up the shopping district and humans would be disturbing to anyone. Especially those that recognized their recently departed loved one among the mass of people.
Support groups had popped up overnight for those that had to watch their once-dead family members die again and turn to ash.
And also unsurprisingly was the fact that the opinions of the group that stopped them were mixed. That wasn't to say that the vast majority weren't glad they intervened. Still, there was a portion that hated anything they couldn't explain with their reason and science.
Satoru wasn't surprised when an emergency meeting of The Order of the Van Helsings was called that evening. It really couldn't be avoided. Werewolves, vampires, a witch, and whatever that lioness thing was had shown up in the heart of Tokyo.
So with a sad heart, he left home that evening to go to a meeting, knowing Mayumi wouldn't be coming home that night anyway. And really, more than finding out that Naru was a vampire, that was the worst thing for him. He loved his wife and hated that she was so angry at him.
He even could admit from her point of view that he could see where she was coming from. After all, he loved Naru too. In his mind, she just didn't have all the information to know how evil vampires really were. So, of course, she couldn't really understand what recent events meant.
When he arrived forty-five minutes out of town at the home of the leader of their fraternity, he parked the car and grabbed his bag from the trunk. He was greeted at the door by Niko, their President, who showed him to a room where he could change for the meeting, of course leaving his shoes by the front door.
Once he removed his shirt and slacks, he put on a long white tunic that reached his ankles. He noticed his black sock and changed into white ones. He then removed his watch and placed it and his phone in the led-lined box that was provided for him on the dresser. Next, he pulled out his long brown cowl that covered his tunic and even his hands and raised the hood. And, of course, he was still wearing his signet ring.
Next, he placed his clothes, neatly folded, on the bed for him to change back into after the meeting that night when it was time to return back to his empty home. His bag was set neatly by the foot of the bed.
When he reached the door from the bedroom, he closed his eyes, took a deep calming breath, and focused on what was going to happen tonight and not his worries at home. He knew that he needed to concentrate on the present and take the matter seriously. Tokyo had more supernatural beings than just his stepdaughter and her fiance. Everything was bigger than his own current personal problems.
He walked down the hall and didn't see anyone, but that fact didn't surprise him at all. He knew the members would all arrive at staggered times since they came from all over the Kanto region, and their President Niko would be split between welcoming members and preparing everything for their arrival.
He made his way to the room just outside of the hidden room that housed their meetings. On the table by the door were three thin candlesticks in holders next to a large pillar candle with a flame. He knew the number of candles left on the table meant that there were two more members yet to arrive. He picked up the candle closest to him and lit it off the large red pillar candle.
Once his candle was lit, he held it in his left hand and cupped his right hand around the flame to keep it from burning out. He next made his way to the door, and the eye scanner that instantly registered that he was supposed to be there. As the door swung open and he entered the hidden room with his head covered and bowed with his candle, it dawned on him. Mayumi was right, after all. He was in a damn cult!
Satoru kept his head bowed as he made his way to join the nearly finished circle of members that were in the room. When he got to his position, he stood there, head still bowed, while he held the candle out in front of him. The room was filled with complete silence.
He heard the door to the room slide open and noticed as their President took his position in the circle just in front of the ornate dias he would later use. That meant that the two remaining members had arrived and were changing. The ceremony would begin soon then.
Six minutes later, all the members had taken their places in the Circle of the Knowing. President Niko began the ceremony that preceded each meeting. "We, the Kanto fraternity of The Order of Van Helsings, do acknowledge our founder, Abraham Van Helsing. Who, with his remarkable intelligence, mastered much of the knowledge of the natural world. Dr. Van Helsing was a doctor, professor, lawyer, philosopher, scientist, and metaphysic. A man who, in possession of a great mind, became a vampire slayer to stop Dracula and his nefarious purposes. We carry on his mission to protect the innocent of the world from the same awful fate that the sweet Lucy Westenra faced the day she was unlucky enough to encounter such a vile being."
Satoru grimaced at that last bit of the ceremony. If Sapphire was to be believed, then Lucy was walking around as a vampire and apparently still with Dracula. And she had been for over one hundred years after she was supposedly killed. And if Dracula was still alive, too, that meant someone from their extensive international group hadn't been able to discover his whereabouts for over sixty-five years.
He imperceptibly shook his head and forced himself to really think about everything. The uncomfortable truth was that The Order would have a reason to keep Dracula's existence a secret if they realized that Lucy had survived and was happily married to him. After all, Lucy, due to the sad nature of her death at such a young age, was a martyr of their cause and honored among their organization. Had it turned out that a central figure of their Order turned out to not be at all what they praised her for being, that would be a massive problem for their founding tenants, right?
"May innocents no longer fall to ruin under our vigilance and duty," Satoru recited along with the rest of the members. The ceremony of it all was so ingrained in him that he didn't have to think about it to stay on task. He was glad since today he was so distracted.
Mayumi was right about it being a cult, but his problem was, was the cult wrong?
He reminded himself that fact remained that the supernatural killed innocent people constantly. Right?
The President shifted and made his way up onto the dais. He sat on an ornate chair upholstered in red, crushed velvet, and the ornately carved wooden arms and legs were covered in gold leaf. Satoru knew the layout and decoration of the room without even looking. He'd been a member since he was nineteen and met his first vampire.
