Walking Among the Fires of Hell

• Last updated: 3/13/2024
• Number of chapters: 8/?
• Word count: 34,926
• Genres: Action, horror, supernatural, family
• Warnings: Graphic violence, strong language, mild sexual references, cult abuse
• Characters: Alucard/Genya Arikado, Richter Belmont, Soma Cruz, Maria Renard, Yoko Belnades, Dante Espardez, Vergil Espardez, Lady, Trish, plot-necessary original characters
• Other Tags: Vampires | Non-traditional relationship | Latine
• Summary: When Alucard and Soma both go missing, Richter takes it upon himself to do what needs to be done. What at first seems to be a run-of-the-mill encounter with Dracula's followers soon becomes far more than any of them had been prepared for.
  Meanwhile, Dante seems to be unable to have a normal Saturday night.

Chapter 7

“Seventy-eight bottles of beer on the wall, seventy-eight bottles of beer…”

“Alright, knock it off already, or I’m dropping you.”

“But this is so boring!”

Grumble though he might, Alucard couldn’t exactly disagree. With Richter still wounded from the fight with the scorpion demon, Alucard had elected to carry him- Which wasn’t the problem. Alucard was more than strong enough to carry Richter. No, the problem was that even with the blazing speed of his wolf form, they didn’t seem to be getting much closer to the castle. 

“It’s almost too boring,” he admitted. “I’m starting to think something’s not right.”

“Maybe? I mean, we are in Hell, but…” Richter fell quiet for a few seconds, seemingly in thought. “Let’s stop for a minute.”

Alucard concurred, slowing to a stop nowhere in particular amidst a fog. Richter climbed down onto the ground as Alucard reverted to his usual form. 

Richter frowned, brow furrowed. “Now that you mention it… Do you remember that bit in like, the second Vampire Hunter D, when he kept riding in circles-”

“The part where he trapped the Mary Celeste in a pocket dimension, or something like that?”

“That’s the one.”

“Yes, I vaguely remember,” Alucard confirmed. “You think that’s what’s happening to us?”

“It’s possible,” Richter replied with a shrug. “Do you remember how he got out of it?”

“No, do you?”

“No. Not that it makes much difference either way, I suppose; It is a work of fiction, after all,” Richter sighed. 

Alucard shook his head in disappointment. “So it is. And so we remain clueless either way.”

“I know how to get out of it.”

Alucard’s eyes widened, hand flying to his knife and head whipping around in search of the voice’s source. “You,” he growled. 

“Who?” Richter whispered in confusion. 

“The guy who kidnapped me. Forgot his name, it doesn’t really matter.”

“Ah.”

A malicious chuckle emanated from the dense fog in front of them (Emil, if Alucard remembered correctly). “How rude… Well, no matter. I will lift my enchantment, on one condition: You, with the headband. You’re a Belmont, aren’t you? Do your duty, then. Kill the traitor prince, and I will let you go free.”

Richter huffed as he pulled himself shakily to his feet. “And what if we just kill you instead? You can’t hold that form forever,” he pointed out. 

“Oh, but I don’t need to,” Emil replied calmly. 

The fog swirled and coalesced, drawing towards the ground before solidifying, revealing Emil- And a human boy, unconscious on the ground with Emil’s claws hovering at his throat. Alucard recognized the boy as the summoner who’d entered with Soma. 

“You have three choices before you,” Emil spoke. “Kill Prince Adrian, Belmont, and you and the boy both walk free. Try anything clever, and the boy dies. Do nothing, and all three of you remain trapped within my enchantment indefinitely.” A sickening smile spread over his face. “Now, what will you choose?”

Alucard and Richter exchanged worried glances. Alucard hardened his expression somewhat, meeting Richter’s eyes and willing him to understand. 

“I suppose we have no choice, then,” Alucard conceded, turning the dagger around and holding its hilt out to Richter. 

“Alucard-”

“You heard him, Richter,” Alucard continued, quietly stretching his magic out behind Emil. “If you don’t kill me, the boy will die one way or another, and we’ll never make it out of here either way. I can’t let an innocent person die because of me.”

Richter sighed. “I see. I guess this was inevitable, huh,” he mused, glancing briefly at Emil’s sadistic grin and the rising shadow behind him. “Once a Belmont, always a Belmont, I suppose. I wish it didn’t have to end this way, old friend.”

“As do I. But this is my fate, as well.” Again Alucard held the dagger out, and Richter took it, hesitantly wrapping his hand around the hilt. 

Alucard met Richter’s gaze one last time, let go of the dagger’s blade, and-

Alucard’s sword familiar sliced clean through Emil’s head from behind. The two wasted no time, with Richter lunging forward to plunge the dagger into Emil’s heart, and Alucard swiftly pulling the boy away from any lingering danger. Alucard watched as the landscape around them shifted, the enchantment dissipating slowly.

