Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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Christopher went flying backwards from the door, with a small audience of fellow Belmonts and children. "So there's been a death..." Christopher commented as he went, twisting himself in the air and doing a reasonable landing.
"OOH! Cool!"
"10 out of 10!"
"Christopher for the Olympics!"
"People die all the time, and there are a lot of elderly here," Juste pointed out as he laid down so he could see under the backrest of his seat.
"True though apparently the expectation is to keep the boys in here," Christopher amended as he began walking back to the group. "De Luca was just informed there had been a death, and the death isn't 'normal'."
"A tragedy to be sure, however; we're all hunters, not detectives. We aren't trained or skilled to deal with a mystery," Richter pointed out flomped over the top of his chair with his front paws lightly beating a rhythm.
"But we can't just sit here and do nothing either," Juste pointed out rationally. "At the very least we can hunt down information about it.."
"How is it even our business?" Simon asked before pointing out, "even if we could read today's languages," Simon was surprisingly neutral in his tone. "Even if Leon doesn't show he can talk. Even if we use some medium to talk to others, the only people we can 'talk' to who would take us seriously is Yoko. She's gone, and these kids but I'm pretty sure no one here wants to put them in danger. Well save me."
Every pair of ears went down save Leon who was busy frowning at Simon's back, as the kids resumed their young conversations.
"True, we can't exactly travel to different parts of the Vatican on our own, at least not until tonight. So its not as though we could tow the children along, I mean there's Elmo. Given that he lives here because of Alucard. But he's terrified of Juste and Richter..." Christopher admitted.
"Everyone gets to go hunt Alucard and here we are, the premier men who killed his father and we can't join them.. I'm not bitter, just enraged." Simon added with a sigh as he began looking towards a window. 'Realistically speaking though, hunting for clues would be similar enough I would think. But Yoko never fully taught me to read this language. I mean, I know basic's in Spanish and Japanese, but that was part of her schooling. Italian is beyond me, so if there's anything we can find I won't be able to read it. Then there's the off chance that people see us and either freak out or try to bring us back.'
'But who kills on the Vatican grounds? That doesn't sound right, it can't be the monsters at least the inhuman ones..' Simon began frowning as his view narrowed. 'If the kids are aware of the monsters, what's to say that the adults aren't as well? The Exorcists are trained in dealing with demons, and if its one of them...' Simon began tapping his chin with a paw, the suite key to Yoko's room tapping against his arm in rhythm as his ears slowly dipped down. 'No one would logically mess with Dracula and he's not here at the moment...'
"Simon we're going to see about sneaking out and find out what's going on, you in?" Richter asked turning and noticing the fixed posture Simon was displaying, from his elevated position.
"Sure, whatever," Simon answered flipping his ear at Richter before resuming whatever thought train he was on.
Richter watched Simon for a bit before sighing and checking in on Leon, given that the man was new to the area. He seemed genuinely interested in his surroundings, studying the walls and ceiling as well as the book case and stand from his seat. But then there wasn't a great deal Leon 'could' do... After all he was refusing to talk since the living would hear him. 'I wonder what's going on to justify for him to do that? It would help a lot if people could talk to him and have him communicate for us. I guess there's the issue of convincing people that we're not evil demonic toys. Or that we're actual grown men with life experiences...'
"Its a shame we can't go with Soma," Juste suddenly voiced. "With Yoko gone, he's going to be our only source of interaction who knows already who we are."
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Later that night \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
The Belmonts sat in Yoko's room almost at a huddle around Leon, it was mostly dark, due to their inability to get the main light of the room turned on. But they had a small night light that was plugged in near the floor that they could flip on. Then guide themselves over to the bed, climb up 'that' to get to her night stand and that light.
"Ok, so we're alone," Simon announced as he looked over the bed down to his fellow hunters.
"This place. Different," Leon finally muttered. His voice so low that Simon could barely hear the man and Leon was on the ground by the bed.
"Different? How?" Juste asked curious only to see Leon shake his head.
"I won't talk. Busy investigating..." Leon finally said while all his kin leaned in to hear. "Not safe. Can't trust..."
"Wait, how did you know about the dead man?" Richter asked in surprise, only to watch as Leon shook his head against it.
