Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Things were never the same for Soma after the encounter with Celia and the With Light cult.

He thought back to the months after the eclipse of 2035, when life somehow returned to normal. The souls had all left his body not too long after they escaped the castle. Soma was back to being nothing more than an awkward and quiet student who often ran late to class. Of course, the fear and anxiety regarding Dracula’s powers never once faded, but he tried his best to ignore them. The whole incident ended up feeling like a fever dream.

But this time was different.

Initially, the problem seemed isolated to two discrete incidents, both of which had Soma at the center.

The first happened only a couple of weeks after fleeing Celia’s castle. Soma was helping Mina at the shrine. The two of them were trying to clean up after a group of rude tourists. Mina had gone inside to get some sunscreen for Soma’s pale, and now burning, skin, and so he was standing outside alone, sweeping obliviously. He thought a sunburn would be his worst problem that day.

And then a Tsuchinoko slithered up behind him and bit his ankle.

“What the fuck?” He yelled, and he whacked it with his broom, hard. It flew in the air and then splat onto the ground like a giant bug. It made a terrible noise.

“What’s going on?” Mina yelled back. “Are you okay?” She immediately ran out into the open, sunscreen in hand and sweat on her face, and let out a small scream. She covered her mouth, trying not to gag. “What earth is that?” she whimpered as the green and bulbous pile of guts curled back into its fleshy body, and it crawled back into the bushes.

“Tsuchinoko,” he answered while trying to regain his composure. The wound stung pretty badly. “You know, like the ones in Japanese folklore? But they’re more than just a myth, as you just saw. I’ve seen them before.” He paused. “I’ve seen them before in Dracula’s Castle.”

“I think...we should probably call Arikado.”

“Good idea.”

Luckily, Arikado was always an impressively easy person to get in contact with. He never ignored any of their calls or texts. He arrived almost immediately and quickly dealt with the issue at once.

After he rummaged about some, he returned to the shrine clearing. Didn't even break a sweat or get dirt on his suit. “There was a small group of Tsuchinokos hiding under those thickets,” he said as he nodded towards a large mass of intertwining leaves and branches. They must have been living here and feeding off the spiritual energy of the shrine. However, they were unable to enter the shrine grounds because of the wards placed around it, which is why this is the first time they revealed themselves to humans.”

“Are they all gone now?” Mina asked.

“Yes. I exterminated them and strengthened the wards with my own magic. I will contact your parents about it later today.”

Mina looked around the shrine, examining its structures. “Was there something wrong with the wards?”

“No, there was nothing wrong with the wards.”

She looked confused. “Then how did they get onto the shrine grounds?”

Arikado, deep in thought and formulating his theories, didn’t answer right away. Instead, he slowly shifted his gaze over to Soma. “I think the energy that they received from your presence gave them enough power to break through the wards. That is why they were suddenly able to break through, and why I needed to strengthen the wards.”

“So am I just leaking chaotic energy or something like that? Some sort of dark Dracula-y aura?”

“Well, yes, I guess that’s one way to put it. Regardless, I must tend to your wound. The Tsuchinokos are venomous monsters, so we must handle this quickly and carefully.”

Soma still didn’t understand how Arikado’s healing powers worked, but it almost felt like there were weak and hazy souls floating around the two of them. They didn’t seem like monster souls, or at the very least, Soma couldn’t identify them, but it was always mildly hypnotic to see Arikado’s magic in action. Once Arikado was certain that the venom was cleared from the wound, he used just a normal half-empty bottle of drugstore ointment and then wrapped it up with some bandages from a first aid kit. Soma thought the discrepancy between the two methods was amusing.

"I’m not sure how long this will take to heal - maybe a few weeks or so - but you should tend to it like you would any other wound. Clean it and change the bandages every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t get infected.”

“Are you sure it’s okay? It still hurts really really badly.”

Arikado nodded. “Unfortunately, their bites are quite painful. The average person would have passed out on the spot. It should pass within a few days.”

Soma’s memories of the rest of the day were…hazy. He had a terrible headache that he couldn’t describe. He couldn't entirely remember, but he was pretty sure his vision blacked out several times. Each time he blacked out, he felt really dissociated from his own body. There was a tugging feeling, but it also felt like there was some energy bubbling up within himself. He wasn’t entirely sure how to describe the sensation, but he had a gut feeling that it probably wasn’t good. At first, he wasn’t sure if the dissociation was from the effects of the venom or from Dracula. Soma decided to tell himself that it was probably the venom. Arikado probably knew what the right answer was, but he had left already, and Soma really didn’t want to ask.

But of course, Soma pretended like everything was just fine, as he always did, though Mina definitely knew that something was wrong. She wasn’t that easy to fool.

He didn’t remember asking her for a ride home, but he woke up in his own living room the next morning. To Soma’s surprise, the wound was fully healed, and his head felt just fine.

And then a month after that, Soma was jumped by some members of a self-proclaimed gang of cultists.

“Just what is with all this cult nonsense recently?” Soma asked Yoko. The two of them had knocked down five cultists who showed up at the church where Yoko was currently working while Soma was delivering some goods from Mina. They were fairly weak and stood no chance against the two of them, but that just made their sudden assault even more confusing. He leaned on the wall, looking around at the unconscious individuals. “First Celia and now these guys? I don’t even know who these people are!”

“Right? How rude of them to not tell us their names.”

“Yoko! Not funny,” he frowned.

She sighed apologetically. “It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. The eclipse was an isolated event. The only people who really knew of your awakening as the reincarnation of Dracula at that point were Arikado, Julius, Hammer, Mina, and myself, of course. Well, there’s Graham, I guess, but it’s not like he could have run around crying out your name. Celia’s cult incident was something that happened here, on Earth, in an actual country with legal borders, which means that there’s a paper trail behind it. If there’s one thing I learned from my years of work, it’s that word gets around in those circles. Rumors spread fast, and truths spread even faster.”

“That one guy… he said that they wanted to restore Dracula's glory."

"Well, I'm glad they were at least polite enough to tell us their agenda. Certainly makes the paperwork easier to deal with."

“What does this all mean? Is this going to keep happening for the rest of my life?”

“I’m not sure, but you should go rest and lie low for a bit. I’ll text you tomorrow, and we can figure things out from there. There’s some stuff I need to discuss with Arikado."

Soma still felt uneasy, but he wasn’t sure what else to do. “Alright. Thanks for the help, Yoko. You sure you're going to be okay?”

“I mean, they sorta attacked me too, so I would have had to help either way. Anyway, I'll pester Arikado to help me with cleaning this mess up since he's good at that sort of stuff, so don't worry about it.” She smiled a bit and nodded. “Please be careful on your way home. You’ll probably want to ice your shoulder. That last blow you took looked pretty painful”.

At home, despite the lack of any immediate threats, something still didn’t feel right. His body and surface thoughts were calm, and he continued on with his day as if nothing had happened, but his intrusive thoughts seemed...violent? He hesitated to use the word “bloodthirsty”.

He wasn’t entirely sure what was happening within himself, but he was having trouble containing his powers. Arikado wasn’t wrong with the whole “leaking chaotic energy” thing. Soma knew it was happening, but he didn’t want to admit it. However, at the moments when he was in physical pain in these events, he felt Dracula’s energy tugging at his soul, trying to gain more power within himself.

And it kept happening after the fight against the cultists as he sat on his couch that night with an ice pack on his shoulder, feeling incredibly dizzy.

And finally, on some random day, he was knocked out on the way to class. It was a surprise attack, and his guard was completely down. All it took was one swift blow to the back of his head. He never saw the culprit.

When he came to, the sun shone brightly in his eyes. He squinted and blinked until the throbbing on the back of his head felt manageable. He felt the dark aura wrapped around him, almost like a blanket. He shivered as it held him in its grasp. “Stupid stupid stupid Dracula soul,” he grumbled as he realized what was happening.

“I am glad to see that you’re awake. I was very worried.”

“Arikado!” The shock of suddenly seeing him allowed some of the chaotic energy to dissipate. Soma looked around and realized he was on the couch in his own apartment. “Why am I here? What happened?”

“You were attacked by a lone delusional fool,” he scoffed. “I am still not entirely sure why he decided to do so, but I have reason to suspect that he was affiliated with the same group as your church attackers. Their roots must be deeper than I suspected.”

“What happened to him? Where is he now?”

“He will be fine. It’s none of your concern.”

Soma glared at Arikado, narrowing his eyes. “Really?”

“Yes,” Arikado said, completely deadpan. Soma decided to just agree.

“How are you here?”

“I used your key. I did not want you to be on the street and unconscious. That would have been dangerous.”

“But how did you find me to begin with?”

Arikado spoke bluntly. “There was an unusually large flare of chaotic energy in the area, and I decided to come and investigate.”

“Ugh, of course. It’s...something I’ve been meaning to ask about. This is definitely a problem I can’t ignore anymore, isn’t it?” he grumbled.

“I would agree with that.”

Soma pulled out his phone to check the time and groaned again. It was around noon. “So much for school. Why do I still care anymore at this point?”

Arikado made a small quip on the importance of education before leaving. Soma ignored that and spent the rest of the day in his apartment. He took a nice, long nap.

It became a large topic of discussion in the next couple of days, and Soma would be lying if he said it didn’t scare him.

“It’s because it’s a defense mechanism,” said Yoko. “The human body tends to instinctively brace itself because it thinks that something bad is happening to it. Your body just happens to have an exceptionally aggressive power inside itself that attempts to protect you from any harm if necessary. It prepares itself just in case the situation gets worse and to remove the distress as quickly as possible. Everyone has an unconscious reaction like that. Yours just happens to be too strong for its own good, and it’s getting confused.”

“It’s because you’re letting your guard down,” said Julius. “Dracula’s soul is probably constantly looking to escape and reclaim your body for itself to become the new Dark Lord. It’s looking for holes and vulnerabilities. Dracula’s soul is nothing if not stupidly stubborn. There’s a reason he was near impossible to defeat to begin with. Definitely one damn resilient bastard. And by worrying about it, you’re giving it more power over your own self, so stop thinking so much about it.”

“It’s because you keep getting hurt,” said Arikado. “You need to be more careful.”

“That’s way easier said than done.”

“I never said that it would be easy.”

Chapter Text

Soma leaned back into the couch, awkwardly waiting for Arikado, who seemed to be lost in thought, to say something. Arikado had texted Soma earlier that evening and invited him to his apartment to discuss "important matters". Soma felt quite uneasy about it, but it was more of that awkward feeling rather than the feeling of actually being unsafe. Arikado might be a bit aloof, but he was certainly protective.

The aesthetic of Arikado’s apartment was remarkably similar to the aesthetic of his office. It was very clean, sparse, and minimalist. The furniture was mostly black and modern-looking. However, there were huge shelves filled to the brim with old books. A lot of them were books on European history, but there were also a bunch of books that seemed to involve more occult-ish topics.

Arikado sat down at the other side of the coffee table to initiate the conversation. "Sorry for calling you out here so late. I prefer to do a lot of my work at night, and my office’s building closes at 9."

"No worries, it’s alright."

"Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Sure, why not?" Arikado carefully poured out a cup of tea for him. Soma could not tell what kind of tea it was at all. Something herbal and spiced, maybe? Certainly wasn't Japanese.

Soma often wondered what Arikado’s typical work hours were, especially if he frequently worked past 9, but he didn't bother asking. He figured that Arikado was probably a huge workaholic anyway. His laptop was still on and left open on his dining room table.

Arikado continued, "I spent a lot of time these last couple of days thinking about your condition."

"I’m not sure how I feel about you calling it a condition."

Arikado ignored him entirely and kept speaking. "I've done quite a bit of research and spent time discussing the issue with my agency, and of course with Yoko, Julius, and Mina."

