When blossoms fade

[hellsingsforyou]

Khamja were having a crisis meeting.

They didn't meet often. The disparate interests of a group like Khamja meant that the individual members didn't like being stuck together very much. It led to tension, and tension, in Khamja, led to people mysteriously disappearing. Not everyone knew everyone else in Khamja, and they usually liked to keep it that way, but something like this was unavoidable.

It had also created an opening for Lucis to expand its interests. Integra had no investment in Lucis; her interests lay in Athlum, but Lucis was tentatively an ally of Athlum, and more importantly, an enemy of Niflheim, and Integra was fond of the adage that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. At least for now.

The Lucian member was sending a representative. Integra had agreed to vouch for him because she knew him through other channels. That the young man in question was the nephew of a personal friend of Integra's went a long way towards her agreement. She could confirm his identity, and his origin in the absence of the Lucian member himself.

Underlings were allowed to accompany members on the journey, which was fortunate because Integra wasn't walking into the rat's nest that was a Khamja meeting without Alucard. Nor would the journey through the dry, sandy, and monster infested Zertinan Caverns have been so easy.

Alucard was brutal, but rarely efficient. He enjoyed the work too much to keep things neat. Integra walked, and Alucard cleared the path. It was a long walk, but Integra knew better than to complain because she wasn't foolish enough to show weakness in front of Alucard.

As she made her way past the mangled corpse of an Archeoaevis, its head nearly torn all the way off, she pulled a cigar from her breast pocket and lit it with a match. "Try not to leave a trail," she warned.

The path narrowed considerably in places, and sandfalls disguised other parts of the route, but eventually they came upon a door, barely visible in the rock, and magically bound. Integra pressed a gloved hand to it, and a glyph formed, followed by the sound of rock sliding against stone.

There was another chamber beyond, and multiple routes into it, but Integra ignored those in favour of the next door. The chamber reeked of potent magic, this fell within the sphere of some powerful wards.

The next door also opened at a touch, leading them into a bottleneck. Alucard walked on ahead, like any good guard dog would, and Integra followed as the final door opened to reveal a grand entrance hall.

"Mind your manners," she said, glancing sidelong at Alucard, "and no fighting unless I tell you." Not that Alucard needed the warning; he knew the rules. Integra wasn't concerned about his safety, or her own; she was more concerned with the tedious reparations that would have to be made if Alucard killed someone's prized underling.

"Don't I always?" Alucard asked, with that knowing look and flash of fang that said he knew the answer all too well.

Integra ignored him.

Comments

[lesstravelled]

Road lounged back in her chair, her attention more on Integra than on Alucard now because Alucard was much more boring to get at. Integra held the dog's leash.

"Yours needs a shorter leash," she said, turning back to look Alucard over. "And to learn to pick his fights."

[intangibleman]

Tyki gave a soft laugh.

With all the alarms and the anti-monster and anti-incursion measures the palace had, their pets wouldn't be able to get in. He was half surprised that the Arrancar managed to get past, but there they were. It was either because they had special clearance, or their seal kept them from triggering the alarm.

"Doesn't he just," Tyki said, grinning at Road, and then turning to Integra. "So why do you care what happens to Aizen?"

[thesilentstorm]

Ah, now they were talking business.

Lumi knew Marluxia would be interested in the fact that two Jyllandi parties quite obviously couldn't stand the sight of each other, but without getting to the meat of the subject it wouldn't be worth much, at least not in his professional opinion. Members of Khamja commonly hated other members of Khamja. It was common knowledge.

Now the subject of Aizen was being raised. He doubted either had much invested in the continued safety of the man, though it was possible that the new party would take issue with him on account of the nature of his subordinates. Nobody liked Hollows. They were abominations, and he vaguely remembered a news story or two about a sudden upswing in the Hollow numbers in certain parts of Jylland and the fact that they were causing a problem. More correctly, they were attacking people in cities.

The Noah, they wouldn't have a problem with it, might even be the cause of it, but anybody else would take issue.

[hellsingsforyou]

Integra eyed the man from behind her glasses.

What did she care? She didn't. Not about Aizen in particular, anyway, but he was an important figure in Archadian society, and by extension, politics, and the last thing the world needed was another bloody war sucking resources away from where they were needed.

He was also a Gotei Captain, the equivalent of a Black Order General, and his being imprisoned under false pretences suggested he had dangerous enemies, and set even more dangerous precedents. Integra didn't want to give their enemies an in road to suggesting that it was possible for a General, or Captain, to be acting outside of his jurisdiction in the pursuit of Hollows or Akuma.

