Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: Soooo updating my notes and found a few flubs so I fixed them up..
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"She's actually downing her second tub of cookie dough ice cream?" Juste asked, as his fluffy head tilted a bit to the side. He sat on Yoko's bed, once more within the sacred halls of the Vatican with his fellow hunters sitting along side him. For all intents and purposes, they were 'home'.
Richter's front paws were hanging off the side of the bed to his right, and Christopher's bear legs were on the left. While Simon was out storing the last two tubs of ice cream in the freezer in the kitchen, because enough was enough. Especially now that Yoko knew who they were and she was far less inclined to just punt Simon off of whatever he was defending against. In fact she couldn't have anymore classic stare downs with him since she knew who was in there.
"Sure is. I wonder if that stuff tastes good." Richter commented as the door opened to their right and Simon returned.
The Bearmont didn't even give Yoko a passing glance as he walked to the little closet that held his supplies. In fact he didn't greet anyone, and the only thing they knew was that he was pulling out, essentially, his uniform. Out came the work belt, the hat, the backpack, which actually got him to stop upend it and give it a good shake for a moment.
"Something wrong Simon?" Christopher innocently inquired, as Simon began dumping everything out of the bag.
"I forgot those kids had found this book," Simon explained as he began putting the bottle of water and crackers back into his backpack. "They wanted me to carry it, but I think that kid forgot I had it after the new kid ran off for his parents."
"Do these kids have 'names'?" Richter grumbled in annoyance, as he tried to keep up with Simon's explanation with all the 'kid' instead of names. "How do you keep up with them if you call them 'all' kid?"
"Oh they can 'hear' me can they? So there 'is' a point to me learning names?" Simon snapped back as he snapped on his belt.
"Well how do you find them if you don't bother learning their names?" Juste asked in a more civil tone as he jumped down from the bed and made his way towards the discarded tome.
"I'm a hunter. I 'hunt' things, its not like I ask the name of the monster before I go to hunt it down, at least back when I was alive." Simon retorted as he pulled on his backpack.
"That's not how you hunt the creatures of the night!" Christopher retorted as he smacked himself in his face in disbelief.
"Well it 'is', but these are 'children' and one would hope you had better hunting methods for the non evil dead." Juste corrected as he reached out to touch the tome and ended up getting about two different strands of tape stuck to his paw.
"And what makes you three think I care about your suggestions?" Simon asked in a huff as he tossed on his hard hat, squeezed his ears through the holes and left.
Judgmental pricks his clan.
The remaining trio watched him leave, before various glances at Yoko's disinterested ingesting of ice cream. "Well, why not go with him? Its not like we have anything else going on in here and it would be nice to transverse the Vatican of our own free will." Richter commented finally,
"Think we should go with him? Won't we startle people, what with seeing so many self moving plush toys?" Juste asked thoughtfully as he tried to get the book open only to get more tape on his paw.
"So? I'm no longer forced to stay in one place I want to see what this place has to offer." Richter pointed out as he started off towards the door.
Christopher looked over at Juste and after a mutual moment of silent deliberation, the pair moved off after Richter. It would be nice to stretch out the legs and explore the Vatican under their own power once more. There 'was' a certain madness that could be formed from being trapped in one position day after day, not able to sleep or experience anything new. It would probably be viewed as a miracle that anyone of them was still sane.
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"You're sure about hanging out with Soma?" Trevor asked as he rode along in Kazu's bag while peeking through a hole. "This is something that should be left in the hands of my clan if you ask me."
Kazu gave a faint smile as he sat walked towards an empty table on the college lawn. Using the cellphone to hide the fact that he was conversing with someone in his bag, he shrugged. "Maybe, but I think he has a better understanding of where I am right now than the rest of your clan. Since he wasn't taught since birth who and what he is. Given how dangerous he 'can' be, it would be better for him to not be so isolated either."
"hmmm... Still... he's not safe," Trevor argued as he felt the bag he was in be placed on some flat hard surface.
"Now, now Trevor, I'm sure there was a time when you weren't considered safe either," Kazu countered gently as he studied the grounds before him. Class was over and he waited patiently for Mina and Soma to join him. The idea that he was actually going to be able to enjoy after class with people who weren't excited about his abilities or trying to dissect those abilities was an interesting feeling. Until he realized that any excitement he had was mostly due to the fact that he hoped to do the same thing to someone else. Only instead of the ability to see and communicate with spirits, it was with a Vampire.