"Mina? Why is she involved?"

Arikado arched an eyebrow. "I thought you'd want her to be involved. She's your friend, is she not? I was told that friends were supposed to help each other in times of need?"

"Yes, but-"

Arikado cut him off. "I’m worried that this problem will worsen over time, so I would like to tackle the issue from multiple angles.

"Firstly, we must get you some proper combat training. Your skills are very amateur. I do not mean that in an insulting way, but we both know that it's true. In all your fights so far, you’ve gotten by with nothing but your raw talent and strength. We know that you are a very capable fighter without any formal martial or weapon training, but that instinct and power from Dracula’s soul inside of you can only get you so far. There will be more monsters, more cults, more hunters. I know you’re desperate to live a normal life, and I try my hardest to quench out any threats before they ever reach you, but we need to press forward with the assumption that you will be attacked again in the future. Some of them will be from strong and formidable foes.

"We need to make sure that you can defend yourself without relying on Dracula’s powers. When Celia showed up the first time, all the souls absorbed from Dracula’s Castle had left your body, and for a brief moment, you were just a boy with a knife. With your powers being in a constant state of flux, it is difficult to gauge how much you can rely on them. Thus, I spoke to Julius about it. He has offered to help train and teach you. I would also like to personally share some of my own swordsmanship skills as well. I have a bit of experience myself."

"Secondly, we need to hone your own mind and ability to have full control over your emotions. I do not believe that this is just a matter of physical hurt or stress, but also mental hurt and stress. If you are hurt mentally or emotionally, it may also trigger some of Dracula’s powers."

"That sounds so… emo," Soma said, feeling weird about what Arikado just said.

Arikado shot a strict glare back at Soma and scolded, "Perhaps, but you and I both know that the closest you have been to losing control of yourself was when Celia took advantage of your emotions and shot the doppelganger. She did not make even a single scratch on your body."

He slouched down and cringed at himself. "Ugh, you’re right. I don’t wanna think about it."

"Given the emo-ness of this particular problem," he said slowly and sarcastically, "we were not entirely sure how to tackle this part, but Yoko was very adamant that she should handle it rather than leaving it with me or Julius because she claimed that Julius and I were, ahem…incompetent at dealing with the feelings of the younger generation. Or at least, that's what she said."

Soma laughed under his breath. "I can agree with her on that."

"I...also agreed. It’s not my forte, so I decided to trust her to handle it. She told me that she would text you about it at some point, but I’m not sure what she actually wants to do. Feel free to pester her about it if necessary. Now, when are you free to start combat training with me?"

Soma looked surprised. He was not prepared for how sudden and blunt that question was. "What? I was hoping that Julius’ training would at least come first." He said that mostly out of feeling intimidated by Arikado. Soma had fought Julius before, so he had a general idea of his fighting style. Arikado was an enigma.

"Julius isn’t in town. He is currently working on a job in Romania, but I think he will come back to Japan soon. I would like to get you started on the basics as soon as possible. We need to be prepared."

"Well…tomorrow is Friday and I’ve actually done a pretty good job of not procrastinating my assignments due next week, so I’ll be completely free this weekend." He paused and awkwardly added, "Well, I’m also not in any clubs or extracurriculars or anything like that anyway, so it’s not too hard for me to make time during the week."

"Saturday then?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Soma felt some relief as well as some confidence over the situation. He took a deep breath in and then out. "I understand how important this is. I don’t want to see anyone hurt ever again. All I want is to be strong enough to protect the people I care about."

Arikado smiled. "Good. I’m glad you feel that way. Do not forget your reason for fighting. I still see endless potential in you. You have a good soul, Soma."

"That sounds ironic."

"I promise you it’s not."

On Saturday evening, after the sun had already started to set, Soma headed to a small and simple martial arts dojo that Arikado had access to. He, of course, knew that Arikado was a very capable fighter, but throughout the session, Soma also realized that he was also a very good teacher. Soma appreciated that. He knew that being good at showing off a skill and being good at sharing it with another were not the same thing.

"I have a lot of experience," Arikado said with some pride while he was behind Soma, gently using his hands to guide Soma's torso to the correct angle for the stance they were practicing. "I was the one who trained Julius for the battle of 1999."

"Wait, how young were you in 1999? You look younger than Julius."

Arikado replied, surprisingly playfully. "You know, it’s not polite to ask people about their age. Yoko would be ashamed of you."

"Oh yeah…sorry about that," Soma replied awkwardly. He thought about stopping the conversation there, but admittedly, he was also curious about Arikado and Julius' past. "How was he?"

"How was who? Julius?"

"Yeah."

Arikado smiled softly. "He was a diligent learner, but a bit sloppy."

"Did you have a teacher too?"

He hesitated. "My father."

"He must have been pretty strong."

"It's complicated."

"It feels like everything and anything about you is complicated," but Soma would never say that out loud. Definitely not to Arikado, at least.

Something was definitely weird with Arikado's past and origin. Perhaps weird wasn't the right word for it. Perhaps...inhuman? Throughout the last two years, he had started to connect the points, bit by bit. Between his own interactions with Arikado as well as Mina’s childhood stories… well, it’s not like he really knew the whole picture, but it made for good gossip when alone with Mina.

He did wonder what kind of person Arikado's father would be. He must have been an amazing swordsman, right? Did he have Arikado's stern but gentle eyes?

He figured he'd refrain from asking for the time being, but maybe…someday.

Everyone else seemed to trust him, and that was good enough for Soma. There were other things to worry about right now.

Soma exercised regularly and considered himself to be pretty fit. He often went on runs after school to keep his stamina high. Despite that, the training that day wore him out pretty badly. When he started to get really out of breath, Arikado immediately taught him about proper breath control, and they kept going.

Supposedly, these were just "basic drills".

The whole regimen essentially highlighted how much of an amateur he was, but once he got over the mild embarrassment over his lack of skills, he started to greatly appreciate Arikado's teachings.

He was exhausted by the end of it, while Arikado didn't even break a sweat. The man looked exactly the same as he did when they first arrived.

"Monday, meet here again. Same time as today. We need to continue working on your stances. It is important to keep building a proper foundation and avoid bad practices."

Soma bowed, still breathing heavily, but he didn't want to complain or show too much weakness. "Thank you. Not just for the training but also for everything else."

Arikado smiled. "You're a bit like Julius. A bit sloppy, but strong and diligent. You learn fast. I have full confidence in your abilities."

High expectations.

Soma didn’t like that very much.

Chapter Text

Mina found Soma strolling around the hallways at school during break and insisted on walking back home with him after classes. Of course, he happily agreed.

He started thinking about the fact that Arikado mentioned discussing the matter not just with Julius and Yoko, but also with Mina. That surprised him a bit, not because Mina wasn’t a capable person, but because the other three had always felt like mentors, whereas Mina was a close childhood friend. He had forgotten to ask Arikado about it during training and wasn't sure how to ask Mina about it directly, but he would try to ask her about it today...maybe.

"How have you been these last few days?" Mina asked Soma earnestly. She sounded equal parts concerned and curious. "I heard from Yoko when she visited the shrine that Arikado has been keeping you busy."

"It...certainly was something alright."

"Not too much to handle, I hope?"

"I can deal with it. It's okay."

They walked in silence for a little bit.

"Ah," Mina said, stumbling for words and small talk. "The weather is beautiful today, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's nice."

They walked in silence for a little bit, again. He wasn't very good at this.

"So...what did you do last weekend? You said Yoko came to visit?"

Mina nodded. "Yep! I was busy doing some cleaning and maintenance at the shrine again, and she came over to help out. We were just texting at first about some requests that my parents had when I told her I was the only one at the shrine that day, and she came over and surprised me!"

"That's nice of her to do. It feels like you've been spending a lot more time at the shrine by yourself lately." He recalled the incident with the Tsuchinoko and the wards a few weeks back and how he also went and helped out with some cleaning work that day while she was alone at the shrine.

"My parents have really been pushing me to do more lately. They want me to take up more responsibilities at the shrine since I’m an adult now, and I don’t have any siblings. Sooner or later, the Hakuba Shrine will be passed down to me. That definitely feels weird to say, but I know that it’ll happen one day." She giggled and added, “Also I think they just don’t want to do the boring work. They've also been busy with admin work as well and have been spending a lot more time out of town recently."

"You’re going to be a true Hakuba shrine maiden soon."

She giggled again and playfully said, "I guess I will be". Then, she suddenly looked away and blushed. “To be completely honest, it’s not like I actually need anyone to help. It just happens to get lonely there being by myself."

"Yeah," Soma replied. "I know what you mean."

"Ah! Sorry, I shouldn’t be complaining about that to you. After all, you’ve been living alone for a while now, haven’t you?"

"Since early 2035. So yeah, I guess it’s been longer than I realized."

"Your parents are still working in America now, right? Are they doing well?"

"Probably? I don’t know. I don’t talk to them much anymore."

"Oh... I guess I really shouldn’t have brought it up."

Soma shook his head. "No, it’s okay. It’s not like I’m avoiding them on purpose. We just all suck at initiating any sort of contact. Guess having poor communication skills runs in the family. Anyway, after all that’s happened recently, it’s probably better and safer if they stay away from me anyway." He didn’t realize how lonely that sounded until now, saying it out loud. Having a life of living in fear that someone could go and hurt the people closest to him? Like they nearly did with Mina? He never asked for any of this.

It felt like a bad superhero movie sub-plot, but he wasn't the hero here.

"Do they know?" Mina asked quietly.

"Know about what?"

"The whole... you know. Him and all that."

"Of course not! Are you kidding me? I don’t want to even imagine how they would react." Soma sighed deeply. "Mina, you can say his name, you know. I’m not going to be upset or offended by it."

She blushed. "Oh yes, yes. Sorry, that was definitely sorta awkward. It just feels weird saying it sometimes." Mina fidgeted and then looked at him shyly and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? You're not upset?"

Soma thought for a bit and then said, "To be honest, I’m not sure at all. But I need to learn to accept it. I can’t just run away or ignore it. It’s become my reality."

"Oh!" Mina exclaimed. "I forgot! I have something that might help you. Give me just a second, okay?"

She took off her backpack and opened it up, then rummaged around looking for something. A few moments later, she was holding a white envelope with gold embellishments. There were some characters written in sweeping black brush strokes.

来
須
蒼
真

Kurusu Soma.

Mina held it out to him. "I put this in my purse early this morning and completely forgot about it. I’m glad I was able to remember it before we got to your apartment and split ways for the day." She passed it over to him. "Here, this is for you".

“What is it?”

“Why don’t you open it up and see?” She seemed excited.

Soma gently lifted the flap of the envelope and pulled out a handcrafted talisman. It was similar in design to the one he still had lying around in his apartment, but his one was made of wood and silk. It felt sturdy in his palm. The silk was off white and had a delicate blue floral design on it. The wood had some symbols carved into it that he didn't recognize. It certainly wasn't Japanese. There was also a chain attached to it such that it could be worn like a necklace.

"Arikado called me last week and asked if I could make a new talisman, but better than the old one. I spent a lot of time on it. I did a lot of research on warding talismans and there’s a surprisingly large number of old documents and research on the topic of suppressing Dracula’s chaotic energy. There’s a lot stashed away in both the shrine and in my father’s study, which makes sense considering how much demon warding the Hakuba Shrine must have done in its history. Oddly specific, but good for us I guess. I'm not gonna complain.

"My father helped a little bit, but I really wanted to craft it myself for you. I feel so powerless sometimes, and I worry a lot about you. I’m hoping this will help ease the burden a little bit more. At the very least, Arikado and my father both think it will."