"I might ask you the same thing," she replied, coldly. "What do you care what happens to an Ivalician?"

[lesstravelled]

Road giggled at Integra's reply. "I bet she fell out with the Order again," she said. "Maybe they're just not good enough at killing Akuma and she's looking for someone better."

It wasn't a particularly out there supposition. Hellsing were fond of interfering, as if destroying Akuma was their job, rather than the job of the real exorcists. It had been that way for generations; they'd worked alongside the Black Order, originally, but they'd grown apart as their priorities shifted. Hellsing wanted to throw everything at the fight, the Black Order were a bit more reserved.

Of course, when your organisation existed to destroy Akuma, it wasn't actually a good long term strategy for employment to be really good at the job. The Black Order needed Akuma around to shore up their funding stream, even if they didn't like to admit it.

Hellsing needed them around too, to maintain their influence, even though Integra would never admit that.

Road found it all hilarious.

[hellsingsforyou]

Alucard shifted, watching his master engage the two Noah with unconcealed distaste. Had they not been here, and now, she would have let him kill them. Instead, he had to mind his manners and keeps his fangs covered.

"You don't need Innocence to kill Akuma," he said, eyeing the little girl again.

[intangibleman]

Tyki laughed again, a low sound full of amusement.

"Obviously," Tyki said, taking the last drag of his cigarette and flicking the nub into the damp grass. He held in the breath for a moment and then blew it out the door. "In these parts they use special swords. They've probably never even heard of Innocence. The Kingsglaive in Lucis do too, or so I hear. Magic works, of course. Holy magic is best, apparently, not that you'd have any hope of using that."

It wasn't an insult, it was just how it seemed. Alucard didn't look like the type of man who could wield Holy magic, not in a million years.

"What do you do, bite them?"

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi found his hand trailing to the pommel of his Zanpakutō. Ordinarily he wouldn't carry it around the palace on a casual basis. It stayed locked in his room, his only possession of any worth, at least to him.

With a variety of visitors arriving, however, Lumi had taken to arming himself. Arming himself more, at any rate. He still carried a gun under his jacket, in a shoulder holster. A revolver, it was just a simple mechanical pistol, Niflheim import, outfitted with a range of bullets, from Hollow Rounds to Shell Crackers, with one chamber empty for safety.

So, they both had reason to have an interest in Aizen, then. Their attendance wasn't simply a courtesy. The woman seemed to have some sort of connection to the Jyllandi anti-Hollow force, although Road suggested that it was an on-again, off-again one, currently in the negative. The Noah had a personal interest in Hollows, and the killers of such.

She had sidestepped Tyki's question, but neither of the Noah had answered hers either, instead choosing to employ mocking levity.

With neither revealing a reason, they either had something to hide, or felt the need to keep the scales of power balanced without giving anything away, even if it was information of no real consequence.

[hellsingsforyou]

Alucard grinned at the man, although it was more like a flash of teeth from a guard dog than a real grin, however much genuine amusement there was behind it.

"Akuma taste like shit," he replied. He didn't add that he had more teeth than bullets; Alucard preferred to shoot his targets, but there were plenty of times when a solid bite had been just the pick up he needed. "I prefer living prey."

[lesstravelled]

Road gave a singing hum and lounged back in her chair, looking like she owned the place. "She might like Aizen," she said, looking at Tyki with a nasty smirk spreading across her face. "They're both hypocrites with monsters in their basements."

Employing monsters to kill monsters. Road doubted Integra knew about the Arrancar, or their nature; that sort of information didn't spread easily. Alucard wasn't exactly a secret, but his true nature was, and yet here they'd been, presuming the Hellsing's prime weapon against Akuma enjoyed destroying Akuma.

And now it turned out he was a killer, no matter what he was killing, or would be, if Integra let him. She definitely had a hold over him. Road wondered what it was, and how easy it would be to break.

[hellsingsforyou]

Integra cast a watchful eye at Alucard, and went about making her cup of tea. It was going to be subpar, but Integra roughed it better than people expected her to, and terrible tea wasn't going to be the worst thing she'd ever drunk.

Alucard was trying to threaten the Noah. It wasn't likely to work, not against someone of Road's class, not with Alucard's full power sealed as it was.

The thought of Road Kamelot facing Alucard's true power was an entertaining one.