“I’m kind of surprised he fell for that,” Richter commented, breathing a sigh of exhaustion as he wiped the dagger clean on the now-dead Emil’s clothes, and handed it back to Alucard. 

“I’m not. Villains such as him tend to be fairly single-minded, so the whole ‘woe is me, this is my tragic fate’ stunt is usually pretty effective,” Alucard explained. “Maria and I used it on quite a few occasions.”

“Yeah, I remember that, now that you mention it. Anyway, how’s the kid?” Richter asked, nodding towards the unconscious youth. 

Alucard paused a moment, gently looking the boy over for any signs of injury. “He seems to be unharmed. No broken bones, no serious wounds, and his heart rate and breathing are fairly normal,” he observed. “My guess is he just exhausted himself by, you know, opening a portal to Hell. He’s lucky he wasn’t eaten by demons.”

“Either lucky, or his boss here was keeping him alive.”

“Yeah. On that note… I suppose we’re going to have to take him with us,” Alucard realized. “I mean, we can’t exactly just leave him here, at any rate.”

Richter grimaced. “I hate to admit it, but you’re right. I just hope he won’t be too much trouble when he wakes up. I don’t want to have to fight him, but seeing as he presumably has no clue his boss just threatened to kill him as a hostage…” He shook his head in dismay. “I imagine he won’t take kindly to being reverse kidnapped.”

“Probably not.” Alucard sighed as he stood up, carefully hoisting the boy onto his back. “Will you be alright on your own?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I can mostly walk ok. We don’t have far to go, anyway,” Richter pointed out, glancing over his shoulder. 

The castle wall loomed before them. Piles of rubble surrounded the former gate, the once-leering visages of gargoyle statues now battered down to featureless heads. Behind the gate stood the castle itself, weathered and overgrown with strange plants, yet solid. Imposing. Somehow, its presence filled Alucard with both dread and exhilaration. 

“You really think Soma’s in there?” Richter wondered. 

“No. I think he could be in there, and we don’t have any leads whatsoever, so it’s as good a place to look as any,” Alucard answered. “Besides, all three of us are far more comfortable in creepy old castles than out in the open. Death was right about that much, at least.”

With that, Alucard began walking towards the castle, keeping a careful eye out for any potential danger. A few more mosquito-like demons hurried away. 

“Kind of ironic, though, don’t you think?” Richter commented as he followed behind Alucard. “We’ve spent so long lamenting our inability to avoid ending up at spooky evil castles, and now that we’re somewhere else, we both go ‘Damn, this sucks. Let’s go to the spooky evil castle.’ You know?”

“Mm… We are creatures of habit, I suppose,” Alucard replied. 

“I thought we were creatures of the night.”

“Yes, well, my father was a creature of the night, and my mother was a creature of habit. You see.”

“Ah, of course.”

A hot, humid breeze blew by as the pair (along with their unconscious charge) entered the castle, though the threshold was otherwise mundane. Alucard and Richter exchanged brief glances of hesitation, before shrugging and continuing on.

Their footsteps echoed quietly through the old stone hall. Only the whistling of the wind and dripping of eerie puddles accompanied them. Neither man spoke as they walked; Empty though the place may have seemed, attracting any potential attention was a risk they couldn’t afford to take right now. With Richter still recovering from a grievous wound, and Alucard encumbered with an unconscious human, neither of them would be able to fight at anywhere near full strength if it came down to it. Escape would be difficult as well, as shapeshifting was likely out of the question for both of them. Their best option was simply to be as stealthy as possible, and pray they remained alone. 

Shortly after Alucard rounded a corner, he felt Richter gently grab his arm. Alucard paused immediately, glancing back at Richter with a questioning look. 

Richter frowned, and whispered at a volume too soft for any human to hear: “That puddle is moving.”

Alucard followed Richter’s gaze. Sure enough, a puddle of dark liquid a few feet away bubbled and shifted strangely- And then shot forward, purple-black spikes springing from the floor as Alucard just barely stepped out of the way. 

“Shit!” he hissed, adjusting his grip on the unconscious boy. “What is that?!”

“A demon, obviously,” Richter replied, watching as the black goop pulled itself into the shape of a great cat. 

Alucard shot him a glare. “Yeah, thanks, I couldn’t have figured that one out on my own.” He dashed backwards away from a flurry of blade-like attacks, praying the movement wouldn’t hurt the boy. “What kind is it? Any idea what its weakness is?”

Richter parried another attack with his sword- Though his arm, Alucard noted, was alarmingly shaky.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen this one before. Smells kind of familiar, though.”

