sorrow.

“First Yoko, and now you? What’s with everyone calling Arikado that?

“Right. Arikado. 

“Honestly … I didn’t think I could trust him farther than I can throw him. There’s something off about him. I’m honestly wondering if he’s even human. He’s got dark powers like I do, and there’s this tidbit from Mina that’s been really bugging me: she says he doesn’t age. How is that not a red flag?

“Despite that, I … I actually do trust him. When I awoke to who and what I really was, it was him who helped me. He told me how to stop myself from turning into the dark lord, and that, I think, is his real goal. He may not give a damn about me, but he wants to stop Dracula.”

“My favorite soul? I’ve … never really given it any thought.”

If Soma absorbs a soul that makes his daily life easier (ie. Lightning Doll for recharging his phone, Black Panther for catching a bus, Paranoia for breaking into his own house if he forgets his keys, etc.), he will absolutely abuse it. Arikado’s chides him for this often, but it doesn’t deter Soma at all. 

He loves pictures of baby bats! He thinks they’re puppies with wings. 

Continually tags Arikado in all avocado-related posts on Facebook.

He once used the Student Witch soul to summon a kitty for Mina’s birthday. It faded away the next day.

He is an exchange student, but knows English, Japanese, and some Spanish. He’s tried impressing Mina with his (admittedly limited) Spanish, but then Arikado walks in and surprises everyone with perfect Spanish, correcting every mistake Soma’s made. 

Has enlisted Yoko’s help in pranking Arikado and Julius.

Big night owl. Sometimes, you can find him fast asleep in bat form because it’s very comfy! 

Commonly spends the weekend watching reruns and eating junk food. He’s the guy who’ll go to the store at 1 am and will come out with nothing but junk food and instant noodles. 

through time  he has endured, e’er watchful & vigilant. ( diligent; he wishes no more than to eradicate his own ilk ) the course of eras passing has led to many names─many faux identities belonging to a man who does not belong in their world. genya arikado is but one of many used whilst he walks among them─and is the one this boy would only know him as.

          ❝ ──soma, ❞

and it was  soma sought him out─asked for council from a foul little creature as he. the boy insisted they meet; would not leave things be ‘til he’s heard the answer in person. alucard made effort to avoid him & offered to call instead, but soma would not have it. he conceded─found it better to set the boy at ease so he not jump into hell’s maw again & remain as he were before. an ordinary student, with an ordinary life, with the same lack of awareness to what lay ‘neath public eye. but he knows better than to expect such an immediate return to that life.

                             what if───

the start  of a question which oft lay at the tip of a tongue too familiar with the flavor of loss. soma wasted no time in getting to the point the moment alucard meets with him─opening himself to show what plague his mind. concerns that do not garner so much as a change in expression from the man. what if soma had failed? what if he fell into that accursed power? had been reborn into the hellish figure that had once been alucard’s own father?  ( a heavy heart too familiar with this pain can only heave pathetically at a memory long before this boy’s time. ) questions not without an understanding─to ask soma to forget what has transpired would be to ask too much. so soon, even less likely.

          ❝ you wouldn’t have. ❞

& he replies  as if it’s a song & dance he’s uttered a thousand times; like he’s had similar discussions more times than he could count. alucard remains to the point & yet─avoiding the topic all together. does he wish to dwell on what could have been? no; t’would be a fruitless endeavor. yet still does the question dig it’s gnarly nails into his mind. indeed, what would have become of soma, had he succumbed…? he is but human; merely a vessel for a power alucard has spent centuries trying to keep at bay. the boy is anything but invincible. but alucard… he was perpetually prepared for the worst.

          ❝ if it came down to it, we wouldn’t have a choice. ❞

Arikado answers with the usual brevity, but, from his few words, Soma has gleaned a devastating truth. He’s utterly silent, flabbergasted that the implication hadn’t occurred to him sooner. True, he’d spent so much time fighting in that accursed castle, struggling for every moment of life allotted to him. He’d come to accept that life-and-death situation as his newfound reality for a few hours, and made peace with those rules for the duration of his time in the castle.

In retrospect, it’s painfully obvious why he’d adjusted so fast. Indeed, that castle had formerly hosted his soul. For centuries, every fiber of its power and being had been dedicated to him. Because he refused its call, manifested as Chaos, it would do its utmost to forcibly assimilate him. There was no need to guess what would’ve come next. He would’ve returned as the dark lord; Julius would unleash all his power to fell him, and Arikado, whatever he truly was, would aid him in that fight. 

If he’d lost the battle for his own soul, Soma would be no more; just a vessel for the dark power hosted in his body. He would be reborn as Dracula. 