"Wow, Mina, thank you." He turned it around in his hand a couple of times. "It’s really beautiful."

Mina’s eyes lit up. "I tried to make it work with your fashion sense and aesthetic. I was hoping to match the white and blue of your coat with that pattern on the silk there."

She slowly walked over to Soma and gently took back the talisman from his hands. She stepped closer and carefully pulled the chain over his mess of hair and onto his neck. "As long as it’s with you, it should offer its protection. It’s not perfect, but it’ll mostly act as a buffer if things get out of control. I also made this talisman larger than the other one, and hopefully, I made it harder to lose, break, or forget about."

"Thank you, Mina. I’ll say it again and again. This means a lot to me."

"There’s a lot of fear in your eyes. I didn’t notice it before, but I can see it clearly now that I’m standing right in front of you."

"Nowadays, whenever I think about myself, my worries, my future, my everything, all I can ever think about is Dracula. It’s almost like Soma doesn’t even exist anymore."

Mina smiled sheepishly. "Soma exists. After all, he’s standing in front of me right now. It’s only human to be fearful..."

"Human, huh?"

"...but it’s also human to accept support from others. Soma, I also care a lot about you too, and from my talks with Arikado and Yoko these last few days, I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that either. There are a lot of people who care about you and want to support you. People who care about Soma specifically, and no one else."

Mina then quietly added, "You know, if you want to get your mind off of things…maybe this or next weekend we can grab lunch at the local shopping center and then take a walk over the bridge to go to the park? I think the flowers are blooming. It’ll be a nice change of pace."

Soma blinked and stared at her, dumbfounded.

Is that a date?

"Is that a date?" he blurted out, sounding way less cool than he did in his head. She said all the words Soma could never find but had wanted to say for a long time. But she said it so...easily. Was it really just that easy?

"Ah! No, that's not what I meant at all. But..." Mina's face turned bright pink. "If you want it to be a date, I would like that very much."

"It's a date."

Chapter Text

Soma ended up meeting with Yoko that weekend since Mina became quite busy again, but they reassured each other on the phone that morning that next Saturday would be the day. Ironically, he ended up also meeting Yoko at a park, but he made sure it was not the same one that Mina had wanted to go to together. It was closer to his apartment and smaller, more like a 'patch of grass in between some tall buildings' than a proper park. He found Yoko sitting on a bench in her usual red garb and large sunglasses.

"Hey."

"Hey!" She lifted her sunglasses to prop them up on her head. "It's been a bit. Nice to see you again." She patted the seat next to her, prompting him to sit down.

"Is there any particular reason we're here? Wasn't expecting to meet you here, of all places."

Yoko shrugged. "It's my day off. I like this place. Not too quiet, not too loud. Great people watching spot."

Sitting down, Soma swung his legs back and forth a little bit like a nervous child, mostly because he had no idea what to expect today.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Is this going to be some sort of therapy session?" Soma asked, still trying to piece together what 'mental training' meant to Yoko and Arikado.

"I don’t know. Do you think I’d be a good therapist?"

"This feels like a trick question."

Yoko made a sly smile and then went back to a softer and more serious expression. "No, I do legitimately want to know how you’re feeling and how you’ve been. I know all of us in the group chat called this a 'mental training', whatever that means, but I’m definitely not a very qualified psychologist."

"I’m doing okay, I guess."

"Upset about not being with Mina today?"

"What?" he sputtered, blushing mildly. "How did you know?"

"Aha-ha! So I was right!" She beamed, looking victorious. "I didn't actually know, but I had a hunch. Heard some secrets from a little birdie and put the pieces together."

Of course. The two of them had gotten pretty close in the last year. Mina had even started calling Yoko her big sister every now and then. He was happy for her, truly, but if now Yoko 'The Gossiper' knew, then surely everyone else...

"Don't worry, I'm not going to spread it around. I'm happy for you guys. Sorry, I was just teasing you."

"Can we- just why am I here?"

She tapped her chin. "To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what Arikado wants me to do. I volunteered mostly because I didn’t trust any of those bozos to deal with anything remotely emotional. I’m a witch, and the only thing I’m good at is magic, so that's the only frame of reference I can go on. I figured we'd talk a bit about that and then we can get to some fun stuff."

"Fun stuff?"

"Yeah, more on that later."

"So am I learning magic?"

"No, but I think there are some lessons to be taken from the philosophies and mindset of performing magic. See, the difference between what I do versus what Julius does is that I can’t rely on raw strength or muscles or anything like that. There’s no amount of drills and workouts that make magic stronger. The strength of magic comes purely from the mind."

She burst out laughing. "Sorry, that sounded super cheesy and ridiculous out loud.

"Anyway, the strength of magic comes from willpower, discipline, and concentration. And practice, of course, but the thing I’m getting at is that magicians spend a lot of time honing that kind of stuff. Magic is relatively slow. It needs to be charged. If your concentration gives way, then you’ve lost the spell. You can’t afford to get distracted or emotional. You need to think and act fast, but calmly."

She raised her right hand, curled her fingers a bit, and created small blue electric sparks that flew around in a circle, eventually making a small blue orb of electricity the size of her palm. "It's all about control," she said. Then, it turned bright yellow and then dissipated.

"A caster that relies on an emotion like anger to fuel their magical strength is a caster that has no control over their spells. It’s like wild magic. It usually ends with a lot of destruction. For example, when casting fire, if you lose control over your area of effect, it’ll start to spread like… well, fire tends to spread like fire. Bonus points if you’re in a library of old paper. Even more points if it’s your family's library."

Soma raised a brow. "Are you speaking from experience?"

"Look, I was only 13 at the time! But yes, I let my emotions get the best of me and lost control. It scared the hell out of me. Ever since then, I’ve vowed to never lose control like that again. Also it’s the reason the only fire spell I use these days is still the small, short-range fire blast you’ve seen. I prefer ice."

Soma laughed. "Sorry, it’s just amusing trying to imagine you as a 13-year-old. No offense."

Yoko joined in his laughter. "No offense taken. It’s a funny story to think about all these years later. Anyway, it’s obviously not even close to comparable with your own loss of control. It would be rude of me to claim that I know what you’re dealing with, but I was hoping my dumb anecdote and the mentality of magic would help at least a little bit."

"I don’t know, burning down a library sounds pretty bad to me. Hm, I definitely think that insight was helpful. I’m still not sure what to do about it, but it was still helpful."

Yoko did an over-dramatized brow wipe motion. "Whew! That’s good. I should figure out the 'what to do about it' part later for training part two. But!" she clapped her hands together, "It’s time for some fun stuff."

"What does that mean?" Soma asked.

"You wanna get some revenge on those guys that jumped us last time?"

"What?" he said flatly. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't that.

She crossed her arms and leaned backwards into the bench, looking almost a bit cocky about it. "Arikado dug up some information on them and found a place used by some senior members of the cult. He assigned the job to me and gave me their location. It’s about two hours away from here with traffic, and I thought that it would be more fun and less lonely if you came along. What do you think? Gotta practice all that concentration stuff somehow, right?"

"That makes absolutely no sense."

"But it would be fun."

"I thought this was your day off."

"It is," she replied smugly.

It didn't take much to convince him. "Sure, why not. That sounds like a long drive. I can see why you'd want someone to tag along."

They made their way to Yoko's small car that was dubiously parked on the shoulder of the road. While Soma was buckling up and Yoko was starting the car she said, "I guess I should probably tell you what their deal is."

"That would be useful, yes. We have quite a bit of time to kill."

"We found out their name. They call themselves The Knowledge Brokers."

"Weird name."

"Right? Anyway, you know how I said the thing the other day about rumors spreading fast and truths faster? And the paper trails? Well this is them. These are the guys following the paper trails and causing rumors to fly about. For them, information is practically their currency and lifeblood. I wouldn't be surprised if they created even more problems in the future from just giving other groups ammo to use. I think that's why Arikado wants them dealt with ASAP."

"How long have they been around?"

She shrugged. "Not sure. Long enough."

They slowly made their way out of the traffic-filled city and into what was practically the middle of nowhere. “Good hiding spot,” Soma said, trying to fill some silence during the later parts of the drive.

"Good thing Arikado is good at finding hiding spots. Personally, I prefer it when they hide in plain sight. Involves less travel time."

"You and Arikado seem to have a pretty close relationship." He paused and then added "n-not in like a loving relationship type thing. But like...trust and stuff. I mean unless-" he stuttered.

Yoko broke out laughing. She laughed so hard that Soma wasn't sure when she'd stop. "Oh my gosh, that's funny, I'll remember that for later." When she calmed down, she continued, "I’ve known him my entire life, ever since I was a little girl. Hell, he practically raised me like a daughter. I trust him wholeheartedly. I’d like to think that he trusts me in that way too.”

"I think he does."

"Yeah, me too. I hope one day he’ll learn to trust you."

Soma sighed. "I don’t know about that. There’s definitely something he’s not telling me."

Yoko’s nostalgic expression turned into frustration. "Yeah, I know. I constantly berate him for that too. Why does he have to be so stupidly stubborn all the time?"

"At least his stubbornness isn’t a secret."

"I mean like, I sorta understand. Everything he does, he genuinely thinks it's for the best, even if it involves keeping secrets I personally don't think he should keep. Like with Julius? When he disappeared and lost his memory? When I first heard about the story of 1999 as a young girl, I was like, 'Hey, shouldn’t you try to find him?' and he was like," she used a monotone deep voice to imitate Arikado’s,

"'No, we should leave him alone. Dracula has finally been defeated and we don’t need him anymore.'"

"And I was like, 'Isn’t that kinda mean? Treating him like a weapon to be discarded after Dracula is gone?'

"And he was like, 'I'm not discarding him. He deserves to live a simple and normal life. He’s still very young. I don’t want him to feel burdened by his lineage. It’s been 900 years since Leon Belmont lived through a life of tragedy and forged the Vampire Killer. Now, the Belmonts can finally rest.'

"And I was like, 'You know, maybe he's sad about not remembering anything.'

"You know what he said in response to that? He said, 'Why would he be?'. How annoying!"

Soma made a mental note to ask Yoko about Leon Belmont and the Vampire Killer later because he felt awkward intruding on her rant. Though, e did find the rant to be pretty amusing, mostly because he could clearly picture the two of them bickering about this.

Yoko’s voice turned soft again. "I hope that one day he’ll finally open up to you. Deep down, he’s really just a big softie."

"I wouldn’t have guessed."

"He’s also a huge drama queen."

Some time later, they arrived at what looked like an old underground bunker. "How are we supposed to bust into that?" Soma asked, scratching his head. "It looks pretty hefty."

Right as Soma finished saying that, Yoko pulled the door open.

Soma blinked, dumbfounded. "Wow, how did you open that so easily?"

"I pulled on the door handle."

"And it just opened?"

"Apparently. Take a look here. All the locks are broken. Isn’t that strange?"

"Maybe the guys we're looking for broke the locks to get into the bunker in the first place? It looks so old that it could have been built before they showed up."

"I think that’s partially true. There’s a good handful of different locks here. Some of them look significantly newer than others. It’s hard to say when each lock was broken, but based on the rust, I think some were broken a long time ago, while some were broken recently."

"So do you think someone broke in recently?"

She shrugged. "Perhaps. Keep your guard up."

The inside of the bunker was not what Soma expected at all. They were walking down a wide hallway that sloped underground. The walls were made of concrete but there were religious images, symbols, and objects plastered around.

Soma shook his head. "I’ll never understand these kinds of people."

"Here's a good piece of advice for you. Don’t think about it too hard. They’re not very rational."

The hallway led to a medium sized room. There were four faint circular chalk drawings on the floor, each one a different kind of magic seal.