Alucard sniffed the air curiously. “It kind of smells like Dante,” he realized idly, desperately backing up once again as the demon drew closer.

The demon paused abruptly. 

Alucard gasped, heart pounding as a black blade froze inches from his face. The cat-like demon lowered its stance, glancing between the two of them as if in thought. Had it… Recognized the name?

“Y-You know Dante?” he tried hesitantly. “The cambion fire devil?”

“Alucard!” Richter hissed.

Alucard ignored Richter, as the demon gave a short growl, seemingly in the affirmative. 

Alucard took another careful step back- In lieu of putting his hands up, as they were occupied with the unconscious boy. “Dante is a dear friend of ours.”

“Shut the fuck up! Last time you said that, I got stabbed!” Richter exclaimed.

“Shut up,” Alucard echoed, before turning his attention back to the demon. Richter could play brave all he wanted, but Alucard knew he was in no condition to fight; Talking their way out of it, improbable though it may have been, was the best option.

Again he stepped back, keeping his head low and trying to be as non-threatening as possible. Richter, at least, seemed to catch on, shooting Alucard a dirty look as he sheathed his sword and put his hands up.

“If… If you are an ally of Dante’s, then we mean you no harm,” Alucard said carefully. “It’s not our intention to trespass on your territory. We just- Someone important to us is missing, and we’re trying to find him. We only want to find out if he’s here or not,” he explained. “Once we find out, I swear to you we will leave, so… Please. We’re only passing through.”

The demon gave a low rumble, withdrawing its tendrils and turning its head in a gesture of deference. Alucard let out a breath of relief, as Richter slumped against the wall.

“If I’d gotten stabbed again, I would’ve killed you,” Richter muttered. Alucard could see the exhaustion in his face. 

“I know. I’m sorry,” Alucard sighed, before turning his attention back towards the demon. “Um… Perhaps you’ve seen the person we’re looking for? He’s a human boy, about this tall, with white hair. He smells of ancient dark magic. Have you seen him?”

The demon once again made a rumbling sound, before melting down into a puddle, as they’d first seen it; It slid down the hall, and then reformed into its cat-like shape. The demon turned back to stare at Alucard and Richter, tail swishing in impatience. 

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Richter said in surprise. He pulled himself upright again, glancing at Alucard. “Alright, let’s go find our kid.”

Alucard nodded, and set out to follow the demon. 

“Are you sure they’re here?” Dante wondered, as they wandered through an old storage cellar.

“Why do you keep asking me that?” Soma grumbled.

“Well, it was my understanding that Alucard and Richter typically try to avoid ending up at evil castles,” Dante pointed out. “Not that they’re ever any good at it, or at least Alucard isn’t.”

Soma sighed. “Look. Do you have any better ideas?”

“N-No…”

“Pointless question, kid,” Griffon interrupted with a cackle. “Dante doesn’t have much of anything rattling around in that big head o’ his, let alone good ideas.”

“Maybe not, but I’ll have some grilled chicken in my stomach if you keep talking,” Dante retorted.

“Sure, sure- Oh, looks like Kitty’s back,” Griffon changed the subject, turning his head towards a doorway.

Dante turned to look as well. They’d run into Shadow some time ago; Apparently unconcerned with their presence, it’d kept them company for only a brief period before meandering off somewhere (not unlike “human world” cats, Dante had noted with amusement). Now, however, the big guy half walked, half blooped back towards them, followed by-

“Richter! Arikado!” Soma ran to greet the pair, relief clear on his face. “Thank god you guys are ok, I was so worried we wouldn’t find each other and-” His expression fell to a frown as he noticed what seemed to be an unconscious teen on Alucard’s back. “What’s he doing with you?!”

“That vampire tried to kill him. If we had left him on his own, he would have died,” Alucard answered. 

Soma seemed displeased, but Dante didn’t catch the rest of their conversation, too busy looking over the pair of vampires. He couldn’t help but notice, with no small amount of concern, that they looked like… Well, utter dogshit.

Alucard had always had a case of resting bitch face, but in all the years Dante had known him, he’d hardly seen his face look this outright miserable. His characteristically floofy blouse was torn down the sleeves, along with what appeared to be a stab wound at his chest, and he had splatters of blood all over- Especially his hands, Dante noted.

If Alucard looked bad, Richter looked even worse. He was limping (not exactly typical behavior for a healthy vampire in the prime of his 200-year youth), and he seemed to have a winter jacket wrapped around his waist, completely soaked in blood. His face was subtly contorted with pain and covered in what looked to be burn scars. His legs shook as he leaned against the wall. 

For all the unnatural beauty that came with vampirism, the two still looked more haggard than Dante had seen anyone look in a long time. 