“That’s ...”

He knew the risk was there, of course. But to hear Arikado say it so simply, so tacitly, is was a lot to bear. 

“You would’ve done it?” he asks, his voice hushed. “When it came down to it, you would’ve killed me? I understand why, I do, but ...”

There’s a moment of silence, of hesitation, but it soon passes.

Because his phone was dead, Soma saw no other choice but to mooch off of passers-by. It was a public place, so he couldn’t just summon one of his lightning-element souls and use it to recharge his phone. Arikado would chide him for it, but what use was one’s powers if they had to walk around with a useless phone? 

He sees her nearby, on a bench. Was she waiting for someone, perhaps? He approaches her, his hands in his pockets, and his expression neutral. 

“Hey,” he says, careful not to show how annoyed he was at his circumstances. “Can I borrow your phone?”

         @soulvow / cont .

& she knows  this. she knows that he would go off of his own accord regardless of what anyone else had told him─herself, included. and it wasn’t this which had exclusively bothered her; no, far from it. soma was headstrong & often outspoken. to ask him to do as he was told ( & all things considered, he was right to bear such an attitude ) would be to ask too much of him. he was not nearly as straight-laced & complacent as she. whilst he stalked off into the depths of a hellish castle’s landscape, far out of her vision for more time than she could ever enjoy, is mina left to her own thoughts. her own fears─to dwell on what if’s and could be’s like they were but familiar friends at a grand reunion. 

what if he gets hurt─

what if he doesn’t return─

what if whatever dwells within this godforsaken castle swallows him whole like the beast it is believed to be?

it makes  her sick with grief to sit on.

& it’s when  he had returned to check on her, here in a courtyard under a magic not entirely outside her understanding, that she cannot contain what had eaten at her─those exact fears. his response is one expected; she knew what he would reply with. soma would feel it to be his responsibility he was ungracefully straddled with. like he had to do it, as possessor of a power neither of them truly grasped. mina knew this. and yet does her fear hold her heart prisoner.

( had it been someone less close  & less dear to her, perhaps she  would not have let it come close  to devouring her whole. )

          ❝ then, let me come with you── ❞

he wouldn’t. she knew he would decline her; turn her suggestion away as if it were a one-sided discussion. but she would try to reason with him & try to make soma understand───it kills her to watch him walk away & wait to see if he comes back the way he left.

          ❝  please, soma. you don’t have to  do it alone. you have all of us, myself included. ❞

She couldn’t possibly be serious. A recollection that he, in retrospect, would lament, was when the two had first entered this accursed castle. Arikado had come with ill tidings, and then ... them. The winged monsters that had lunged with their spears, with full intent of killing whoever stood in their way. Soma recalled Mina’s prompt scream, and how she’d collapsed in terror. And, of course, nothing in this world could ever rob him of the shock of his first kill. 

It could be likened to the shock that one undergoes when jumping from land into water. Upon first being submerged by the cold, murky depths of a pool or sea, one is temporarily numb, adjusting to the new stimulus. In those first moment, one’s instincts take over, guiding them to swim despite the shock. Getting his first soul was much like that. His mind went numb, and something from the depths of his being told him to embrace the new power he’d attained. 

It was like it was meant to happen. He felt strangely at ease reaping the souls of his enemies. Other keeping Mina out of danger, Soma had another motive for refusing her request. He didn’t want her to see him that way. Sure, Yoko had advised him to accept that his power wasn’t quite evil, but she’d called it a dark power. That wasn’t a good omen. 

“No way. Even if I did take you with me, Mina, you wouldn’t be able to fight. I know this sounds harsh, but ... hell, even if you could fight, I wouldn’t want you to.”

“Exactly. There’s no way you can go wrong with a faux-fur collar and flared jeans.”

“And chains on your hip! Yeah!”

        “ T hanks, i hate it. ”

Cue mock surprise. 

          T here’s two…. ensue headache … . .

“Fluffy collar. It’s cold.”

“That’s what layers are for!”

“I’m sorry.”

He knew that an apology would be trite at this point, but Soma had to give it anyway. Perhaps, it was by some quirk of fate that they’d encountered each other at the castle entrance. He wasn’t under any impression that Arikado even visited there. Or, if he did, it was infrequently. 

Still, this wasn’t the best time for them to be meet. Yoko still lay unconscious from the wound Graham had inflicted upon her. Soma had arrived too late to intervene; he wasn’t foolish enough to blame himself, but he hated seeing her rendered helpless like that. 

“I know you keep telling me to mind my own business. I just feel for Yoko ...  no, I’m worried about her. She even warned me about Graham, but I couldn’t believe it until ...”