Once their leader was seated, he said, "The meeting will commence according to our rules and traditions that have existed since 1895, the year of our founding that marked the beginning of the defense of the innocent."
"And the world has rested," he recited along with everyone else. Once that was done, they all removed their hoods, set their candles on the provided sideboard, and found their assigned seats in the middle of the room.
Niko said, "Satoru, in your wisdom and knowledge, what do you say?"
"I speak for us all, President when I say we are ready to resume work to stop the plague covering this earth and to protect our innocent in the name of Lucy."
Satoru began the meetings. As second in command, he was officially giving Niko the power to make decisions. He had never wondered why he was second in command. His dedication to the cause since he was nineteen made him a devoted member. But he cast his mind to those who were sitting with him in the room. It made him realize how wrong Sapphire was. He wouldn't call on his group to exterminate him and Naru –he couldn't. He was by far the strongest, most trained individual in the group. Even the president wouldn't be able to take out a single vampire.
Satoru thought back. He racked his brain to figure out how many of them had actually even seen a vampire or a werewolf in real life. They had all bragged about seeing countless supernatural beings, but even before; he doubted the veracity of their stories.
Focusing back on the conversation already in progress, he heard another member Souta say, "I completely agree. Of course, the vampires, werewolves, and that witch are the cause of the dead rising from ashes. I've even figured out their plan. They did all that to try to gain public support so that they could enslave all of Japan. Once the dumb masses see them as their protectors, they will easily be able to take over and turn this country into one large blood bank. I even heard they are inviting the vampires worldwide here to feast on us once they've overthrown the government."
And he was ranked third, one rank below Satoru. That disgusted him. He wondered if the fool had even seen the footage of the battle. No one was identifiable, but one of the vampires had been horrifically attacked by one of the undead. He knew he saw skull and brain matter clearly.
Then a terrifying thought crossed his mind. Could that have been Naru? Could she have come to her childhood home after having something so scary happen to her, only to be rejected by him?
But that begged the question. Just because it was a cult, and Souta was apparently a morron lacking a shred of common sense, were they wrong? Was Naru a monster now? Could the kind young girl he helped raise, the one who called him father, become so altered that she'd murder the innocent for fun?
He left that night without having told anyone a single word about his daughter and her fiance. The fact was that he wasn't sure what to think. But he knew one thing for sure, if Naru wasn't an unfeeling killer now, he would protect her with everything in him.
Once he arrived at his empty home, he put away his bag in the secret panel in the wall. Next, he closed it, and he wondered how he had ever been comfortable hiding such a big secret from his wife? And then he remembered Rule Seventeen, "Protect the innocent from the fear of knowing about the supernatural. Preserve their peace at all cost." He sighed sadly. Now it just felt like an order to lie to his precious wife.
He pulled out his cell phone to look at the time. He noticed it was two fifteen in the morning. With the recent activity, the meeting had gone hours longer than any had before. He knew vampires didn't sleep, so he bit the bullet and called Naru. He hoped she hadn't blocked his number.
"Hello, Satoru," he heard her say when she answered the phone. That greeting crushed him. It was the first time she hadn't called him father since she slipped at the age of ten. Back then, neither of them had broached the subject before. What resulted was that both of them had cried happy tears, and she'd used it ever since.
"I'm going, to be honest and tell you I don't know what to think. I've believed vampires were evil since I was nineteen, then I joined that…." He paused, not wanting to say cult like he was about to. "That group. The problem is, it's you, Naru. I'm questioning things I've never questioned before. But I'm still coming up against the fact that you have to drink human blood to survive."
"Drinking human blood doesn't mean killing, Satoru. Humans can give a pint of blood without repercussions. We just have to be careful."
"So you haven't killed anyone?"
Naru said, "I haven't drank an ounce of blood from any human. Synthetic blood has been invented, and it works to sustain vampires as long as they haven't been injured. Like I said, it sustains us. It doesn't heal us. I might end up having to drink from a human, but I'm not a killer.
"I've never heard of synthetic blood." He was frustrated that it could have been another lie by The Order.
"You wouldn't have. Most vampires haven't even heard of it yet. I'm friends with the inventor."
Satoru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Would you and Sapphire be willing to meet with me somewhere of your choosing in the morning? You can give me the directions last minute so you know I'm not bringing anyone along."
"Now, you trust me not to kill you?"
"Honestly, no. But right now, I'm willing to take that risk. There is too much at stake otherwise." He decided to be vulnerable and upfront with her. After all, the truth could help restore her to her mother. "Your mom left. She said she's sleeping at a friend's house tonight, but I know it will be longer than that. If I'm wrong, and I don't know if I even could be, but I want to be so badly. If I'm wrong, I need you both to see me take risks to find the truth."
"I'll call you tomorrow at ten, it's late, and you should get some sleep."
"Thank you."
Naru was quiet momentarily and then said, "I'm still me, Daddy. I hope you see that soon."
He was crying when she hung up the phone on him.
The information about Van Helsing and his areas of expertise is based on the 1897 novel "Dracula." Except I didn't keep him as an immortal angel.