“Hey, babes! What the fuck happened to you guys?” he couldn’t help blurting out.

“Hi, Dante. Um… It’s a long story,” Richter replied, with an awkward, somewhat apologetic grimace.

“Now let’s see, let me guess: Did it involve a Dracula cult?”

Richter gave a tired but sincere chuckle at Dante’s sarcasm. “Gee, how’d you know?”

“Oh, you know. Lucky guess.”

“Anyway, what are you doing here?” Richter wondered. “And, uh, why are we speaking Spanish?”

“Your kid doesn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Japanese. Speaking of which…” Dante sighed, shaking his head in dismay. “You gotta teach him not to run right into traps, dude. He’s too squishy to be doing that shit. As for what I’m doing here, uh, honestly still trying to figure that one out.”

As Richter raised an eyebrow, Alucard turned away from a slightly sour-looking Soma, waving half-heartedly in greeting. “Hello, Dante. It’s good to see you, even if I’d rather it be in… Literally any other circumstances,” he grumbled.

“Likewise.” Dante nodded towards the unconscious human on Alucard’s back. “Gonna introduce me to your friend?”

Alucard sighed as he awkwardly, carefully put the boy down on the ground. “To be honest, I don’t really know him. Though it seems Soma does.”

“His name’s Tony Suzuki, or at least he says it is, and he used to be my friend,” Soma told Dante, staring down at the boy with a scathing glare. “It turns out he lied to me the whole time! He was part of a Dracula cult, working for this stupid vampire guy who wanted to kill Alucard- He told me we were going to a cafe to study and then he took me to this abandoned office building, and- Why is he here? Why is he with you?” he blurted out, having shifted his attention towards Alucard with an expression somewhere between anger and hurt. 

“I already told you, Soma. We found him unconscious, and his vampire boss tried to kill him,” Alucard explained once again. “We took care of the vampire, but if we’d left the boy on his own, he would have been eaten by demons. Even after all he did, I know you wouldn’t want to condemn him to that fate, either.”

Soma’s face fell. “No, I wouldn’t. But I still don’t like him,” he insisted. 

“You don’t have to like him. You have every right to be pissed off. You just need to tolerate him until we all get out of here, alright?” Alucard added more gently.

“Ugh. Fine.”

As Soma pouted, Richter slowly sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall with a grimace. Soma’s frown turned from one of irritation to one of concern.

“Are you ok? You look terrible, no offense,” he commented.

Richter gave a half-hearted dismissive handwave. “Ah, don’t worry about me. I’m just tired, that’s all. I’ll be fine.”

Dante raised an eyebrow, shooting a glance towards Alucard. Alucard stared right back, worry and resignation clear in his eyes.

Richter was lying.

Dante took a deep breath. As horrifying as it was to see his undead friend looking so close to becoming re-dead, Dante couldn’t exactly blame him for being dodgy about it. The Underworld was a nightmare of a place, full of constant danger, and Soma practically seemed to idolize the two vampires; Better to keep the kid’s morale up, and let him think everything was going to be fine. The last thing Soma needed right now was to worry about Richter’s mortality. 

He just wished it didn’t feel so much like the part in every zombie movie where the mentor character gets bitten and lies about it. 

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Soma prodded. “I mean, that looks like a lot of-”

“Hey, Soma,” Dante interrupted, hoping to distract him. “You said you used to be friends with that kid, right? I wouldn’t write him off just because he was in a Dracula cult. Everybody does something stupid around your age.”

Soma stared at Dante in open-mouthed disbelief. “He tried to kill Alucard!”

Dante shrugged. “So? What’s a little attempted murder between friends? My best friend shot me in the face the day we met,” he recalled. “And my half-sister, she was sent by the demon emperor to fuck with my head. She introduced herself by crashing a motorcycle into my house and stabbing me with my own sword. And now we’re all besties!”

“Hearing about how all your friends tried to violently kill you is not nearly as reassuring as you think it is,” Soma said with a frown. “Anyway, what do we do now? We still have to find your brother, right?”

“Right. Which means we’ve gotta get out of this piece of shit castle, because I know for a fact that it’s the last place he’d be.”

“Let’s wait until the boy wakes up,” Alucard requested. “I can’t really fight properly and carry him at the same time, and Richter’s- A bit tired,” he caught himself, biting his lip at the lie. “The less nerfed we are, the better.”

“I’m sorry, the less what?” Dante blurted out in bafflement. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It’s a- W-Well, it… uh…” A light blush came to Alucard’s ever-pale cheeks as he glanced away, going quiet, as if he’d only just realized what words he himself had spoken. Dante raised an eyebrow. 