Yoko squinted at the several blood splatters throughout the room. "There’s not enough blood to indicate that anyone was heavily wounded, but these are fresh. Obviously there was a fight here recently. There’s also scorch marks all over the walls. They look new to me, but it’s hard to tell. Someone else definitely broke in and attacked the place relatively recently."

"Shattered glass bottles too."

"Likely holy water. There’s no oil or acid left over."

In the corner of the room, there was a bookshelf. It was hard to miss since it was full of colorful notebooks. Amusingly, purple, bright green, even pink spines lined the row. It was all very colorful despite the look of some water damage. Less amusingly, there was some fresh blood on the top left corner, but they had already established that there was blood spilled in this room recently.

"You know, I always imagined these kinds of people carrying old medieval-style tomes or a mysterious black leather notebook. These are literally those Kokuyo notebooks that students use because they’re cheap."

"I can’t imagine that being a cultist pays very well. Who cares about maintaining that weird gothic aesthetic when you can walk into the local store and buy a whole pack of these for a fraction of the price?"

"This is going to sound strange, but sometimes I forget that these people are just… normal people living in modern-day Japan. Well...normal-ish."

"It’s not that strange. I’ll admit that sometimes I forget about that too." She started looking through the shelf, sifting through them one by one. Then, her eyes widened. She evidently found something interesting, but Soma couldn't tell what. She pulled out one of the books. He could see that it was thoroughly bookmarked with post-it notes. "Hm, there are tracking and binding spells on this."

"That makes sense. Wouldn't want anyone snooping on it or stealing it."

"That would be my best guess. These are surprisingly advanced spells, but I can definitely dispel them. Just give me a second.” She placed the book on the floor and traced a symbol on the cover with her finger. It was then that Soma realized why this one in particular was interesting. On the cover, there was a white sticker to label the book, with a title scrawled in with a Sharpie:

YOKO BELNADES

She said a few lines of incantations, and Soma saw a thin ring of white light wrap around the book. Then the light dissipated. There was a short bit of awkward silence before Yoko slowly picked it up and started leafing through the pages. Then she winced. "This is… really creepy."

"Why does it have your name on it? What's in it?"

"The Knowledge Brokers, remember? Knowledge."

She turned over to Soma such that he could see what she was looking at. She slowly flipped through the entire book. It included a variety of things such as notes on the history of the Belnades family, old newspaper clippings from past incidents involving Yoko that Soma didn't recognize, business cards, the name and address of the Church where the two of them were attacked at, and more. "This notebook is well organized, at least. Everything is divided up and marked up."

"Well, that’s one mystery solved at least. The church attack.” Soma sighed. “This feels really uncomfortable. I feel like a stalker even just by reading this."

She closed it and moved back towards the shelf and leafed through the contents. "Now let's see...what else is there?"

All the books seemed to be tied to an individual. Yoko evidently recognized a fair bit of the names, but there were only three other ones that Soma recognized.

MINA HAKUBA

HAMMER (MILITARY)

Those two notebooks were nearly empty, but surely enough, there was some residential information in them. The two of them opted to burn them instead of trying to preserve them.

"Putting your book-burning experience to good use?"

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny," Yoko said dryly.

CURRENT ALIAS: GENYA ARIKADO

That was scrawled on the cover of the third one. Soma also noticed that this 'Genya Arikado' notebook wasn't just a single notebook, but rather it was four separate notebooks duct taped together. It was stuffed to the brim.

She performed the same dispel on the spells on the 'Genya Arikado' book. "I’m going to take this back with me and get Arikado to help me analyze it. Except he’s going to be absolutely furious when he sees this. He’s exceptionally sensitive to people breaching his privacy."

"I can imagine. Like we said, the guy definitely likes his secrets."

"Ugh, this is going to be a disaster." She sighed heavily. "I thought this job would be straightforward, but now I think I need to spend some time on this." She continued picking out a couple of other books from the shelf and spending some time to dispel each one.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

"Help me carry all these books to the car," she said while she placed them all in a single stack. "I’m also planning on laying down some traps throughout the entire place and could definitely use some help in preparing them. I’m hoping someone will come back here and trip one of them, possibly to find someone to interrogate. This can be your mental training for the day."

"That still makes absolutely no sense."

She ignored his comment. "I’ll bring you home as soon as that’s done. To be honest, now I feel bad about dragging you into this."

"It’s alright. It was sorta fun. Actually, if anything, it feels anti-climactic. I don’t know why, but I expected this place to be a lot bigger and less overwhelmingly empty."

"I expected it to be a bit larger, though I guess you don’t need a lot of room to do rituals and organize paperwork. I can try to scan the area for any hidden rooms, but I don’t think there’s going to be anything else here.” She looked him straight in the eye, confidently. "Soma, I’m going to get to the bottom of this, and I won’t let them hurt you or anyone else. I hope you can trust me enough to believe that."

He nodded. "I trust you."

"You know what's weird though?" she asked.

"What?"

"There's no book for you."

Chapter Text

A young woman, likely in her early or mid-twenties, stood on the side of the road. She leaned against an old brick building while her dark hair, slicked back into a single messy braid, swayed gently in the wind. A flickering streetlight illuminated her shoulders, exposed by her sleeveless black turtleneck and covered with rust-colored tattoos. She scrolled aimlessly on her phone with one gloved hand, while her other hand rested gently in the pocket.

There was the sound of footsteps on stray gravel.

“Julius Belmont,” she said coldly, and in English, without even looking up, shoving her phone back into the front pocket of her black cargo pants.

“You have some nerve, kid. Sending me some weird ass cryptic text message in the middle of the night.” He crossed his arms. He was clearly annoyed and very tired.

“But it looks like it worked. Figured it would be easier than calling. I didn’t expect you to be awake. Jet-lag?”

“Hm?”

“You arrived in Japan just two days ago, no?”

Julius raised a brow. “That’s a bold claim to make.”

“No need to bluff. I have your flight info.”

“Ah, yes, and I suppose you have some perfectly valid and legal reason for having that information, as well as my cell phone number?”

She over-dramatically pushed herself off the wall and rummaged around a large black bag that was slung across her shoulder. She pulled out and then casually handed Julius a stack of three objects.

The first object was a simple manila folder with just a few sheets of paper in it. There was a mission briefing, describing a cult in Japan. On the bottom of one of the pages, there was a set of coordinates. It was handwritten with blue ink and was surrounded by other scribbled notes in a language he didn’t understand.

She waited while he skimmed through the pages. Once he looked back up at her suspiciously, she said in surprisingly well-pronounced Japanese, “ The Knowledge Brokers”. Then she switched back to English again. “That’s what they supposedly call themselves in this local language. Have you heard of them?”

“I have, recently. Some colleagues of mine have been investigating this cult.”

“They’re quite weak, physically, but they built up a large web of eyes and information.”

“So I’ve been told.”

The second object was a cheap-looking notebook with JULIUS BELMONT scrawled on the cover. He raised his brow again and flipped over to a page that was bookmarked with a large paper clip. A printout of a mobile screenshot of a plane ticket was crudely taped onto the page. The flight number was highlighted. Next to it, in red ink, someone wrote, in Japanese, “confirmed, not a fake.”

“This information is indeed not fake,” he said slowly. She didn't respond.

The third object was another notebook, marginally fancier looking. This one had SOMA CRUZ scribbled on it. He tried to open it, but the pages would not bend or move. It was as if the whole thing was glued together. It felt abnormally heavy.

“Ah…about that one. I haven’t actually figured out how to get the binding spell off that one yet. It’s significantly trickier than the other one somehow. It’s...a work in progress.”

There was a deep silence, and another flicker of the streetlight.

“What is your purpose here?” Julius’ words were sharp. “I appreciate the documents about this cult and the retrieval of our compromised information, but I don’t think you called me out here just for that. I suspect you’re not here looking to hire help for your supposed cult mission either.”

“Dealing with the cult is my first task. I have a second one.”

“Please, enlighten me.”

“I’ve come to vanquish Dracula.”

He nearly laughed at her, but she looked dead serious. “You? Alone?”

“Alone…for now.” She looked nervous for the first time.

“Hmph, well, do I have some good news for you. Dracula was vanquished in 1999. Permanently. He’s been dead longer than you’ve been alive.”

“That’s what they all say, but there’s more to the story, isn’t there? The story of Castlevania doesn’t end in 1999. In 2035, the story continued. The castle was accessed by a small group of seemingly unrelated individuals, but that story was covered up by… Well, I don’t know who. But by the look on your face, I think you know.”

Julius remained silent.

“Furthermore, my organization learned that there is a man in Japan, walking freely and carrying Dracula’s soul. Ironically, all this knowledge was only discovered when we started following the trail of The Knowledge Brokers.”

“Who the hell are you? What is this organization you speak of? Who are you affiliated with?”

“My name is Irina.” There was a subtle hint of a rolled “r” when she pronounced her name. “As for my affiliation, have you ever heard of Ecclesia?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“The Order of Ecclesia was formed in the early 1800s to fight against Dracula when the Belmonts would not. Most historical records of Ecclesia have been destroyed, but we’ve been operating under the shadows ever since.”

“I see… And what if I don’t believe you? That’s an awfully suspicious story. Conveniently destroyed records. Conveniently placed in the time period when the Belmont family was cursed.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to believe me. That’s why I didn’t introduce myself.”

He sighed, still annoyed. “I still don’t understand why you’re here. Why are we having this conversation again?”

“Well, imagine my surprise when I learned of Dracula’s successor and the Belmont who would not fight him.”

“It’s none of your business. It’s complicated.”

“Is it?”

“We have our own arrangements.”

“I don’t understand what’s so complicated,” she scowled. “Dracula is alive.”

“Dracula is dead .”

“You know, I’m going to find him.”

“You will not. Leave him alone.”

“Is this what the last member of the Belmont clan has become? A servant for the devil?”

“Don’t misunderstand me. I think we’re done here.”

“Yes, but of course.”

The next time he blinked, she seemed to vanish. When he saw her again, she was ducked under his ribs. As she elbowed him right in his gut, he felt a strange wave of some unknown type of magical energy radiate through his entire body like a wave.

He immediately dropped all the items he was holding. He struggled to stand and eventually gave in and fell to his knees.

She grabbed the book titled SOMA CRUZ off the ground and stood back up. “Sorry, old man, but I’m gonna need this for a little bit longer.”

“Kid, you’ve picked the wrong group of people to cross,” he growled angrily. But by the time he finished saying those words, she was gone.

He groaned and let his body weight sink him even closer to the ground.

“Fuck,” he thought to himself, “I really am getting old.”

Chapter Text

Arikado held a small dinner gathering for Julius’ arrival in Japan. It wasn’t anything special, but it was admittedly odd seeing everyone hanging out at Arikado’s apartment, especially on a Wednesday night.

“I didn’t take you to be the housewarming type,” Mina said with her usual playful tone.

Arikado sighed. “Yoko’s been trying to convince me to be more social,” he said, awkwardly and mildly annoyed.

“Wow, and it worked?”

“Evidently.”

Yoko quickly gulped down the remains of her glass of red wine and then spoke up. She was crudely sitting on the dining room table. “I reminded him that he owes Julius thirty-plus years' worth of dinners.”

Arikado winced. It seemed to open up some old wounds again. Then, he looked away in embarrassment. “Julius…”

Julius shook his head and put up his hand. “We’ve had this discussion a thousand times already. I’ve accepted your apology. No need to dwell on it. Besides, I ate some damn good food in those thirty years.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He frowned.

“I know, so let’s not talk about it right now. Don’t look so grumpy about it.”

“I also didn’t expect you to be such a good cook either,” Mina continued.