Somehow he felt really hypocritical with that thought in his head regarding his invitation for Soma and Mina. Yet just the idea that he could finally be able to socialize with people who understood his situation, if not the medium aspect. Just spending time with people who didn't think it was odd or fascinating that he could see spirits. People who considered him perfectly normal, despite his animated stuffed dog. Not feeling like a digimon or pokemon character was always bonus when one was actually born with abilities.
"Fine... if nothing else at least it helps keep an eye on him." Trevor finally answered in his most gruff disapproving voice he had. After all, that 'was' what happened to the Belmont Clan, banished from towns for their holy power being intimidating. But he seriously didn't like 'that' little fact coming back to haunt him into allowing this.
"Well the Dark Lord cometh from 11'clock," Kazu commented as he put his phone away and waved a greeting towards Soma and Mina. Mina gave a cheerful wave of acknowledgment as they made their way towards the table. Allowing Kazu to note how Mina opted for bright cheerful colors of peach. While Soma had that pure white coat with the fluffy collar on despite it not being cold enough yet for such a coat. It was enough to make the whole 'vampire' thing seem more plausible, as though Soma was anemic given his naturally pale appearance.
Though Kazu found it hard to ignore the numerous eyes that seemed to open up in the shadows around Soma. Going as far as appearing in the darkest shadows of the coat Soma wore, staring at the world about it with untrusting eyes. Then there was the dark aura that he carried, which was an oddity for Kazu, since he couldn't 'see' auras. So the fact that he was seeing a visibly dark aura that almost black lit Soma was disconcerting. Right there with the overwhelming sense of evil, that he carried like the coat he wore.
He couldn't see anything that would imply Mina brought Leon, her bag didn't look like it could carry the lion and her other school supplies. So he could only figure the poor possessed stuffed toy was in her home, alone. Then again all Kazu knew was that Yoko went about creating the lion as an apology for not telling Mina about Soma. And not even in the sense of 'you let me befriend a guy who was an incarnation of evil'. Rather in the sense of 'just to let you know you live in a shrine that is sealing an actual terrible evil'.
"Hello you guys, so glad you didn't mind hanging out with me," Kazu greeted as the pair put their things down and grabbed seats for themselves.
"Don't be silly, we go to the same school and well... know stuff..." Mina replied her fingers lightly dancing on the top of the table as she said 'stuff'.
Soma shrugged in answer, a faint smile on his lips as his eyes darted down and focused on a particular muzzle that was sticking out of Kazuaki's bag. "I see a hunter." He teased before grabbing said nose.
"He wants me to kill him, you realize that." Trevor growled as he began to yank his head back wanting his nose.
"Soma don't torment the hunters! What if they come after you!" Mina scolded while tugging on Soma's white sleeved elbow.
"What's he going to come after me with? A rope chew toy for the whip?" Soma asked lightly as he allowed the nose to slip past his fingers.
While Kazu found himself shaking his head in amusement, amazed at how Soma had all the ear marks of an aloof, predatory noble and then opened his mouth to speak.
"So, we should apologize if our presence disturbed anything last night," Mina began her voice light and apologetic.
"Yeah, I got a 'Yoko' signal and wandered over, didn't realize that something that serious was going on at your place." Soma followed up, before adding, "Yoko usually spills more beans than holds back on me."
"Yeah, I'm honestly amazed at how much she was able to withhold for so long. I knew she and mother could both use magic that went beyond the stuff I normally read up on or encounter. But I had no idea how deep that rabbit hole actually went." Kazu agreed, amazed at all the secrets held around him as he grew up. From Trevor not confessing to his life as a Vampire Hunter, to his sister not admitting to being a Witch, to their mother and the clan itself. More over the fact that their mother had held secrets from Yoko as well 'because' of Yokos' love of talking. "But you don't need to apologize, I've never seen mother hurl fireballs out of simple anger before. So it I'm not surprised that Yoko would panic and call for you."
"Yeah, I mean your mother seems super strict so just unleashing fireballs would be a bit out of the norm," Mina agreed. "Though at least it wasn't like in the Castle, that was... Soma?" Mina stumbled to a halt as her eyes went to Soma as she felt the point of his black boot nudge her ankle.