“You know, nerfed,” Soma took over in Alucard’s place. “Like when an attack is too overpowered, so they patch the game to make it weaker. Nerfed.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Soma frowned in confusion. “Do you not play any video games? I thought even old people play video games these days.”

“Wh- ‘Old people’?! ‘Old people’?!” Dante shrieked. “I’m forty-seven, you brat! If I’m old, then Alucard’s a walking corpse!”

“No, that’s me,” Richter added in with a smile. 

Alucard glared in irritation. “Could you all please shut up for a moment? I need to concentrate.”

Dante couldn’t resist sticking his tongue out in defiance, but obediently fell quiet. 

He watched as Alucard seemingly stared at nothing. Dante could tell from the feeling in the air that he was casting a spell, yet Alucard looked… Perturbed, brow furrowed as if confused. Nonetheless, the air shimmered in front of him, and a moment later a figure appeared: a perfect, fit-for-Disney example of a fairy, about a foot and a half tall, complete with flax-colored hair, flittering little wings, and a classic impractical dress. 

Little Miss Tinker Bell glanced around in concern before staring up at Alucard. “Hello, Master.”

“Good evening,” Alucard greeted her, and gestured towards the unconscious boy. “I need you to heal that young man, please.”

“As you wish,” the fairy replied with a respectful nod. 

As the fairy hovered over to the boy, humming a gentle tune, Soma stared curiously. “Who’s she?”

“One of my familiars. Her name is Rouă,” Alucard answered. 

“Man, how many familiars do you even have, anyway?” Dante wondered.

“Five.”

“Five?! I don’t even get one!”

“Be silent!” a tiny voice hissed, and Dante’s mouth snapped shut, lips pushed forward into a pout.

Well. Now he could add “getting told to shut up by Renfaire Tinker Belle” to his list of comically miserable life experiences, along with such memorable incidents as “getting eaten by a demon whale” and “getting shot in the chest on purpose during a really bad poker game”.

For several more seconds the fairy- Rouă- continued humming, a faint light at her fingertips, before sighing and glancing up at Alucard with a worried look.

“I know not where we are, Master, but I feel my magic is weak here,” she confessed. “I don’t like this place. There is a darkness about it, but not like yours.”

“I know. It’s alright, don’t worry about it. Just do what you can,” Alucard replied, reaching out to gently stroke the top of her head with one finger.

“Alright.”

As Rouă continued her work, Dante found his thoughts drifting to a certain other two familiars. He’d noticed Griffon and Shadow sneaking off a while ago, but had elected not to bother them about it; Griffon didn’t tend to like him, and Shadow… Well, Shadow didn’t particularly like anyone other than Vergil. As for Dante himself, he couldn’t help but find it unpleasant to be around echoes of Mundus’ minions, even if they now served as his dear brother’s minions instead. It was probably for the best that they go their separate ways for the time being.

Still, Dante had to admit, Griffon’s ranting had him at least a little bit concerned. If Griffon was really telling the truth about their reason for hanging out in Mundus’ old fort… Man, was it really that bad? Was what’s-his-fuck really so mad at Dante (and, apparently, Vergil) that they had to invoke Mundus’ influence just to get him to leave them the hell alone? That didn’t bode well for the journey home. Especially not with two human kids and one very injured vampire in tow.

Ideally, Dante would have split off from the group and looked for Vergil on his own, so that his presence wouldn’t attract extra danger to the others- But Hell was no level 5 dungeon. Alucard was a frighteningly competent fighter and sorcerer, and Richter had a respectable amount of inherited knowledge from generations of hunters, yet still their combined expertise lay in the undead and other such Dracula-related shit. Dante, much as he really didn’t want to, possessed a level of experience with the Underworld that was almost certainly far more intimate than any living denizen of the human realm, save for Vergil and Trish, and they’d need that experience in order to make it out. 

If they’d been on their own, Dante would maybe have let them do their own thing- two guys who lived off of blood would probably be fine in the Holy Shit There’s Blood All Over The Damn Place realm- but he couldn’t just leave them to figure things out on their own now, not with two kids to look after. Even if they managed to fend off the demons, avoid getting poisoned or falling into lava or acid, etcetera etcetera, the simple fact of the matter was that there wasn’t anything around that was viable for humans to eat. If he left them alone…

“You alright?” Richter’s voice broke Dante’s train of thought. “If you put your hand on your hip any harder, you’re gonna break it.”

“Huh? What? Oh, y-yeah! Yeah! I’m good! How are you?” Dante found himself blurting out reflexively.

“Oh, Dante. Look me in the eye and ask me that question again.”

Soma gave Richter an accusatory look. “You said you were just tired!”

“I am! Very… Very tired,” Richter insisted. “You don’t have to worry about me, Soma.”