[intangibleman]

Tyki brushed some ash off his cuff and grinned at Road, amused. The comparison wasn't inaccurate, really. Integra kept this creature in her thrall somehow, either by way of a bargain or some sort of loyalty on his part, and Aizen had given his minions a power and had their dubious loyalty on account of that, almost like employment.

This guy was a monster and a half. Prey? As if he was a predator? There were rumours that Alucard was of one of a selection of Überwaldean lines, and their famous Kekkei Genkai... could that be true? He'd mentioned biting as a joke, he wasn't entirely sure how true that would be. It seemed as though it was an accurate rumour, and that he wasn't a member of the League of Temperance.

"Maybe it'll be the start of a beautiful alliance," Tyki said, amused sarcasm oozing from every word. "Assuming Aizen ever gets out of prison."

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi blinked.

He knew that 'akuma' was a regional word for Hollow. There were a lot of different terms. Hollow, Fiend, Akuma, Daemon... undoubtedly there would be others. But ... the newcomer sounded like he'd bitten one. Or did so regularly enough to have an opinion on the taste.

More than that, he ... preferred live prey. Was that animals? Or people? Lumi wasn't about to judge either way, he was a contract killer. He killed people for money, what did he care if somebody else killed them for ... what, food? It was strange to hear somebody describe people as 'prey', if that's what he was describing, but it gave an indication of the potential for aggression.

Lumi doubted it was enough to worry about.

In the distance, he felt the reiatsu of somebody moving about. He gave a silent sigh. He wanted to lurk about, taking in information without putting himself in there, but the time had to come to go into the room. He did rather want that coffee as well.

Fortunately, they wouldn't know that he could understand Jyllandi. If they were ignorant enough, and he didn't mind at all if that was the case, they could speak around him. At least then nobody would see him listening at doorways.

He put a hand on the door and pushed it open.

[hellsingsforyou]

Integra tapped the spoon on the edge of her cup. It lacked the satisfying high pitched ting of metal against a china cup, but no matter.

The first indication something was off was the sound of the door opening. Every one of Integra's senses screamed at her that there was no one there. Alucard could keep himself completely hidden, but he only ever used it before he was about to ambush something. He knew better than to use it on her.

It was only Alucard's presence that stopped her dropping her cup and reaching for a gun. Instead she turned her sharp gaze to the door. Alucard was between her and whatever it was, anyway.

[lesstravelled]

Road felt her stomach tighten at the unexpected intrusion, and then relaxed again almost immediately.

Lumi was a ghost, and a few days in the Palace was enough for you to have second thoughts about your initial reaction to his walking into a room. Road was used to feeling people coming, most people that had any sense for reiatsu were. Someone approaching that you couldn't feel was either so weak as to be below noticing, or so strong that they'd learned that total control.

Lumi, by all accounts, fell into the latter group. You got used to him, but it didn't help that he was quiet, too. You couldn't feel or hear him coming, only see him.

"The other loyal dog," she said, glancing at Tyki.

[hellsingsforyou]

Alucard was not used to people sneaking up on him.

He wasn't used to giving people a chance to sneak up on him.

It had happened a few times, over his years of service, and always resulted in a torn coat and pain in the ass injuries. It usually signalled the start of a really good fight. The best ones were the ones you didn't see coming.

He whirled to face the door, coat flying out around him as he looked at the intruder.

[intangibleman]

Tyki had a moment of confused discomfort as he felt the telltale sound of the door opening without feeling the approach of somebody to have done it. Then he relaxed, remembering that the palace had a resident phantom.

Considering that that sort of display, especially one put on all the time, took an insane amount of control, Lumi was neither arrogant, nor particularly aggressive, not from what he'd seen. He spoke quietly, he stepped softly and he had a calmly expressionless face for the most part. He was fairly inoffensive.

He made Tyki uncomfortable. He had the ability to shrug off injuries thanks to a particular talent that he got from who knows where, but he could only activate that consciously. It was useless if he was crept on up and Lumi could creep up on him. He'd walked into a room containing four people, none of which were weak, completely undetected before they'd heard the door.

If he'd wanted to, he could have walked in all guns blazing and shot each and every one of them before they could react.

He hadn't done anything in Tyki's time in the Palace to make him fear him, not directly, but the subtle promise of power did the job without an overt show of strength.

It had certainly put the fear of the gods into Integra. Even Alucard was wrong-footed. He wasn't used to not being the scariest mutt in the dog park.