Arikado smiled when he received that compliment. “I’d like to think I learned a thing or two about cooking in my lifetime. I’m glad you like it. Though, I can’t take all of the credit. Yoko helped as well.”

Yoko shrugged. “All I did was buy the ingredients.” Then she turned her attention to Soma. “Is everything okay? You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“Ah, sorry, I’m likewise...not very good at being social.”

“See Yoko?” said Arikado smugly. “Not everyone needs to be an extrovert like you.”

She pouted. “I’m not expecting you to be an extrovert. If anything, I’d completely freak out and declare you a doppelganger if that ever happened. I just want you to accept the facts. We’ve all forcefully invaded your social circle, so don’t you dare try to shrink away like you like to do and isolate yourself to struggle against every single problem alone.”

Arikado sighed again. “I never wanted to drag you all into this.”

“Well, it’s too late for that, mister. Because here we are.”

“It looks like all I did was delay the inevitable.”

“Exactly. See, it was bound to happen eventually. Perhaps it’s destiny .” She burst out laughing.

“Thank you, Yoko.” Arikado smiled warmly.

“Yoko, perhaps you should chill with the drinks tonight,” Mina said softly.

“You’re welcome,” she said in response to Arikado while completely ignoring Mina. “Perhaps my own destiny as a Belnades is to pester you. It’s in my blood.” She poured another glass of wine. “Blame Sypha.”

Arikado angrily glared at her. “You pester me on a weekly basis more than Sypha ever did in all the years I knew her.” Yoko burst out laughing again after that remark.

Mina changed the subject. “How’s Hammer doing?”

“He’s…” Yoko blushed. “He’s okay.”

“Funny story,” Julius interjected. “He helped me out with my job in Romania.”

“He what ?” Yoko yelled in response to Julius, pulling the wine glass away from her lips.

“Let’s just say that he’s really fucking persistent at trying to get involved in these matters. Said that it made him feel important. Can’t argue with that. Don’t worry, he held his own. Barely got a single scratch on himself. He’s back in the States now. Said he’d try to visit some time soon.”

“He didn’t tell me about that.” Yoko looked embarrassed. “Maybe I should try to call him tomorrow.”

“Please do. He would be ecstatic.”

Julius spoke just as flatly and stoically as always. If anything, he seemed a bit more on edge tonight, and Soma couldn’t really pinpoint why that would be.

Soma always thought that Arikado was the stoic one. Arikado was so quiet and mysterious, but recently he seemed…happy? Soma had started to look forward to his training sessions with Arikado. He seemed legitimately proud of Soma’s progress and also seemed to enjoy teaching and sparring. And then seeing him acting so unguarded and bantering with Yoko tonight felt strange, but it was nice.

Soma remembered what Yoko had said about Arikado, about him being a “big softie”. Now, he felt like he could finally start to understand what she meant.

Later, Soma was sitting with Yoko and Mina when he noticed that Julius and Arikado had moved out of the way and were conversing quietly in the other corner of the room. Soma wasn’t usually this nosy, but he was curious because he swore he heard them mumble his name, so he strained himself to eavesdrop.

Has my hearing always been this good? He wondered.

“And?” Julius whispered.

“Shockingly enough, she was telling the truth. She is who she says she is.”

“Are you sure? That’s still hard to believe.”

“The records and names check out.”

“But she said all the records were destroyed.”

“Please. Records are never fully destroyed.”

“Any chance of an imposter?”

“Obviously that’s always a possibility. But if she isn’t, she could potentially help out on this case, since she seems to know much more than we do right now.”

“I don’t like that one bit. What about Soma?”

It was quiet for a couple of seconds, and then they resumed the conversation, but even quieter than before. Soma strained harder to eavesdrop.

A small surge of power flowed upwards. His body instinctively started searching for a soul to aid him.

Soma stopped immediately and took a deep breath. He decided that it was certainly not necessary for him to use his powers for super-human hearing right now. He turned his attention back to Yoko and Mina.

The two of them were having a much more casual conversation. Mina was telling Yoko about some classes she was taking. This conversation felt normal, devoid of anything weird and mysterious. Soma decided that for the sake of his sanity, it was probably better to focus on this instead anyway.

Julius was the first to leave. It was getting late, and he was already exhausted from traveling. Yoko went alongside him as he offered to drive her back home.

“You either come with me, call a cab, or sleep here for the night. Your choice.” Julius spoke sternly.

“Yes, yes, I know. I’m not an idiot.”

“Good,” he said plainly. They left after that.

“Do you want help cleaning up?” Mina asked Arikado.

“No, don’t worry about it. You guys should go home. Don’t you have classes tomorrow?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” she replied.

“Soma, I will text you and Julius tomorrow, and we will figure out how to delegate and organize your training schedule.” Then he quickly added, “but don’t use your phone during class, you should pay attention to your studies.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.”

Soma and Mina grabbed their things and waved goodbye to Arikado. The two of them walked out of the apartment and onto the streets without saying anything to one another or making eye contact. Soma didn’t mind though. He just enjoyed being around her company and walking back home with someone.

However, Mina wasn’t the kind of person to leave silence hanging. She was the one to break it. “This was fun! It was very lively. I hope we can all do this again sometime.”

“Agreed.”

The two of them mostly made small talk for the rest of the way back, again sticking to normal, mundane topics. Soma liked that.

They eventually made their way to Mina’s place. She rummaged around for her keys. Before entering the building, she added, “Are you still good for Sunday? You know, we um…never really made a concrete plan on when and where to meet.”

“Do you want to meet around Noon?” he said assertively. “We could meet at the bridge that goes over the highway near here.” He pointed to its general direction. “Then we can grab lunch somewhere on the way to the park and just…walk around?”

“That sounds lovely. See you then!”

When Soma arrived back at his apartment. He threw all his stuff on the floor and promptly collapsed onto his bed. He could feel his heartbeat finally slowing down. Between the dinner party and the thoughts of his first date, for the first time in a while, he felt like he was just a normal, dumb, and awkward kid.

Or at least, he felt like a normal kid until he tried to go to sleep that night. He was restless and uneasy. He thought about Mina, and then thought about the cult, and then he wondered about what the cult was planning to do with her.

“Do they know where she lives? Do they know where she is right now?” He thought to himself, eyes closed but mind racing. There was the soft sound of the clock ticking to remind him of how long he had been awake for. He just couldn’t shake the feeling of paranoia and worry. 

“What if they try to take her as leverage?” He gritted his teeth, because deep down, he knew that if they got their hands on her, he wouldn’t hesitate to follow.

Deep down, he knew that it would work. She was the perfect target.

He still trusted Yoko and everyone else to keep Mina safe from this group, but what about the next? What would the next group of adversaries be like? The small bit of Arikado and Julius’ conversation he heard bothered him too. This felt like it was just the beginning.

And in reality, it wasn't just about Mina anymore. Yoko, Arikado, Julius, and even Hammer and his family far away. They were all important. 

Despite his fatigue, the discussion with Julius and Arikado the next day went smoothly. Soma would alternate between the two of them.

“We’ll meet on Friday in the same dojo that you two have been meeting in,” Julius stated. “Might as well take advantage of Arikado’s connections.”

“My apologies for intruding on the training schedule. I know I said that I would let you handle the training, but I have some more I would like to teach.”

“No worries, it’s best that he gets to learn and practice with more than one person. Might even want to get Yoko in on it as a third practice partner too. Anyway, I was expecting this. I’ve been gone for a bit, so you’ve had more than enough time to get emotionally invested in this.”

“What are you implying?”

“Maybe I should say ‘emotionally attached’?”

“Soma, please don’t misconstrue his words.”

Soma wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that exchange of text messages, so he just replied, “Okay” .

The next day, Soma arrived at the dojo to see Julius already there, sitting on the floor completely still with his eyes closed. Soma couldn’t tell if he was deep in thought or meditating, or maybe just napping.

“Good, you’re here,” Julius said, slowly opening his eyes. “Today might be pretty boring, but I want to get an idea of what you’ve learned from Arikado. Hand-to-hand combat only. No weapons, no powers. We’ll start there.”

“Oh, um, yeah sure.”

Being alone and training with Julius felt significantly more awkward and uncomfortable than being with Arikado.

But why? Was it because of their roles as Dracula and Belmont? The memory of their first battle lingered heavily in Soma’s mind. The Vampire Killer hung off of Julius’ belt, though it remained untouched all night.

He also often wondered what Julius thought of him. Did Julius see him as a ticking time bomb? A vessel? A foolish child? Yoko and Arikado would nowadays approach Soma with a warm expression, and he liked that a lot. He never saw that with Julius, but then again, he didn’t see Julius as often as the other two.

Soma often wondered if Julius saw him as a monster. After all, if Soma ever lost control of himself again, it would be Julius’ destiny to strike him down.

Still, the evening itself was fairly uneventful, as expected, though Julius apologized several times throughout.

“Yea,h sorry for being all over the place with this.” He let his hard exterior drop in front of Soma for the first time since he arrived. He scratched his head. “I’m now starting to realize how different teaching and doing actually are. I guess I don’t have any experience with this.”

“I don’t mind. It’s alright.”

He shook his head. “It’s not alright. You know, I’m thinking about picking up an apprentice soon.”

“Really?”

“He’s a young hunter affiliated with the Church. Name’s Curtis Lang. Wields a holy whip. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but maybe you’ll meet him one day. I think you’d get along. It’s getting late though. Maybe we should start cooling down. Do some stretches or else you’ll be sore tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. It’s pretty dark outside already,” Soma said, breathing heavily. After two nearly sleepless nights, he was dead tired and his eyelids heavy. He was very ready to just go home and pass out, but he stayed for a bit longer to help tidy up the place. Luckily, it didn’t take very long. After all, as Julius said, it was all just hand-to-hand.

Soma grabbed all his stuff from the corner of the room, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder. “Okay, I should head home.”

Julius nodded. “See ya.”

Soma slid the door open and stepped out. He pulled out some earbuds from his pocket and turned on some music on his phone while he started the casual trek back home.

After just a couple of blocks, he immediately hit pause. Something felt very, very wrong.

Someone is following me, he thought.

He ducked instinctively. Right after that, he saw a bolt of lightning arc over him and hit the ground near where he was standing.

Shit.

He ran without thinking. Between the sleep deprivation and the training with Julius, he was really not in the mood to deal with this.

A few more bolts struck the ground near him. Some seemed like they missed on purpose, as if taunting him. He squinted his eyes to try and find where, or who, they were coming from, but the road was dark and foggy, and he couldn’t pinpoint an exact location.

I just need to get away as fast as I can and circle back to the dojo to find Julius. Though admittedly, his sense of direction wasn’t great, and his pursuer was faster than he’d expected.

He dodged a couple more bolts, jumping from left to right.

Lightning, okay, I can deal with lightning. His mind raced to find the souls he was looking for.

His eyes glowed slightly as a thin light wrapped around him, granting him resistance to lightning. Then, he shot out an orb of energy. He figured if he couldn’t see the target, perhaps he could rely on a tracking bullet soul.

That seemed to work. He heard a hit. No voice cried out, but there was the sound of a small gasp for air. The attacks stopped for a brief second. Then, a green gust of wind swooped on the ground, knocking him off balance. More and more squalls came his way from behind, sweeping him forward.

He fell to the ground, then rolled out of the way to dodge another green sweep. Then he got up and continued running. He shot out a few more homing magical orbs, but it seemed like that trick would only work once. None of them landed a hit.

He clapped his hands together, still while running, and five balls of fire surrounded him and circled him, acting as a veil of protection. It seemed to work. They counteracted the gusts of wind, and he found himself stumbling less, but the wind still kept pushing him forward.

Before he realized it, he was at a dead end, stuck between the walls of some tall buildings.

