Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Soo vision is coming back slowly... Working on it.
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Classes were out for the lunch period break, the students pouring out of the classrooms and making their way to their usual haunts. Mina's head poked out of the door of their class before she stepped out, Soma sleepily on her heels as she sought out Leon and Trevor. Because the class the pair had entered was at the end of the hall it wasn't hard to find Leon's vivid blond mane as the lion stuck his head out again. Leaving Mina pondering if she should go to him, yet Trevor seemed to answer that question for her.
She saw the little toy dog stick his head out as well then walk into the hallway. The duo causing a slow and steady stop to the student's departure as Leon was becoming a regular, but the dog was new. Kazu never took Trevor out of his bag and so they wondered on their own if the dog was like the Lion, a sacred animal that could transform? The students began to part for the pair, as a sense of unease ran up the students spines.
Leon, sacred Lion though he was, was known for his calm expression as a living lion. Not that lions had a great degree of facial expressions to start with, but he was often studying the students, an expression found in his eyes being opened a little wider, or the slight tilt of his head when he heard a unique sound like a ring tone. Even his expression when he was trying to understand Japanese had his eyes narrow a bit as he would look down and to the side, as though he was trying to read the word he was learning.
Now his eyes were focused on something the students couldn't see, something clearly above and beyond them. He was looking for something only that something wasn't them or anything they could rationalize, it wasn't even Hakuba or Cruz. Were evil spirits trying to enter the school? The word about Thralls had reached them, and the idea of the supernatural being 'real' was worrying given them.
"Its lunch time, shall we go find a place to sit?" Mina offered, worried at how Kazu hadn't shown up and the pairs disappearance from the class.
"Yes, thank you." Leon replied with a polite bow of the head while Trevor bobbed his head up and down.
"The students know somethings' wrong, just by seeing your expression. I'm worried about Kazu this is too long. He's going to start phasing through time and I'm not there to stop it..." Trevor began when Leon swing his noble head down to look at him. It wasn't really something Leon could ask without getting more questions from the student body, but... "That's Kazu's problem. For example once there was nothing here, just a field, over the centuries people have moved in, had lives, built the town and its been shaped and reshaped through out time. Kazu's ability to see spirits allows him to see those points in time, the way once are looked. Thing is, and this could be his witch powers kicking in, he can physically 'feel' those times to. Like If this used to be a blacksmiths home, he could both see and feel the furnace or the anvil the blacksmith worked with. It feels tangible to him, he'd even fall through the floor until he hit a roof or the ground or something... And we wouldn't feel it at all."
Leon's expression grew increasingly alarmed the more Trevor described Kazu's ability as he tracked in his mind how long the pair had been separated.
'Does that mean, that the young man could be confronted by a door that existed in the past, be forced into it and through it by his kidnappers?' Leon tried to imagine the scenario but it only increased his concern. Kazu walking into a 'door' that no one else saw could be seen as a form of defiance and he could easily get beaten for something he had no control over. 'I must ask about that once we're in an area where it is safe for me to discuss this matter.' he mused.
The group took the stairwell down to the ground floor, Leon in the front in case Mathias fell asleep and tumbled forward. Mina would easily try to catch her friend, but Leon would never stand for a careless chance of a lady being injured down such strangely narrow steps. So it was a funny little procession of a revered lion, the Lord of Darkness, a Priestess in Training, and Trevor trying to short cut his way down the stairs via the hand rails...
"Trevor?! Where are you!" Sophia's voice rose up from somewhere outside the stairwell, muffled by the thick concrete walls and the number of students traveling about.
"Sophia!" Trevor called out as he tried to figure out what floor she was on. Because that could change faster than he could.
"Sophia's here..." Soma muttered lethargically as he used his dark powers to tug Sophia to him. He felt her essence resist for a spell, pulling and yanking in any direction she was facing towards except to him. Only for her to suddenly stop and dutifully home in on him. 'Good little ghost, come to pac-man...' Soma mused until she entered the stairwell and realized 'why' she was pulled here.
"Trevor!"
"Sophia! Did you find Kazu?" Trevor's urgent voice unbothered by how his attempt to reach her got the notice of the students. "How far is his powers going?"
"Not good, his power is fully active oh Trevor I should never have doubted you! They drove him out of town, he started sinking into the car, when they came upon another vehicle he tried to run because that car was 'not' there anymore for him. He... I..." She shook her head as she chided herself. 'Get it together Sophia, Kazu needs you! Be a witch!'