"Did not know. Different reason here.." Leon explained with a small sigh that the voice box emulated.
"Something is going on and you were sent to investigate it, undoubtedly by Soma. He's the only one who has access to Alucard's personal Estate who isn't busy after all," Christopher clarified crossing his arms in thoughtful observation.
Leon nodded turning to look at Christopher before resuming his strange observations of the room. Given 'why' he was here though, now his constant looking raised a question. A question he had already answered though, he wasn't going to talk. So clearly he was observing 'something' that the rest had missed, but what?
It was a thought that the rest of the group found themselves pondering in surprise. Especially Juste as the resident spell caster now that Yoko wasn't there. And like any good spell caster that needed ingredients, he started there, 'Well, all the shells and stuffing that went into making us came from the store... But Leon's shell was made in the Castle, possibly by the Castle itself. So is there something special about his structure that we don't have?'
"Perhaps because your shell is from the Castle?" Juste suggested and watched as Leon shrugged.
"Not sure. Not asked," Leon answered. "Magic not my area..."
The quartet couldn't help but note Leon's improvement on talking. He managed to speak more than a couple of words, though his voice started to rasp out in the end. So if there was an emergency Leon could call out. Even if they didn't have a phone, they could hopefully grab one somewhere and use that.
"We could totally scare the kids using Leon's voice if only he would talk," Richter noted with a half grin on his pupper face.
"Yes, but until then, we need to figure out where the body was found." Simon called down from his spot on the stand. "The Vatican is huge compared to us, we really shouldn't be out and about during the day light."
"True," Christopher admitted with a nod, "well, from what I heard he was found in his office, slumped over."
"So something must have happened to justify why they want to do this whole secrecy thing," Richter noted as he sat there between Leon and his grandfather.
"They may not be talking a great deal about the cause in public, but he was an exorcist," Juste noted quietly, resting his paw against his face.
Leon's head cocked to the side in confusion before giving a soft, "Exorcist?"
"Oh they deal in possessions and such," Richter explained casually. "Which could be trouble, because while not all the priests may know or believe Soma is who he is. The exorcists know, and they all have the same stance that he should be killed."
Leon's ears wiggled in surprise and alarm as he turned to look at Richter. Which served as about the only 'go on' that Leon dared to make.
"Well they don't say it in those terms, but they do press that something be 'done with him'," Richter explained. "He's dangerous in their eyes, even though he only really gets 'bad' when something happens to Alucard."
"But our bodies are literally shielding the Vatican, so its not as though the Dark Children could just walk in," Juste noted.
"Heard about that," Leon muttered in a tone that whispered he wasn't the most pleased by the notion.
"Yeah, they took our bodies from the Crypt, and built new ones around here... Its good to be the Vatican, you can get away with anything so long as you're a priest." Simon growled, "so it can't be a Dark Child or Demon. It can't be Soma he's not even here at the moment," he continued.
"Are we sure on that?" Christopher asked, but interestingly got an answer out of Leon.
"With Julius," came the softly spoken answer. "Being sent. America."
"Ahh ok, so he's not around to start with. In that case first we should go to this exorcists' office, that should be in the main building, see if we can find clues..." Richter noted out loud as his gaze then shifted to around the suite. Before resettling on Leon, thinking on how the man was apparently seeing things they were missing.
It was turning into an itch that Richter couldn't scratch. Leon was investigating the church and refusing to talk. Something that made sense as it kept people willing to talk around the lion, unaware that not only could Leon hear them. He could recite it back. Perhaps that was why most people didn't mind the rest of the Belmonts. They didn't realize the stuffed toys were people and the only real...
Richter frowned before he stood up and made a b line straight for the chair, with single minded focus he began dragging the chair out so he could climb up it.
"Richter?" Christopher called out noticing his kins' sudden fixation, getting up from his seat and walking after his fellow hunter.
"I had a thought about the phones. When we call or talk out from here it sounds mutilated for a reason we've not been able to figure out. But if Leon can actually 'see' something we can't, I want to know if he can see something outside the Vatican. Anything that might give us a hint as to what's going on about that," Richter explained.
"In that kimono? Good luck," Simon called out as Christopher and Juste instantly stood up and went to assist Richter. But the duly given reminder did get Juste to go about and begin dragging out the steps that they had built for climbing.