Well, so much for that.

He turned around, pulled out the knife that he always carried, and moved into a stance that Arikado had taught him. He braced himself to fight, as there weren’t many other options he had right now.

The pursuer slowed and casually walked forward towards him.

A woman? Do I know her?

She was breathing heavily from the chase, but still forced herself to stand straight and upright, shoulders back. Then, a rapier seemed to appear out of thin air. She grabbed it and dashed towards Soma. She lunged forwards, forcing Soma to dodge backwards. He stepped backwards to keep some distance between the two of them, but knew that at this rate, he would be pushed back into the dead end and at a huge disadvantage.

“Soma, wait!” Julius suddenly cried out from behind the woman. With his whip in hand, he ran down the alley.

Soma took another step backward from the shock of seeing Julius appear out of nowhere. Before his foot even touched the pavement, something felt very, very wrong.

There was a loud sound, an explosion. A light enveloped him and stole his vision. He stumbled blindly, ears ringing, and landed on his hands and knees. It felt like there was something restraining him, holding him down, but he couldn’t tell what it was or what was going on. A strong energy was emitted from the ground beneath him.

A trap?

The ground near his feet was starting to crystallize. The gold light got brighter and pulled upwards, enveloping him and freezing him in place.

“Julius Belmont,” the woman said as she turned her back to Soma. He didn’t recognize her voice, but it was smooth and confident.

“I told you to leave him alone. You have a lot of nerve.” He had rarely ever heard Julius sound so enraged.

“Took you long enough to show up.”

The ringing grew louder and overtook the rest of his hearing. Then suddenly, everything went silent, and the world went dark.

Chapter Text

Soma woke up to the sound of nothingness. Wherever he was, it was dead silent.

His vision was blurry, his eyes were open, but the room was mostly dark. He noticed that there was a faint light in the corner of the room. His gaze landed on some locks of blonde hair illuminated by the soft glow of a phone screen. He breathed a large sigh of relief and relaxed.

Yoko breathed her own sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness. You're awake.”

"How long was I asleep for?"

“Like about 14-ish hours? Luckily, this isn’t one of those situations where I tell you that you’ve been asleep for days or anything like that. It’s the next morning, almost noon actually. Seems like you just needed a long night of sleep.”

“It looks like it’s still nighttime. Why is it so dark?”

“Blackout curtains. I’ll go open them.” She walked over and threw them open with one quick motion. The sunlight was blinding. She squinted and shielded her eyes. “Ah, maybe I should have just turned on the lights.”

Soma blinked as he waited for his eyes to adjust. He looked around and didn’t recognize the room he was in. It was small and tidy. There was a wardrobe in the corner of the room that was slightly open, and he could see that there were some extravagant and lavish coats inside of it, specifically one of black and gold. Next to Yoko and the small black stool she was sitting on, there was a large and old-looking book on the bedside table. Her phone was now placed on top of it. 

“Where am I?” he asked.

“Arikado’s place. Julius brought you here because it was the closest place he knew of.”

“Are they also here?”

She tilted her head towards the crack of the door. “Arikado’s just outside on the couch. I made him take a nap when I woke up this morning because it seemed like he needed it. Do you want me to wake him up?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine. What about Julius?”

“We don’t know where he is right now," she stated. She seemed nervous, understandably.

“Julius… Just what on earth is going on?”

“It’s a bit of a long story.”

“Is it a story you’re going to tell me?”

Yoko nodded. “No secrets here. Have you ever heard of the Order of Ecclesia?”

“Can’t say I have.” But then again, he felt like he’d never heard of a lot of these things thrown around in conversations. 

“Good. To be honest, I would have been pretty shocked if you had.”

“What are they? Another cult?”

Yoko explained, “Ecclesia is a group that was formed in the early 1800s to fight against Dracula via their own methods, ones that did not need the Vampire Killer. Well…maybe. To be honest, their exact formation is unclear, since all of those records seem to have been destroyed. Nowadays, they seem to be a small group of occultic bounty hunters with a strong focus on some sort of magic? Arikado mentioned something called glyphs? It’s quite unclear, but in general, they more or less work in the shadows.”

“So…this attacker was a member of Ecclesia?”

“Yeah. Julius said that she told him her name is Irina. We don’t have a way of knowing if that’s actually her real name or not, but we’ll roll with it for now.”

“Her and Julius, they seemed to know one another.”

She shrugged. “Eh, they spoke once before. That’s about it. We were actually also wondering if she spoke with you at all.

“No, she definitely didn’t.” Soma wrinkled his brow and tried to remember what had happened. “Something weird happened at the end. Some sort of trap.”

“Not sure exactly what it was, but Julius said you were encased in some sort of weird brownish crystal thing. Said that the girl claimed that she just wanted you out of the way for a fair fight with Julius, and well, she got her fight.”

“Did Julius win?”

Yoko nodded. “Of course he did! Or at least, that’s what he’d want me to say.” She grinned a little, in a sly manner. “Julius actually nearly lost. He was super grumpy about it. You should have seen his expression.”

“Where is she now?”

“She freed you immediately after she admitted defeat and then ran away. Said that she got what she wanted. A fair fight, I guess? Anyway, between chasing her and getting you to safety, Julius chose to deal with you first. He left out to pursue her right after that, and we haven’t heard from him since.”

"You said Ecclesia was a group of bounty hunters, right? Does this mean there's a bounty out on me right now?" he asked, although to be honest, he wouldn't be shocked if there was.

Yoko hesitated. “No, I think she came to you to finish what Ecclesia started.”

“To vanquish Dracula.”

“Yes.”

Arikado woke up not long after, awoken by the sound of Soma and Yoko's voices. He had also checked his phone to see no word from Julius as well. “I am getting a bit concerned. Do you think he’s okay?”

Yoko anxiously bit her lip. “I hope so.”

Arikado then gathered the two of them into the small living room and re-explained the situation to Soma, sitting around the coffee table. He was wearing pajamas, which Soma never expected to see, but he somehow looked just as formal as he usually did in his suit because they were black and made of a delicate silk. He continued onward, telling the story of Ecclesia’s written history, or lack thereof, and how the order was traced back to a mysterious black haired woman. Some reports remaining claimed that she was the founder of Ecclesia, others did not.

Yoko chimed in and added, “We’re also speculating that the reason Irina is pursuing this cult we’ve been dealing with is because she needs to continue to destroy any and all records they have about Ecclesia.”

“Soma, what are your plans for the time being?” Arikado suddenly asked, turning to Soma.

“Um, I don’t think I had any. I was probably just going to go home.”

Arikado shook his head. “I’m going to have to ask you to stay here until we find her. This area is protected. She wouldn’t be able to find or harm you here.”

“How long will that take?” Soma asked.

“I don’t know.”

Soma hesitated. “So…what would you say if I had plans for tomorrow?”

“I would tell you to cancel them.”

“Oh.” Soma looked disappointed.

Yoko elbowed Arikado and loudly whispered, “Arikado, he was going to go hang out with Mina .”

“Oh,” Arikado said flatly, not grasping what Yoko was trying to get at. “Well, that should not be a problem at all then. Why don’t we invite her over? I am not trying to put Soma under house arrest. Some company would be nice. What do you think?”

Before Soma could even reply, Yoko jumped in, raised her hand, and said, “Let me call her. She’ll freak out way less if it’s me telling her why we’re inviting her over. Man, this whole situation is all sorts of messed up. I don’t like it.”

Sure enough, Mina showed up later that day without hesitation. She even stopped by the convenience store on her way over to grab some snacks. By the time she arrived, she had a decent understanding of the situation.

After some more initial greetings and small talk, Yoko stood up and loudly stated to the audience, “Well, Arikado, it looks like it’s time for the two of us to head out and see if we can find Julius.”

“I thought we agreed that the plan was to wait until he contacted us.”

“Plans change. And I’m worried.” She grabbed Arikado by the arm and dragged him over to the door of the apartment, with him still looking bewildered.

“That is true but-”

Yoko just kept talking while putting on her coat and shoes, addressing the two sitting in the living room. “There are leftovers from the dinner party in the fridge. Take as much as you want. I’ll text you in advance before we get back. Just make sure to not mess up any of the furniture, okay? Arikado likes to keep things clean and pristine. Okay, have fun, bye~~” She waved as she slammed the door shut, still dragging Arikado behind her.

“Yoko sure is something alright,” Soma said slowly.

“She really is. What I can’t believe is how unguarded Arikado is around her. Arikado of all people!”

“She said he basically raised her. I think they treat each other like family.”

“I can see that,” Mina agreed.

“I wonder if he has any family.”

Mina closed her eyes. “I heard from my parents that his mother passed when he was young, and his father passed relatively recently.”

“Ah.” Then an awkward silence. “Maybe we should move to a different topic.”

“Agreed.”

“I want to apologize again about tomorrow. I know you wanted to see the flowers blooming.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Mina said nonchalantly. “We have time. Even if next weekend falls through too, spring has only just begun.”

“Ugh, I really don’t want to be here next weekend too. I need to go to school. Am I allowed to go to school?” He was obviously frustrated.

“Do you feel like they’re treating you like a child?”

“Yeah. Sorta. But like, I get it. I get why they do this. I just…how much longer is this going to go on for? Not just this, but everything. For the rest of my life? I don’t want that.”

“Maybe what you need isn’t to hope that something like this never happens again, because that’s not something you can control, but rather what you need is confidence that you can deal with it and return to normal.”

“I definitely don’t have that sort of confidence in myself right now.”

“You did seem rather confident running off to go find Celia though.”

“I was. I thought I could handle it, and I did succeed in the end, but I lost some of my confidence when…”

When I saw you die and I nearly lost control.

But of course he didn’t say that.

“...when more incidents kept on happening. Then it really clicked with me that it wasn’t just a fluke.”

“Well, maybe as more things keep happening, you’ll just gain more and more experience as you go. And maybe one day you’ll have the strength to deal with it by yourself like it’s nothing. There’s no shame in asking for help in the meantime.”

“I hope so.” Then he added, “I am really glad you’re here though.”

Mina smiled but looked embarrassed. “You don’t have to keep saying that every time I see you. I like being here. Why else would I be here today?”

Soma didn’t know how to respond to that, but he looked into her eyes, and they shone with sincerity.

They kissed, both moving in sync as one.

It was such a small and simple action. Nothing intense, but rather soft and light.

He thought he would have had to muster up all the courage in the world for this. He thought it would be awkward as hell, but it felt so natural, almost mundane. It was as if they had already done this thousands of times in the past. 

Maybe he had, maybe they hadn’t. He decided he shouldn’t really care anymore. It didn’t matter. The past shouldn’t matter. Just the present and the future.

“Maybe that’s why,” Mina whispered.

That night, they watched some of their favorite old TV shows on Mina’s phone, because unsurprisingly, Arikado didn’t own a TV. And they fell asleep like that, with Mina in Soma’s arms, head on his chest.

“Ahem.” 

Soma woke up to the sound of someone clearing their throat. He stirred. He decided he preferred waking up to dead silence like the day before.

“Urgh, Julius!” someone scolded.

“What? It’s morning.”

His eyes were still closed, but he felt Mina’s weight lift off him. She stretched and then yawned. “Mmm, good morning?” she said quietly, still half-asleep. At this point, he opened his eyes and saw daylight stream in from the windows, curtains opened.

“Julius! You’re so rude!” He finally recognized this voice as Yoko’s.

“Hm? You’re the one who kept complaining to me about how Arikado barely slept in the last couple of days. It’s wake-up time for us. He’ll be getting back soon anyway, he at least deserves his apartment back now that we have some new arrangements set up.”

“Well, I mean, yes, I guess I did say that, but-”

Soma spoke, also yawning. “New…arrangements?”