"Damn it," Trevor growled as she fell momentarily silent. "And you don't know where they went but came back here to find me. So I'm guessing a portal," Trevor asked his disappointment and regret evident in his voice as he rejoined the trio and the now five person band reached the ground floor. Passing through the door out into the main part of the school again.
"The shishi and I did what we could to keep him from falling into the road, the spirits were also chasing after him. Oh Trevor he was so distraught and I don't know if my voice was any comfort. The men who grabbed him didn't speak either, so I couldn't get the start of a clue as to where he might have gone." Sophia confessed in frustration, while Leon's tail began to swish bringing Sophia's mind back to a slowed down image of the Vampire Killer. The eternal angry cat tail thrash. "I've been trying to think who would want him... Hoping that the other spirits come to visit us soon. What of Yoko after all? I figured the guys at the Vatican have friends and family among us ghosts who would go there. If something happened to Yoko they could let us know by coming here. But if they do that means Yoko has been taken as well..."
Her frustration and fear was starting to take its toll on the woman, sending her mouth into overdrive. "You're right, its not a great sign if they managed to get Yoko as well the cult and the false hunters have no use for Yoko. If they want her to ensoul stuff like she did with me and the others its impractical. The world has robots that aren't fickle or defiant, but your kin..." Trevor cut in, affirming his wife's growing dread but keeping her from voicing it herself. Given he could manifest a projection of himself for Kazu's eyes only, it wasn't as though he could physically touch and therefore comfort his wife. 'God why? Why her clan? Why?'
Trevor wanted to punch something, any one of the bastards who had started this mess would have been a wonderful start!
"Oh Trevor, I'm so sorry, we're meant to be dealing with Brauner manipulating the Vatican and now my kin may have..."
'It would be the perfect time to do so, Lady Sophia...' Leon mused as he schooled his face to stay calm. The students were glancing at him and paling and the students didn't need to worry over something that did not involve them. When normally they had taken his presence with a expressions of relief. He didn't need a mirror, just thinking of them as the troops was all he needed and he recalled his training. How it was important to always exude an air of confidence and control. Less the troops lost faith and courage, for that could cost lives.
In this case it could very well scare a bunch of untrained and innocent college students who committed no crime.
'But what is he going to do while your kin have this 'trial'... What more damage could he unleash?' For once Leon envied the ability to talk that Trevor and Sophia shared, due to his voice box. If there had been just a way where he could switch between being heard by the living or not...
A soft breeze drifted through the school from the open doors that lead outside into a pleasant early afternoon. Sophia glided through the air by her husband their conversation becoming a worried discussion of Kazu's physical state. Yet it was clear they already knew a great deal and were skimming basics that began to worry Leon. One question the former Knight found himself pondering was how could someone move the young man.
If Kazu was walking into a wooden wall from some far away period of time, how could someone else dragged him through it?
Soma pulled out his phone and gave a sleepily series of button presses.
'Hi Son, Yoko? Roll call...'
Technically Yoko would be asleep at this hour, especially with recent events she 'needed' rest, as for his son...
'Hi Son, Kazu got kidnapped by some group and the ghosty group here are fearing its an internal reason.'
'Where is Trevor.'
'Here talking to his wife, they literally grabbed the boy and ran. Trevor was chased around until the rest of the group were out of sight and Pigeon Stoop foll... oh sorry lost track of them when they took a portal. Yoko might be asleep, but if its I...' Soma was midword when suddenly another message knocked Alucards' previous message up.
'I can not reach Valencia.'
'Could she be sleeping?'
'She uses a unique tone for my messages.'
Soma was suddenly sleepily amused at the idea of an air raid siren or some other loud and obnoxious alert going off every time Alucard sent a message.
A little 'too' amused as his eyes were glued to his phone and it sent him pinwheeling right into falling on top of Leon. "Good ol Leon, so dependable and trustworthy..." Soma sleepily teased as his phone slipped from his fingers and fell with a cushioned thud on the grass. While Leon, so unamused by the reminder, gave a mighty shake sending Soma swiftly sliding off the lions' back and onto the grassy ground.
"Must you?" Leon muttered, his voice low but the growl that he emitted shook the sentence he uttered up as much as expected.
Realizing they must have been alone enough Soma reported in what Alucard had told him over their short text. Causing Trevor to rush over and gather the phone up to bring to Soma.