"I'm actually curious," Kazu asked, having the 'Castle' brought up again and remembering what Soma's past life was supposed to be. More over, he could see in the way that Soma tried to silence Mina, that he was aware of where Kazu's thoughts would go. "What 'did' happen in the Castle? If my sister was there when you learned about your past, Soma."
Soma sighed in reluctance while Mina blinked and realized what she had stepped in and a light blush crossed her face. "Sorry."
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude?" Kazu asked while a pair of reptile eyes peered out from under Soma's sleeve as he shifted his posture.
"Oh I have no problem talking about it, I wish I could talk to others about it actually. Thing is, well.. What do you know of your sisters' work?" Soma asked casually before leaning over and playing with Trevors' muzzle again with a smirk on his lips.
"If I had teeth... I would bite the hell out of you, Dracula!" Trevor growled as the bag moved in response to Trevors' struggles.
"Soma, leave him alone! You're drawing unnecessary attention!" Mina chided Soma, again.
"I know she's something of an agent, travels around a lot and deals with threats." Kazu confessed as he watched Soma right himself in his seat again.
Soma studied Kazu for a brief time his expression carefully neutral. "I wasn't kidding when I told you she is my keeper. When I met her the first time it was in the Castle, she was hunting down a guy who claimed to be the reincarnation of Dracula. And actually out of the three of them, she's the one who was the last to figure out who I was. She knew I had dark powers, but she figured I was similar to Arikado."
"'Keeper'," Kazu repeated his eyes thoughtful as he looked down at the stone park table they sat at. "That's such a strange word to me, that..."
"Makes you think of an animal in a zoo?" Soma finished the thought out with a casual shrug. "You don't have to sugar coat anything, in fact they're being very nice by 'being' my keepers. Because as you're fully aware, they should have killed me the moment Julius realized who I am. Which was actually 'before' I knew."
"Soma!" Mina shook her head, then suddenly deflated as some thought seemed to wind its way into her mind.
"Julius won't kill me because I still have my human soul, and the Belmonts lead the charge on such matters." Soma added with a faint indifferent shrug, "but that's why he's the Hunter."
Soma glanced at the pair with him and found a small smile curl the corner of his lips before he shook his head. "You guys don't have the misfortune of being in my head, if you did you'd understand why I'm fine with this. Self preservation may make me fight, but I know how bad I can get when I'm in my right mind."
"But if that's the case, can't you change the outcome?" Mina asked, her hands floundering helplessly. As though the question had been the target question she had been pondering for some time.
Yet Soma shook his head slightly, letting his hair drift to and fro lightly before leaning back in his seat a bit. "No, after 900 years, the ability to just change how I react to things doesn't start up that easily. Even now, it doesn't matter because once I snap. Well what does it matter? So long as there's a hunter who can kill me, going on a killing spree to take out whatever made me mad feels validated."
"That's a decidedly fatalistic view about your own life," Kazu noted before shaking his head. "If you're so dangerous how can my sister stop you? I love her, but outside of flinging spells or sealing souls into toys, I don't know what she could do." The comment got him to stop and repeat the words over in his head and he shook his head in mild self disgust. "Listen to me. I invite you guys to hang out with me and we're talking about stuff like this."
"Well, we could go grab drinks or something?" Mina offered, for which Soma nodded in silent agreement.
"I wish I could have drinks. Or not be stuck in a plush body for eternity." Trevor wistfully commented from his place in the bag as he resigned himself to being stuck in a bag for even longer.
"Actually, that 'is' a thought... Soma off the top of your head, do you know of a way to free Trevor or the other Bearmo-Belmonts out of their furry prisons?" Kazu asked as he slipped and nearly said 'Bearmont'.
"You! I heard that! Kazuaki, how could you betray me and your clansmen in such a way?!" Trevor demanded as the bag was lifted.
Soma snirked at the flub before answering the medium, "I might be able to, but that might actually involve working with Yoko because we're talking about her spells and the Belmonts' souls. She forged some weapons for me by fusing the souls of monsters into weapons so it might be doable." He admitted as he thought back on what he remembered so far. "But that can be tricky, I don't remember enough yet to give a confident answer towards that." Soma answered before standing up as well.