“They want what?” asked Integra.
“They want to meet in a public place, not at our base,” said Seras.
“Hmm, smarter than I thought,” mumbled the head of Hellsing. “Can we get a secure line at that location?”
“We’ll need to use several scramblers, the new pattern Cyan should work.”
Integra nodded; still upset at the reason just why those new scrambling systems were needed. “Then let us do this quickly, before Alucard decides to make himself known, and ruin our chances for a peaceful meeting.”
Master is going to be so angry at me when he learns he missed them. “Understood, ma’am.”
Akane grew tired of waiting at the door to the room the Saotomes stayed in, waiting for Ranma to make some move. She was all but certain there was more to the story than what Nabiki was telling her, her instincts said so.
And as a martial artist, she was supposed to trust her instincts.
Sadly, instincts were often hard to discern from ego, a common flaw of those of the Anything Goes style.
What hit her first was the quiet, no snoring, which told her something was wrong. She could see that Genma was a panda, which made some sense—pandas didn’t snore and Nodoka got cranky when she didn’t get enough sleep, sword wielding cranky.
This left Ranma, who snored no matter what form he was in. She just needed to get closer to his bed roll and figure out what he was hiding.
And she almost made it too.
“Akane, dear?”
The youngest Tendo paused, slowly turning to face the eyes of Auntie Saotome.
“While I understand the fact that you want to have some ‘couples’ time with my son,” said the woman, “I ask that you wait until morning. I need my sleep, and will be upset if your attempts to get my vampire son to be manly with you interrupt it.”
“Eep,” she cried, before darting quickly out of the room, her footsteps being heard as she dashed into her room, and shut the door.
“Perhaps my son is too manly,” Nodoka wondered, as she shut the door, and returned to her mat. “Really now, to interrupt my sleep so she can be with my son... Well, at least I know she’s still interested. Hmm, now I have two girls in this house interested in my son. Maybe I should talk to Kasumi some in the morning and see if my manly son went three for three.”
“You can’t be serious,” said one of the three Diet members who controlled the funding for the APD.
“Quite serious, sir,” said Tai, who regretted not knowing the names of any of the three members. But then again, it was usually best if you didn’t mention the name of who you were cursing inside a government building.
“We may need to take this seriously now,” said the member on the right, scratching his chin. “Elections are approaching, and if word gets out that these incidents are increasing, the public may demand we ask for assistance from the Americans.”
“Actually, sir,” said Tai, “there system is mainly local. We’d have to ask for help from Hellsing.”
“Hellsing!” yelled the middle member. “You want us to allow those war dogs on our soil?”
“They are already here, sir,” said Tai, pushing several buttons, and sending files and photos to the three members. “They are allowed on a limited basis, mainly through the British Embassy, from what we were given. They are investigating the recent rise in FREAK activity here.”
“I still say this is all nonsense,” said the left member. “Magic girls, vampires, demons, flying bulls with tentacles... Next you’ll be telling us that dragons exist.”
Tai blinked. “Sir, I take it you never read the Nerima Files that are required for your position.”
“That tabloid bullshit?” asked the Left.
“Then perhaps you would like to spend a week there,” said the Middle. “Many of us grow tired of your attitude. Don’t think your seniority will protect you if this keeps up.”
Tai kept his eyes down. Looks like I know the guy whose keeping our funds low.
“I tell you it is nothing more than common street hoodlums,” said Left.
“Regardless of your insanity, Lee,” said Right, “we must take action now. If we fail at this task, we will be considered weak to the world. And do you want to continue to appear weak? I’ve even heard the Chinese have such an institute, and that pain in North Korea is even looking to gain influence over this type of power.”
“If he’s into it, then it just proves how stupid this all is,” said Left.
“Enough,” said Middle. “We will deal with your disbelief after this meeting.
“Tai, you are hereby authorized to offer those two a position. See what they would require. For the moment, we may need to forge ties with Hellsing, as distasteful as it is, to get a starter organization going, at least until we can make it independent.”
“And the local devil hunters, sir?” asked Tai. “We don’t want to alienate them, with all the work they already do for us.”
Middle nodded, after glaring at Left enough to dispel any urge he may have had to speak. “First get these new vampires interested in working for their homeland. If we can get a pact with Hellsing, then we can work on a way to bring the devil hunters in together.”
The link went dead, as Tai leaned back in his chair, enjoying the small victory.
That was, at least, until the chair’s back broke off, spilling him to the floor. “First thing, we are requisitioning new chairs. I swear, these must be relics from the Meiji Restoration.”
Alucard smiled, glad to have found something that was adding some more interest to the night.
The strange girl’s scent had led him to a high school gymnasium, a shattered skylight and some blood splatters on the ground proving the strange plant girl had been this way.
But while no trace of the plant girl remained, much to his confusion, he did find a large trace of blood in the ice rink that the school also held.
And the trace turned out to be a large gathering of ghouls and other creatures, who were feating on the remains of what had once been a school crowd.
Smirking, he pulled out his gun. “Ah, I love this type of school spirit.”
Minutes earlier, right after Kodachi’s change...
“You felt that?”
Ranma nodded, whispering with Nabiki, still not trusting the soldiers nearby. “Felt weird, like a warped chi field or something.”
“Recognize the person who did it?”
“Felt a little like Kodachi, but it was way too strong to be her. If she could launch a blast like Porky, then maybe.”
“We will have to check her out later then,” said Nabiki, indicating that Seras had exited their vehicle. “Hopefully, it was nothing bad ... for us.”
“Always was before, why stop now,” he said.
“Our leader will speak with you now,” said Seras. “I apologize, but I hope that the connection is acceptable.”
Ranma nodded. “We’re just glad we can do this in the open.”
Nabiki nodded, decided it was probably best if this group didn’t learn yet the problems they had with televisions and monitors. If they thought they could see the image, they’d be less inclined to try and send a signal to do something.
Of course, even her Master agreed that this was a weakness that needed to be dealt with.
And with that, Seras reopened the van doors, showing the screen that held the image of Sir Integral Hellsing.
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(Posted Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:42)
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