“Nothing fancy,” Julius replied. “We set up the guest bedroom at my place for you, because somehow I’m the only one of us with a guest bedroom.”

“Look,” Yoko rolled her eyes, “not all of us have the salary to afford a two-bedroom apartment.”

“Hmph, that’s why I live out where it’s cheap. Anyway, we can’t stop you from going to school tomorrow, but going home to an empty apartment feels like a bad call. Reason being, I can’t imagine her targeting you in any sort of crowd. Could you imagine the amount of chaos it would cause? Ecclesia evidently does not want to be known. If I were her, I would only attack when you’re alone.”

“She wouldn’t attack me while I’m just in my own apartment, would she?”

Julius shrugged. “I would if I were her.”

Yoko chimed in quickly again, “I do want to disclaimer and say that I’m pretty sure it’s illegal for us to force you out of your own apartment to go to Julius’ place, but…think of it as a friendly offer?”

“Mm, I’m not sure Arikado has ever cared much about legality. But anyway, you couldn’t have stayed here for that much longer anyway. You don’t have any of your stuff. We’ll stop by your place and you can get what you need.”

Soma stretched and finally stood up. “At this point, why not? Change of pace. Living alone sorta sucks sometimes. Though…I guess this means you didn’t find her?”

“No, we didn’t,” Julius said, sounding exceptionally grumpy today, just as Yoko had said. “I feel as if we’ve made no progress yesterday. We couldn’t find anything useful. She’s just gone.”

“We still expect that she’ll show up eventually, so watch out, expect her to come for you. If you’re by yourself, defend yourself to the best of your ability and send out an SOS.”

Julius nodded. “Agreed. Though on the bright side, she’s supposedly not looking to kill you just yet. She told me, ‘I promise I won’t kill him until after I’ve made my judgment. I’ll let you know when I do.’ Seems like some kind of weird honor thing to me. That being said, I trust actions more than words, and the immobilizing trap she made for you was nowhere near lethal, and we did have a fair fight, and she let you go.”

“That’s…good, I think?” Soma said quietly.

“Though it’s hard to tell. If it were lethal, your powers might have kicked in to protect you, and she would be dead already. Or something like that. You get what I mean.”

“Right...”

“Good.” And he left it at that. He jingled his car keys and motioned for everyone to leave. “You coming along?” he casually asked Mina, the first one to even remotely reference the elephant in the room.

She looked embarrassed and waved her hands in front of her, shaking her head. “Ah, no, I can get home by myself.”

“Hm. Alright. Come on Soma. Let’s go.”

Julius drove an old off-white beater car. The loud noises it made while sputtering along the highway made up for the lack of noise between the two of them. Soma would occasionally chime in to give driving directions, but for the most part, he just entertained himself looking out the window. He had a lot to think about.

“Hey,” Julius broke in at some point. “I wanted to apologize for being a bit overbearing. We’re just…trying to make sure you’ll be safe. Hope it doesn’t feel too condescending.”

“It does sometimes. Like, I want to have the strength to stand on my own. But…I guess compared to you, I really am just a child.”

Julius groaned. “Did you really have to say it like that? My entire back hurts from all this running around. You know, I spent almost half of yesterday sleeping. Only woke up because two nosy people banged on my door. Man, I hate being old.”

Despite his waning confidence and his apparent obedience, deep down, Soma knew that he wasn’t the kind of person to just sit around and wait as a damsel in distress. He was getting antsy. If anything, he wanted to just go find her himself and get it all over with.

The problem was, he had no idea how to go about doing that, so he hoped that she would make things easy for him. And sure enough, she did.

Getting back to Julius’ place from school was a bit of a pain. It required taking a subway to the end of the line and then walking to a small bus stop. This was the side effect of Julius living outside the city.

“A quiet and peaceful neighborhood. Just how I like it,” Julius explained the day before.

Soma was sitting at the quiet bus stop alone and idling on his phone as usual. Then, he heard the soft sound of footsteps approaching him from the right.

“You really took the first possible opportunity to strike, huh?” Soma remarked before she could even say a word. He shoved his phone back into his pocket and stood up.

“Unlike you, I don’t have time to waste away.” She slanted her eyebrows while her gaze met his. His gaze then drifted to her left arm. It was bandaged all the way from the elbow up to the shoulder. Soma wondered if that was from her brawl with Julius.

“Who is it that you’re looking for? Soma Cruz or Dracula’s reincarnation?”

“I came to his country for Dracula, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Then what is it that you want from me?”

By now, she was leering at him. Her glare was fiery and angry. “I just don’t understand.”

“Understand what?”

“Do you realize just how many powerful people you have wrapped around your finger? The legendary Belmonts. The Belnades, who have stood beside them since the beginning. The Hakubas that sealed away Dracula’s castle for all of eternity. Even the son of Dracula! He bends over backwards for you. And I just. Don’t. Understand.”

There was so much to unpack there that Soma had no idea where to start.

“Okay, wait, wait, wait. Let’s back it up a bit. Just because I’m friends with Yoko doesn’t mean I have the whole Belnades clan behind me or anything like that. I barely know a single thing about her family because she doesn’t talk about them that often. As for the Belmonts, you are aware that Julius is the last one in the lineage, right? There’s no ‘Belmonts’, it’s just one guy.”

He didn’t have the brain power to think about and digest the second half of that list at the moment.

“Are you planning on running away again this time?”

“No. No more running or hiding.”

“Then fight me,” she said bluntly, voice low.

“Here?”

“Let’s just say…the bus won’t be showing up any time soon.”

“What? You can’t just do that!”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do.” And with that, a rapier manifested in front of her like it did the other night. She grabbed it and lunged.

Chapter Text

Soma swiftly stepped to the side, dodging the first attack and watching the blade glide through the air.

"In the name of Ecclesia, I will not hold back!" There was a faint glint in her eye. Looking determined, she made a second attack. Her movements were wilder today than they were the last time. Soma noted that even if she wasn't trying to properly kill him (supposedly), she certainly looked like an assassin in her tight all black outfit. 

He didn’t have any physical weapons on him at the moment, but that was a non-issue. If she wanted a fight, then he wouldn’t be one to hold back. After all, he had all of the souls at his disposal. The Winged Skeleton spear would be good enough for now. In a similar manner to Irina, Soma’s weapon appeared in front of him. He grabbed it and swung down hard while she rolled out of the way. It made a ringing metallic sound as it hit the pavement. She swung back, hair whipping behind her as she turned. He blocked with the shaft of his spear, leaping backwards.

Soma took a second to focus. A dark aura started swirling around his body. He decided he needed to channel as much chaotic energy as possible for his next move.

That way, Arikado will know exactly where I am.

That was his number one objective. The bigger the blast, the bigger the beacon. It's not like he could just whip out his phone at this point, and besides, it’s not like anyone told him how they wanted him to send out the SOS. This way, Arikado would find him, just like he did in the past. There was no way he wouldn’t.

His mind drifted to Yoko’s words. Control. It’s all about control. These may have been Dracula’s powers in the past, but Dracula was dead. They belonged to Soma now, and he would own them and use them as he pleased.

Legion.

There was an explosion of energy. Three silver tentacles crawled out of his back. Then suddenly, there was a second explosion of energy, and each tentacle split into two, wriggling about. All of them pointed forward to Irina. Her eyes widened in shock. Then all at once, each tentacle fired out a bright blue laser. They flailed about wildly, burning streaks into the ground. She dodged them as best as she could, but missed her final step. One of the lasers grazed her shin. She winced in pain.

“I see,” she said, breathing heavily. “This is the so-called Power of Dominance. A monstrous power indeed."

"Any power can be monstrous," he mumbled angrily. He charged forward again to attempt another melee strike. Her bright green gusts of wind appeared again out of her hands, sliding across the ground and knocking him back. He stumbled a bit but regained his footing quickly. He waved his right arm forward. Several rows of five-foot-tall icicles spike upwards from the ground like stalagmites, forcing some distance between them.

Electricity crackled in Irina's palms. She shot at the groups of icicles, shattering them on hit. Two can play at that game, he thought. A flash of lightning came from his side of the field this time. She staggered backwards and let his bolt strike the ground in front of her. Soma made a second shot. She countered it by shooting her own bolt directly into it. A loud and piercing sound blew through the air. There was a large blast of blinding light. Soma instinctively covered his eyes with his arms.

She took advantage of this sudden blast by dashing forward and taking another stab. Soma got out of the way just in time, but her rapier pierced cleanly through the side of his coat. She ripped it out of the side and attempted a second attack.

At that moment, a gruesome brown and bulbous object appeared between them. Dark green leaves grew out from the top of it. A Mandragora root. It screamed a horrifying scream, creating a shockwave between the two of them, blasting them backwards away from one another. Soma re-steadied himself, planting his feet firmly back on the ground. He stood quietly for a couple of seconds to catch his breath.

On the other hand, the surprise Mandragora knocked Irina to her hands and knees. She coughed several times into the dust cloud created by the attack. Slowly, she used her hands to push herself back up onto her feet. She was struggling. Her legs were quivering slightly with each motion, but he could tell she still had some fight left in her.

Or at least that's what he thought until she dropped back down to her knees, not out of weakness, but with intent. She put her right hand back onto the ground to steady herself.

“I surrender. I admit defeat.” Her smooth but quiet voice was a stark contrast from the loud cracks and screams of the battle that had just occurred.

His eyes widened. "You what?"

"I'm not stupid. I know when I've lost."

Soma wondered if she was just doing this to get in a surprise attack once he let his guard down, but she did seem as if she was nearing a breaking point. She was prideful, but she clearly had her limits.

“How do you know I won’t just kill you right now while you’re down,” Soma said while glaring down at her, readying another spear attack just in case.

She laughed, breaking her harsh exterior persona in front of Soma for the first time. “Oh please,” she said, “we both know you’re not much of a killer.”

“And you think you know who I am?” Soma yelled in response.

“I know that you never once attacked me with an intent to kill. Let's be honest, you could have killed me twice over by now. There are definitely monster abilities more lethal than that.” She glanced up at him. "I think we both knew from the start that I never had a chance to begin with."

"I..." He knew she wasn't wrong. He probably could have ended it all within minutes with a well-timed enchanted arrow.

"To be honest, I had a selfish reason for coming to this country as well."

"What?"

"Heh, I’m here because I thought it would be fun to have a fight with Dracula. Not very many people get to do that."

"You claim to not be stupid, but that's a pretty stupid reason. And I already told you, I’m not Dracula."

"Yeah, I know. To both of those statements." She brushed the dust off her knees and thighs while carefully standing back up, steadier this time around. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she said in a cocky manner. She said it loudly and without eye contact with Soma, almost as if she were speaking to someone else. "You can come out and arrest me now."

A third voice rang out from behind. "I’m not a police officer. I cannot arrest you. I'm putting you under my agency's watch. That's different."

Still with his guard up, Soma quickly turned his head to the source of that voice and was surprised to see Arikado, who seemingly showed up out of nowhere. Soma's shoulders finally relaxed and the spear vanished. When he looked around, he noticed a sleek black car parked at the side of the road. Arikado was followed by two other men Soma didn't recognize, presumably also from the agency.

"That sounds even worse," she remarked.

Arikado spoke coldly. "You were clearly warned by Julius Belmont. You should have been ready for the consequences."

"Don't worry, I am." She turned to look at Soma one more time. "That was a fun fight. Thanks for the entertainment," she said with a little wave as one of Arikado's men put a tight grip on her shoulder and guided her towards the car.

Soma spoke up, still mildly stunned. "When did you get here? I didn't even see you arrive."