He smirked at Road. "I wonder which is worse?"

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi looked at the two new people, finally able to put faces to both the voices and the chakra signatures.

The reaction didn't surprise him. While it came naturally, Lumi found that his tendency to entirely suppress his reiatsu, something he didn't really do consciously, had a habit of wrong-footing people. It frightened powerful people when you had the ability to apparently effortlessly creep up on them.

That this man was evidently a bodyguard or, as Road so eloquently put it, a guard dog, just made it worse for him.

The man was tall, around as tall as Lumi himself, give or take an inch, and as dark as Lumi was pale. Lumi didn't miss that he had red eyes in spite of not being a Selkie. The woman was not far off a foot shorter than him and blonde, though her eyes were a pale shade of blue instead of the expected green. Lumi wasn't sure whether that made her a Mistant Al Bhed with atypical eyes, or a Mistant Hume with atypical hair. It didn't matter either way.

"Good afternoon," he said, voice quiet.

[lesstravelled]

Road grinned, and lifted one knee, despite the fact she was wearing a short skirt, and rested her elbow on it, and her chin on her hand.

"It's the dogs that don't bark you need to watch," she said.

Alucard was too proud of himself, too showy, too ready to flash his nasty reiatsu around like a badge proclaiming how dangerous he was. It was like the tag he wore. It was a boast.

Lumi didn't boast. Lumi didn't need to boast, because the fact he could walk into a room full of powerful people and the first clue anyone got that he was coming was the door opening was proof.

[hellsingsforyou]

Alucard's hackles were up. The stranger was an unknown entity, one that had taken him by surprise.

His reiatsu increased a fraction as his control dropped, and he moved nearer the intruder.

[hellsingsforyou]

"Alucard," Integra said, her voice warning. The man that had entered the room was clearly a member; one they hadn't encountered before, but one they would do well not to tangle with, especially mere minutes after entering.

"Good afternoon," she replied, in standard Ivalician. Her accent was a little clipped, a little off. It sounded Archadian, but if you knew where she was from, you could hear Athlum in there, too.

It was more natural than Ignis's accent, at least.

[intangibleman]

Tyki's grin widened.

Alucard's control had slipped. Tyki felt the slight increase in the amount of spiritual pressure he emitted, but it was nowhere near enough to cause a problem for him and certainly not Road. It would be interesting to see if he was on a collar, or a choke chain. Integra warned him, but that didn't mean much. Some dogs needed to be told multiple times to return to heel before they stopped snarling.

Was he one of those, he wondered?

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi nodded, noticing the accent.

She was well spoken in the common tongue of Ivalice and her accent was less... exaggerated than Ignis, though still along those lines. It was 'posh' rather than the casual of either Gladio or Apache.

He glanced at the Noah, one in the doorway, one at the table. They seemed casual in the presence of these newcomers, but the conversation that he'd heard meant he knew that while they looked at ease, they were waiting for it to kick off. Daring it to to happen. It had been a joke, a game. With his entering, and the reaction from the new man, Alucard, things had become tense on the part of the newcomers and devolved into entertainment for the Noah.

But he was oblivious, wasn't he? If he'd heard anything, he hadn't understood a word. He slid a brief look in Alucard's direction at the clear if fractional loss of control and headed in properly, the kettle as his destination.

[hellsingsforyou]

Integra's call of his name didn't do a lot to settle Alucard's ire. The dog comparisons were old, and implied more blind loyalty than he held, but it wasn't completely unfounded. The animal in him saw Lumi was a threat. A good challenge got his bloodlust going.

The challenger was approaching his master.

Alucard stepped in his way, his fangs bared in a grin, his coat still shifting unnaturally. His reiatsu was back under control, but there was the possibility there that it could be let loose. It had been a momentary flash, enough to waver, not enough to flare, before.

Hellsing kept him sealed. He allowed it, it made fights more fun, and Integra could release the seal if she wished, although there'd be consequences. He couldn't fight at full power because of it, but it had never mattered yet.

He loomed at the intruder.

[lesstravelled]

Road watched the growing tension with a bright smile, biting her lip and tucking both of her knees into her arms.

If Hellsing lost one of its prize assets, and Integra was left vulnerable, and they got to see what Lumi was capable of, it would be a very good day.

She didn't expect they would, of course. Lumi was too smart for something like that, but there was always the chance. Everyone had said he was Marluxia's pet psychopath. He had a chance to prove it now against Hellsing's.