Soma, if the look on his face was anything to go by, was unconvinced (and really, Dante couldn’t blame him for that). He turned his attention to Alucard’s fairy. 

“Would you be able to heal Richter, too?” he asked politely. 

Rouă shook her head slowly, glancing down with an apologetic, anxious expression. 

“She uses holy magic, unfortunately,” Alucard explained. “It would do Richter more harm than good.”

“Oh…” Soma frowned worriedly, and then tilted his head in thought. “Wait, does it not hurt you, then? Since you’re a vampire too?”

A wry smile crept over Alucard’s face, as the fairy disappeared with a polite curtsy. “Ironically enough, my mother was of a holy bloodline, so it doesn’t bother me.”

“Yeah, and I’m not, apparently,” Richter grumbled. 

“Me neither. I can’t stand the stuff,” Dante added, shaking his head in dismay. “But hey, like Billy Joel once said, I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.”

Alucard raised an eyebrow. “Then why’d you name your business ‘Devil May Cry’?”

“Hey, it’s ‘Devil May Cry,’ not ‘Devil Prefers to Cry’ or ‘Devil Only Cries,’” Dante retorted. 

Just as Alucard was about to respond, the unconscious boy groaned, beginning to stir slightly. All eyes turned towards him. 

The boy (Tony, Soma had called him- Now wasn’t that just serendipitous) muttered something unintelligible- And then his gaze fell upon the group, and he jumped up, a wide-eyed expression on his face like a frightened animal. He shouted something in stammering Japanese; Alucard responded in a flat tone, holding out his hands in a placating gesture, though he didn’t look particularly pleased. 

“You speak Spanish, kid?” Dante asked, noting the young man’s slightly un-Japanese features, hoping they’d get lucky more than anything.

“P-Portuguese,” Tony answered.

“Brazilian or European?”

The boy’s expression shifted slightly from panic to confusion. “Uh, Brazilian?”

“Yeah, I can work with that,” Dante said with a shrug. “I’m Dante. I’m not gonna bite your head off, and neither is anyone else here, so stop freaking out.”

“Hello, senpai,” Soma said with acidic distaste.

“Soma-kun,” Tony answered. He took a deep, shaking breath. “Look, let’s… Let’s just go our separate ways, ok? I swear won’t bother you ever again, so just- Just let me go, alright?”

Dante frowned. “‘Let you go’? Did you miss the part where I said we’re not gonna eat you?”

“I don’t believe you!” Tony exclaimed hastily. “I’ve heard stories about…” He cast a nervous glance towards Alucard. “Him. Dracula’s son. They- They say that he hates his own kind, a-and him and his friends will kill anyone who uses dark magic, and-”

“People say a lot of things,” Alucard interrupted calmly. “If my friends and I were going to kill you, don’t you think we would have done it while you were unconscious?”

“And don’t you think they would have killed me by now?” Soma added.

Tony fell silent. He glanced around rapidly as if looking for an escape. The kid looked, if Dante was being honest, utterly terrified- And also very confused. And it seemed Dante wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. 

“You have no idea where you are right now, do you?” Richter observed. 

Tony’s only response was a hastily whispered, “Where’s Emil?”’

Richter sighed. “Look, you should probably sit down. It’ll be ok. Just breathe, alright?”

“Where’s Emil?!” Tony repeated more loudly. 

“Dead,” Alucard finally answered. “While you were unconscious, he gave us an ultimatum: me, or you. We chose neither, and killed him instead. But you should know that he was fully prepared to kill you in order to get what he wanted.”

Tony fell silent, mouth open as though the words had been stolen from his throat. His legs seemed to waver as he slowly sat down, clinging to an empty metal crate. 

Dante sighed. He didn’t know the kid’s story, but he knew the look on his face: the desperate fool who makes a deal with a demon, or vampire, or evil priest, or what have you, ignoring common sense and millennia of cautionary tales, only to have their world shattered when they learn that their buddy was only using them and never had any intention of actually holding up their end of the bargain. He’d seen it more times than he could count. It wasn’t that he didn’t care- Or, no, that wasn’t quite it. There was a part of him that was tired and jaded, too used to it to have any sympathy for idiots who played with fire… And there was a part of him that, despite everything, still felt bad every single time. Always feeling guilty, always wanting to help every poor sucker who got manipulated. 

No wonder he was always in debt. But there were more important things to worry about right now than a stranger’s feelings. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but we need to get out of here. You’ll have to walk and have a mental breakdown at the same time,” he announced. “Oh yeah, and we’re in the Underworld, by the way. In case you didn’t know.”

The others murmured in agreement, and began preparing to move out: standing up, stretching out, checking weapons and clothes. Richter held his hand out to Tony. 