"He knows Kazu's condition, let him know how far he's shifted back!" Trevor ordered, as weird as ordering 'Dracula' around was to him. Yet Soma did as told, but he was blinking so much that Trevor was worrying how coherent Soma could be at this point.
"Condition? Explain it..." Leon began when Trevor nodded.
"Basically like I said before, what stops it well.. My wife and I have tried to fathom it ourselves but Kazu isn't affected if someone is in front of him. For example, if you walked beside him or behind him he'll hit a wall and you can't move him forward. 'But' if you move in front of him and walk through it while being in close or physically in contact with him. He's not affected."
"He's not stable." Soma cut in as he hit send. "He's not grounded in the living world like we are, he's kind of a half spirit in that. Because he's not grounded he can easily drift... I can explain better later just think of it like this. 'everything' has some form of energy. Energy can not be destroyed only transformed. Mina's energy can override weaker forms of energy but not shatter it. She goes on a walk and on the path she's on a tree once stood. The energy of that tree is 'still there' but her energy breaks it up enough. So she passes through but that energy then it pulls back to its own state. He and Yoko are 'highly' attuned to this energy."
"But he doesn't 'break'... He walks into... it." Leon tried. It made sense... he couldn't walk through a bonfire, but he could walk through where it once stood. So if that was comparable. It would mean that for Kazu, the fire 'never' stopped. Yet... the very history of the world... "Sounds maddening."
Trevor nodded solemnly and Leon realized just how important Trevors' presence was to Kazu.
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Hours? Had to be hours, Valencia didn't recall when she was dropped on this cold smooth floor. Only the startled alarm as she woke up with someone grabbing her violently in her bed. She was on trek to return home, when someone... someone... How did they get into her room?
All that came to mind was this feeling of hands getting close to her someone reaching for her...
A door opened, not slammed open in violence or meekly opened in fear or apprehension. The click and the sweep of the door was matter of fact in timing, while the footsteps were weighted. Valencia laid still waiting for any hint towards who her abductors were.
The steps carried on for a bit before the sluggish sound of something heavy was half laid half dropped on the floor. Now lightened of its load, the unknown person left the room, their lighter steps a quicker unencumbered pace with the door closing behind them.
She laid there for a bit, waiting to hear if the other person made any signs of being awake, though given she had to wake up. Odds were they too were out cold. Moments passed by, with her counting in her head so she didn't waste unnecessary time. But after two minutes and no sound came she went flicked a flame of fire at the tip of her fingers to burn away the bindings on her wrists.
Flames ignited turning the bindings into a cord of flame burning into her wrists and her upper back, catching her night shirt on fire!
Biting down a scream she barely had the focus to swap over to ice to stop the fire. Despite being polar opposites of temperature the burning sensation was no different. The air filled with the smell of burned flesh and fabric, as she writhed on the floor in pain. Her teeth clamped together as she fought crying out while her blindfold soaked in her tears. Her lower back and wrists were twin epicenters of pain radiating outwards and into the rest of her back and her arms numbing her.
Not as though her kidnappers weren't going to know something was up, the smell alone was going to be a very clear tip off. As well as the moment they got her off her feet to lead her anywhere. Yet for now all she did was lay there and struggle to get her heart beat back under control as well as her breathing. The pain sending her breathing as though she was running out of Dracula's castle as it fell again.
Mental tricks to get her body back under control could only do so much, though it got her distracted enough to direct her focus onto something else. Enchanted ropes. If she had been kidnapped by some random group they wouldn't have such rope. Unless it was a targeted kidnapping, meaning whoever was behind this knew she was a witch. So the room could also have magical sealing spells put in place the way the ropes around her wrists were.
So no mombastic spell casting.
She tried to pull her legs in to get up, only for her lower back to reignite in pain that sent flashes of pain induced light to flash behind her eyelids.
"Simon?"
The voice froze Valencia, her over heated skin became ice cold in an instant as Yoko's voice registered in her head.
"Yoko?" She crocked out as her back and wrists burned out her voice.
"Simon why do you sound like mom if she took up smoking... and when did I... MOM?!" Squirming sounds began to fill the air as Yoko began clearly struggling. Amid mutterings that Simon was fired and her disappointment regarding the other Belmonts.
"Yoko no! The ropes are witch resistant!" Valencia ordered for all the good it did, though thankfully her daughter didn't try to use magic. Not that the muttering stopped from the young woman. "Yoko, I just told you..."
Only for Yoko to cut her off. "They may be witch resistant but they're not Bitch resistant!"