As for Leon, who had settled onto sitting on his knees, he found himself looking down at his paws and plush body. 'Maybe if Mathias had warned me better, I would have dressed for the occasion. I wonder if the fairies that serve his family could retrieve some of my more versatile attire...' But those were only distracting thoughts as he leaned forward so he could get up. Placing his paws under him so he could get his feet right.
Then it was trekking to his kin, noting how the steps took shape and ascending up to the chair. From there he climbed up to the chair, then waited as he was pushed to the desk. 'So I guess they want me to push the curtain to the side and look. But I wonder what I would see at this hour and from this distance.'
The answer came in the form of an oily film that took him a bit back. Once he got to the window and pushed aside the curtain the sight of it just stopped him. It brought to mind the bubbles that the ladies blew that one time, the way the bubble just... moved and caught light. But... why here?
"So?" Christopher asked from the chair, while Richter was standing behind Leon.
Leon didn't answer the man, instead he stepped away from the curtain and began making his drops down from the desk. The drop to the chair went fine, the one to the floor resulted in a full face plant as Leon over reached on his balance. But he stood up with all the confidence of a man who didn't just get a face full of rug.
Richter was a bit surprised and quickly took up Leon's spot, shoving his muzzled face between the folds of the curtain so he could see. The world as he knew it was still there, no fires, or destruction. Or signs of demonic activity to justify Leon, essentially, hot footing away as he was. He could see the skyline of buildings that were included on the Vatican city grounds. The painfully fewer stars than what once existed when he last walked on the earth.
Yet something was wrong...
"Will you talk to us if we find a safe space to talk to you at?" Juste inquired as Leon walked to the door.
Leon nodded without stopping his steps. His presence bringing a strange type of chaotic disturbance to their lives.
"The shell is made by the Castle itself... I can only speculate, even Soma probably wouldn't know with his limited access. But its possible that Leon has more than just the capacity to talk. Perhaps the Castle has added abilities to Leon's shell," Juste theorized out loud.
"Lucky bastard..." Simon grumbled as he shut off the light and jumped down.
"He clearly sees things we're missing," Richter agreed as he jumped down from the desk to the floor directly. "So his unwillingness to talk makes sense, wouldn't want the wrong person to hear him."
"That Soma is the reason he's here though. Implies a level of awareness and planning on Soma's part doesn't it? As though he's preparing for something..." Juste pointed out as he walked after Leon.
The group shifted their gaze towards Leon who turned to face them in answer, fixing his gaze on Juste before nodding slightly. "Worried." Leon confessed, as one paw began smoothing down his kimono. 'I've never seen such a thing before anywhere, even the Shrine lacks such a shell. I don't know if its evil or not, I'd have to ask. But I want them on the Estate grounds first before talking about it.'
"You know the world has gone to hell when Dracula has to give you a hand." Simon grumbled as he walked past the others and began climbing up the side table so he could open the door.
"I guess we need a motive first," Richter noted as he waited while Simon worked open the door.
"Which might only be revealed if we can find out how he died exactly. Dark Children in the Vatican is rare I suspect. Outside of Alucard and Soma at least," Christopher noted as he helped pull the door open.
"Soma knew something was going on though, yet that he sent Leon..." Simon pointed out as he let the force of Christophers' pull help him pull out the key to Yoko's room. "Its possible that he's just using Leon to feign innocence. But its also possible that someone wants Soma dealt with and will go to the length of murder to get it done."
"The cults?" Richter asked, though Christopher shook his head.
"I'd say the Church itself. Its beyond reason that they would allow Alucard to be harmed, then act as though Dracula's reaction would be anything less than extreme. Soma's powers have been sealed for almost a full year now. Its been far too long. Especially when he's clearly willing and able to behave himself so long as Alucards' left in peace."
"True, I can't see the Church willing to suffer a Dark Lord to live for as long as he has. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some of them see Alucards' actions as proof that he's evil. That this is nothing more than an elaborate scheme to get rid of Dracula and his son in one swoop." Richter admitted with the tips of his ears bending down forward.
The group went silent as they finally began piling out of the room, just a small group of experienced, highly trained Vampire Hunters. Hunters who had destroyed the greatest of evil.
Just ignore the fact that they were stuffed toys now.