“Come on. It’ll be alright. Stick with us until we all find a way out of here, and then you can do whatever you need to do to sort yourself out,” he promised. 

Tony- seemingly for lack of knowing what else to do- hesitantly took Richter’s hand, pulling himself to his feet on shaking legs. 

“Everyone ready to go?” Alucard prompted.

Soma gave a sideways glance towards Tony before nodding. “Uh-huh. Let’s get out of here already.”

“I’m ready for a nap, personally,” Richter sighed. “But I’ll be alright.”

Alucard turned his attention towards Dante. “Do you… Know where it is we’re supposed to be going, exactly?”

“Nope. But neither do you,” Dante replied with a shrug. “We’ll just have to engage in the ancient art of wandering around until we find something useful.”

“Fair enough. Let’s go, then.”

Dante took one last look over the group: grim-faced, with weapons in hand. With no idea where he was going and even less desire to stay put, he turned around, ready to leave one hell behind for another.

Yoko sighed as she sent another arc of icicles through several insectoid demons, adding yet more splatters to the thick layer of blood and ichor that coated the ground. 

Much as it pained her to admit, Richter had been right. It had taken too long to contact the Agency and head over to Soma’s location. By the time they’d arrived, there’d been nothing left but a half-destroyed old office building, an unstable portal to god-knew-where, and demons. Lots and lots of demons. 

The Agency was, at the very least, competent enough to keep the demons from getting too far into the surrounding area. They’d set up a barrier all around the perimeter of the building, with their own special ops soldiers steadily taking out any demons that tried to get through. As for Yoko herself, she’d been tasked with closing the portal to prevent them from coming out. 

The problem, however, was twofold. The first issue was that she wasn’t even sure she knew how to close the portal, if she was being honest. And the second… A detect magic spell had revealed traces of Alucard, Richter, and Soma’s magical auras near the portal, among others. Which meant that in all likelihood, they were inside, and closing the portal would almost certainly leave them trapped. 

When she’d brought this up to the two agents in charge of the incident (leaving Richter unmentioned as per his general desire to stay off the radar), they’d seemed largely unconcerned. “It’s unfortunate, but it may be a loss we’ll have to take,” they’d told her. After all, they didn’t even know if the missing men were alive or dead. Their priority was protecting the city- And Yoko understood that! She did! But those were her friends, damn it, and she couldn’t just abandon them. Not while there was still a chance they might be alive. After all, Alucard and Soma had fought tooth and claw for her on the eclipse, and it was only fair for her to do the same for them. 

She’d managed to bargain with the agents for a grace period of 24 hours, but no longer than that. After time was up, she was to close the portal, no matter what.

Yoko groaned in frustration for what felt like the fifteenth time in the past hour, putting her head in her hands. God, she didn’t even work for them! She was just the on-site bruja at the Tokyo Iglesia Interreligioso- She was supposed to do things like baptisms and run-of-the-mill exorcisms and taping garishly colored pictures of saints to pillar candles, not take orders from weird guys in suits! And sure, the Belnades clan had a history of fighting evil just as long and storied as their Belmont cousins, but it had always been done on their own terms, not tied to some obnoxious bureaucratic chain of command. But what was she supposed to do, say no to the national government? Fat chance. So now she had about sixteen hours left before she had to choose between sacrificing her friends, or getting on big brother’s shit list.

“-Sure that’s where they are?” a woman’s voice interrupted Yoko’s thoughts, in English.

“Uh-huh. It’s faint, but I can smell it. Something’s off, though, it’s like-”

“Are you tourists?” Yoko called out. “This area’s off limits. You need to leave now, it’s not safe here.”

“Tourists?” the second voice huffed in amusement. “We’re devil hunters, hon.”

Yoko turned around to find herself face-to-face with two foreign women. The shorter of the two had split-color eyes, black hair, and what looked to be a damn rocket launcher of all things slung casually over her shoulder. The taller- seemingly the one who’d spoken- sported a pair of oval-shaped sunglasses, wavy blonde hair, an aura of dark magic, and a sword with the open maw of a carved dragon serving as its handle. Both women were clad mostly in leather, though clearly with a certain degree of form over fashion. Still, they quite obviously weren’t your average club-goers.

“You with those goons outside?” the shorter woman asked.

“Not officially, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying to boss me around,” Yoko replied with an eyeroll. “And what about you? You’re obviously not with them, who are you?”

“Like she said, we’re devil hunters. Not from around here, though. A friend of ours went missing-”

“Two friends.”

“One and a half.”

“One and three-quarters, at least.”

“Nine-sixteenths. Come on, if he won’t call us his friends then why-”

“Excuse me?” Yoko interrupted, brow furrowed in irritation.