Arikado shrugged slightly. "You seemed pretty focused, so I waited until it was over. I had no doubts about you winning anyway." Arikado turned away. "I should go and deal with this mess. Julius will come to pick you up soon." And just like that, he left just as quickly as he had arrived.

“A couple of the roads around here are obstructed by fallen trees. I heard about it on the news too. The bus route has to take a detour. Pretty inconvenient, huh?” With Julius’ usual flat tone of voice, Soma could not tell if that was supposed to be sarcastic or not.

“How much do you know?”

“Less than you probably think I do. Give me the details.”

And so, Soma told the entire story, along with everything that was said. The two of them were in Julius' car, stuck in traffic. There was a lot of time to spare.

Julius scratched his chin. "Mm, you're right, that is a lot to unpack. Well, I guess for starters, I'm not saying you need to be a killer, but you could definitely afford to be more aggressive."

Soma slunk down awkwardly in the seat. "Sorry, I guess I don't fight human opponents that often."

"Hey now, you're not supposed to apologize," he grumbled. "And it's not necessarily about who the target is. Strike a balance between keeping distance and being up close and applying pressure. Hm, maybe we should work on that someday."

"Someday, do you think you could also tell me about the history of the Belmonts?"

"Which part of it?"

"Maybe...all of it?"

"Uh, that's a lot. You know, based on the way you addressed me when we first fought in the eclipse, I assumed you had some memories of the Belmont clan. What was it that you said? 'The power of a Belmont is greater than this?' Something of that sort."

Soma didn't really know how to put it in words. "I...I don't know what I have to be honest. I don't have memories of people or events, but...I think I have memories of emotions. There are memories of defeat and failure, but weirdly enough, also memories of love."

"Hm, interesting. Though not entirely surprising."

"It's not?"

"I can tell you about the story of the Belmonts, but that part isn't my story to tell. My apologies, but you'll have to seek that out for yourself."

"Right..."

Julius changed the subject. "Anyway, looks like your coat got a bit messed up. If you want, I can patch it up for you when we're back at my place."

"You know how to sew?"

"I like knowing how to fix things."

"Well, if you're offering, there's not really a reason to say no, is there?"

He shrugged. "Might look a bit weird."

"It's fine, a lot of things look weird."

"Not a bad attitude to have."

Soma sighed. "So, what happens next?"

"Likely what will happen is that Arikado will use the knowledge the girl has on that wacky cult to deal with them himself. With any luck, this whole thing is mostly over then, across all parties."

Soma's expression soured slightly, but he didn't want to show it, so he looked away and took a deep breath. "Over for now. But this is only the start, isn't it? These aren't the only parties out there with…opinions on the fate of the Dark Lord. It'll happen again and again." He glanced back at Julius, patiently waiting for his answer.

"No." Julius spoke sternly and with conviction, gripping the steering wheel. "You know how you can make sure that something like this never happens again? Make the world realize that Soma Cruz isn’t someone you should mess with."

Yoko visited Soma at his own apartment later in the week. She grabbed some takeout for him on the way there.

"My treat~," she said gleefully while handing the bag over to Soma. “Today’s mission was a success! Those broker cultists won’t be bothering you anymore.”

He set the bag on his counter. “I’m sure you’re glad to not have to deal with them anymore too."

"Oh, for sure. What an annoying bunch," she scoffed over-dramatically, "but I also wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Feel good to be back home?"

"Of course."

She smiled. “Great. I’m happy for you, really. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

His expression turned a bit more serious. “Yeah, I guess I do have a question."

"Ask away."

"What’s going to happen to Irina?”

She sighed. Her face fell flat. “Well, Arikado’s words were,” she cleared her throat and did her best impression of Arikado’s voice again, “‘Normally one would charge her with assault of an innocent college student, but that would require me to explain why said student was being assaulted in the first place, and that is something I cannot do.’” She switched back to her normal voice. “Paper trails, remember? We’re still trying to keep your identity hidden for as long as we can, and getting your name into the Japanese legal system is not the way to go.”

Soma nodded. “Yeah…”

“It’s in Arikado’s hands at this point. He’ll figure it out. He always does.”

“He always does indeed.”

She looked him straight in the eye. “There is something I need to tell you about. Before someone else does in a worse way." She lowered her voice, sounding and looking uncharacteristically stern.

“W-what?” he stuttered. He was quite startled.

“A bit of perspective I need you to think about. The people of Eastern Europe - they were the ones who suffered the greatest extent of Dracula’s madness. A great number of people were killed, and those who weren’t killed suffered with the consequences. There are countless ruins where there once were villages full of life. Large swaths of land are still uninhabitable. Remember, this was a war that lasted for well over 500 years. To the people here, the possibility of Dracula’s revival is worrisome. To the people there, the possibility of Dracula’s revival is an absolute nightmare.”

She put her hands on Soma’s shoulders and gently squeezed them, her whole body tense. “Just to be clear, I’m not telling you this because I want you to feel guilty about things that you never did. None of us would ever blame you for the atrocious acts that were committed before your time and I don’t want you to feel like any of this is your fault, but to many people and groups out there that don't know who you are, you would be considered as the villain of this story, and she would be the hero that was brave enough to attempt to vanquish Dracula again.”

Yoko finally relaxed and returned to her more usual tone of voice. "I'm not telling you to forgive her, because I personally won't and never will," she emphasized. "But I want you to understand the context just in case Arikado does." She spoke with such sincerity, truly like a daughter trying to protect her father.

Soma was quiet while trying to process his thoughts. He had tried hard to see if he could remember any places in particular. He still couldn't, and maybe that was for the better. “I think I understand,” he finally said.

"Good. Anyway, don't ever feel like you're obligated to shoulder everything by yourself. It's a large burden to hold, and I'm more than happy to help out."

He smiled. "Thanks, Yoko."

"No problem." As she was leaving, she added, "Oh, and by the way, Hammer has been really adamant on trying to organize a large video call with everyone. I think he misses you guys a lot. So keep an eye out for that, okay?"

Soma would have gone to the dojo that Friday night, but everyone agreed that all parties deserved a week of rest. Despite that, Soma called Arikado that day anyway after school.

"Arikado speaking." He sounded so formal about it despite the fact that Soma was just calling from his usual cellphone, so it wasn't some unknown number. Though, Soma did feel like he had gotten more accustomed to Arikado's quirks recently.

"Hey. It's just me."

"Is something wrong?" Arikado sounded worried.

"There's something I need to ask you about."

There was a pause. "It sounds important. I'll be home for the rest of the day. If you have no other plans, feel free to come over." And that was it. As expected, Arikado wasn't one to hold important conversations over the phone.

When Soma arrived, Arikado promptly poured two cups of tea as they sat down at the dining room table.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

Soma didn't really know where to begin. "Well, for starters," he said, trying to just make some small talk first. "I heard you guys took down the Knowledge Brokers. Yoko said the mission was a success."

"Yes," he said while taking a sip. "We got some pretty good information from the Ecclesia agent that helped a lot." Then he raised a brow. "But that's not why you're here, is it?" 

"Straight to the point." Soma decided to just be blunt and assertive about it. He had played out this conversation and scenario in his mind hundreds of times in the last few days, but still had no idea what sort of answer to expect. "Irina asked me something interesting the other day."

"Did she?"

"She asked me why the son of Dracula was protecting me."

Arikado looked hesitant and unsure of himself. His fingers were tightly wrapped around the teacup. He seemed like he was trying to find the right words to use. "I should have known she would," he said quietly.

"That's all I know. I needed to tell you about it before it was too late, but I'm not necessarily looking for answers right now." That was a lie.

"But your expression implies to me that you are."

Soma winced awkwardly. He knew his poker face wasn't very good. Of course Arikado would see right past it. "I…would like answers, but I don't want to be pushy or drag up bad memories if you don't want to talk about it right now." He couldn't begin to imagine what kind of horrors and tragedies Arikado must have dealt with.

He spoke nostalgically, still quiet. "Not all of them are bad."

Memories of love, Soma remembered.

Arikado continued, "I know that I have been avoiding this topic for quite some time." He turned his head away, looking out the window and making that mysterious, brooding expression that Soma knew all too well. "I think…it's finally time for me to share with you my own relation to Dracula, and the role I played in the long battle against him."

"So you finally trust me enough to tell me?"

"It was not necessarily a matter of trust. Perhaps I was concerned about how your perception of me would change."

"I'm pretty sure that's a matter of trust," Soma said, somewhat sarcastically.

Arikado glared back. "You get what I mean."

"My perception of you will always revolve around the role you've played in my own life, and in the present. Your past would never change that fact." That was not a lie.

"Thank you, Soma." He smiled. "I never meant to keep…" he paused and closed his eyes and whispered, "No. That's not true. If I had it my way, you would have never known the truth."

Arikado paused again and then took a deep breath. "It's a very long story, but it begins with a woman named Lisa…"

That Saturday at noon, Soma waited at the bridge for Mina. He had arrived earlier than he had expected, but the weather was nice so he didn't mind. It was a good time for him to enjoy the fresh spring breeze. So much happened in the last two months. It was nice to have a chance to take a step back and have a small moment of peace.

He heard footsteps approach him from behind.

"Hey."

As soon as he realized that it was not Mina's voice, he braced himself and put his guard up. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but he knew it certainly wasn't this. What he saw was Irina wearing a casual oversized white T-shirt and jeans. He almost didn't recognize her.

She raised a brow. "What? Don't give me that look. I'm just some random human too, you know. I can wear what I want on my day off." She crossed her arms and leaned her back on the railing of the bridge.

"Why are you here?" he said angrily. "Arikado set you free?" He knew from his conversation with Yoko that that would be a possibility, though he still never expected to see her again.

"Ha!" she said loudly. "As if. His men have all their eyes on me. They know exactly where I am right now." Hearing that made Soma feel happy in some strange way, as Arikado had sided with him instead of her and the rest of the world. Of course, this wasn't the first time he had done such a thing. Nor the second or third.

"Then why are you here?" he asked again, jaw clenched.

"To let you in on a little secret." She spoke with a sly grin. Soma didn't respond. He waited for her to continue.

"The truth is, Ecclesia wasn’t formed with the purpose of defeating Dracula. That's all a lie," she spat. Her brow furrowed, looking resentful. "A crafted lie by the true founder, whose name is still unknown. Ecclesia existed solely to resurrect Dracula. To break a seal that was preventing the Lord from reviving once again. And unfortunately...it succeeded. Ever since then, my predecessors and fellow colleagues have spent the last few hundred years trying to rectify that sin."

"Why are you telling me this?" He felt conflicted, still unsure of her intent.

“I dunno,” she said with a small hint of a playful tone in her voice. She seemed to be smiling just ever so slightly. “Just thought you would find it interesting. Do what you want with the information. Tell it to your confidants if you wish. I didn’t like lying about it anyway.”

“What do you think?” Soma asked earnestly. “Do you think Ecclesia is free from its sin?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? It’s not within my jurisdiction to decide.” Irina uncrossed her arms and put her hands in her pockets. “Look, your girlfriend’s here.” She smirked and turned around. Then, without looking back, she said, "I must get going now or else your little friend will get mad. Goodbye, Soma Cruz." And she walked off.

“What a strange person,” Soma mumbled out loud to himself once she was out of earshot.

He heard another set of footsteps, this time bouncy and cheerful. He looked to see Mina arrive. "Hey! Sorry for being a bit late," she said while taking some time to catch her breath. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

Soma shook his head. "Nothing to worry about. It's okay, it's all over."

"Great!" She gently brushed her bangs to the side and out of her eyes. Her hair was pinned up, something that she only ever did for special occasions. "You ready for today?” Mina asked. Soma thought that her smile right now was bright enough to light up the whole world.

“Yeah.”

I’m ready.