The taller woman shook her head. “Sorry. The point is, two guys we hang around with got sucked into a portal last night, and we don’t know why or how to get them back. I used a spell to track them down, and it led us here, but…” 

She held her hand out towards the portal as if to feel it, a puzzled frown on her face. 

“There’s something weird going on. It’s like someone was pulling on the other end of my spell,” she murmured, seemingly speaking almost to herself. Then she turned towards Yoko. “You’re a witch, aren’t you? I can smell it. Do you know anything about this?”

“Not much in particular,” Yoko admitted with a sigh. “Some of my friends seem to be in there, too. One of them went missing a few days ago, and then yesterday one of our other friends texted our group chat the location of this building out of nowhere. By the time I got here, it was… Like this,” she explained, gesturing towards the portal. “I haven’t heard from either of them since.”

The shorter woman grabbed a small gun from a holster on her thigh, shooting a demon square in the head just as it escaped from the portal, ignoring the way Yoko jumped in surprise. “That’s odd… And you don’t know anything else? Like, did your friend text you anything along with the location?” she asked.

“It said ‘Dracula cult’. That’s it.”

“Dracula cult? Hoo boy.” The woman grimaced, sharing a glance with her companion. “Trish, you don’t happen to have Alucard’s number, do you?”

“You know Alucard?!” Yoko blurted out.

The woman blinked in surprise. “Huh? Yeah, we-”

“They’re bitches-in-law,” the taller woman explained, and then winced as the other abruptly stomped on her foot; She then pulled her by the ear and harshly whispered something, to which the taller woman calmly replied, “Oh, my bad.”

The smaller woman sighed as she let her friend go. “Ignore her. We’ve got a mutual friend, that’s all- Who, coincidentally, is one of the guys who got sucked into a portal,” she added, crossing her arms in thought.

“You don’t say. Well, you’re never gonna believe this, but Alucard’s the friend who went missing,” Yoko admitted. “And the one who sent the text was hanging out with him and- Hanging out with him the day before,” she caught herself quickly, stumbling to avoid mentioning Richter.

“Seriously? Ah, great. As if this weren’t complicated enough already.” The woman sighed, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head before turning her attention back towards Yoko. “I’m Lady, by the way, and this is Trish.”

“Yoko, nice to meet you,” Yoko introduced herself in kind, bowing politely.

“Nice to meet you, Yoko,” Trish echoed, though her attention seemed elsewhere, as she placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head curiously at the portal. “So a Dracula cult’s somehow opened a portal to Hell, and managed to kidnap Alucard and the twins to boot… I think this could be pretty fun,” she decided, and Yoko couldn’t help but notice the fangs peering out of her wide grin.

“Not if we have to go get them from the Underworld!” Lady whined. “I’m still finding Qliphoth bits in my carpet, man! I’m not going in there!”

“Sorry, did you say the Underworld?” Yoko repeated. She couldn’t help but feel a slight sinking dread.

Trish nodded. “That’s where this portal goes. ‘S why demons keep crawling out of it,” she explained. “I’m guessing you’re more familiar with the undead?”

“W-Well, I know a little bit of everything, but… To be honest, my day job is mostly just day-to-day community support witchcraft,” Yoko confessed. “My family’s been fighting Dracula and other nasties for hundreds of years, so I know a thing or two, but Dracula was gone for good by the time I was born. I’m not a dedicated hunter like Alucard or the Belmonts- I think a full-on trip to the Underworld is a bit out of my scope,” she said with an apologetic wince.

“But you do have knowledge of demonology, yeah? And more advanced witchcraft?” Trish prompted.

“Oh, yeah, of course.”

“Good, then you and I are going to figure out what the hell kind of magic is at work here,” Trish decided, taking a seat on a piece of rubble. “The boys can handle themselves, but we’re going to need to know how they got there if we want to find out how to get them back.”

Yoko took a deep breath. “Alright. Yeah. Then… Let me go get some stuff from my apartment first,” she said, already making a mental list of which books to bring. “I don’t live too terribly far from here. I can be back within the hour.”

“Sounds good. We’ll keep an eye on things here,” Trish confirmed with a nod. “Lady, can I borrow your iPad?”

“Sure, but if you short-circuit it, I’m making you buy me the newest model,” Lady replied, reaching for the duffle bag at her feet. 

“Oh, babe, no need to be so modest. I’ll get you one of those fancy new blue silver ones.”

“You just want a reason to go shopping together.” Lady pulled an iPad in a hard plastic case out of her bag, handing it off to Trish. She then turned towards Yoko. “I’m counting on you two to figure this out, got it?”

“I’ll give it my all. We’ll get them out of there,” Yoko promised. “See you in a little while.”

She turned around and began heading back towards the ordinary world, filled with both deep unease and renewed hope and determination.