Chapter 6: Awakening

Thoughts and background descriptions in italics.

AN: I've also rewritten/edited the earlier chapters and if you haven't read them yet, I suggest giving them a glance so this chapter won't be too confusing. And the delay to all ongoing stories is due to a combo of time constraints/life/college and forgetting how to write.

This chapter has gone through several dozen revisions that it's been sitting around in my PC for at least a year at this point.

-12:00(?), Iwatodai Dormitory Rooftop-

Taking a quick glance at his surroundings, Minato realized that the night sky was tinted with an all too familiar faded, sickening green topped by an almost hypnotic glow of the moon giving the impression of an enigmatic deity staring straight down at him, somehow reminding him of the night he had arrived and something more distant... To the streets of the sleeping city below, the pavement was streaked with pools of dried blood and more than a dozen coffins lining the sidewalks. And he glanced back to the rooftop where he currently stood and found something that did not belong in this world.

"Well this is...unexpected," the boy thought to himself while gazing into the expressionless mask worn by the knife-wielding entity that he presumed was an enemy.

The pregnant silence was broken when Takeba's bow dropped to the floor.

"I take it you have some idea on what this is, eh, Takeba-san?" Minato said in his characteristic deadpan and turned towards his classmate, taking note of the gun holstered on her thigh, "she didn't come unprepared, but then, why would she bother with a cumbersome weapon like a bow when she has a gun?."

"Y-yes, it's a Sha-!" the girl's reply was cut off as the massive creature extended one of its many tendril-like arms towards her.

"Tch, that was rude," the blue-haired youth clicked his tongue as he thrust with his newly acquired knife at the offending arm, leaving a deep gash that caused a dark, blood-like miasma to spread about, and the blade the creature itself grasped had harmlessly landed near the boy's feet "it's not polite to interrupt people having a conversation."

The masked creature withdrew its remaining limbs and swirled its dark mass into a single towering sapien form, what looked to be an "I" now blazed at the center of its mask. On Minato's end, he took a mental note where the creature's knife dropped before leveling his gaze at the creature. Both parties made no sudden movements and to an outsider like Takeba, it was as if they were frozen in time.

"-hy...-ight...?" the creature garbled out, tilting its mask sideways as if to express confusion at the teen's presence.

"You're wondering why I'm fighting you?" Minato mirrored the gesture, unsure how he could piece together to being's intent, "Easy, I don't want to die."

"?" the monster tilted its head(?), even more confused.

"Hey!" Takeba called the boy out, "How can you be so calm? That thing's going to kill you!"

The creature turned to stare at the girl, eliciting an 'eep' in response, before redirecting its gaze at the boy. Likewise, Minato faced Takeba, hoping for an explanation, but receiving none that satisfied it, thus he moved to face the monster once more.

"I don't know what the hell you are..." the lad retained his stoic disposition while eyeing the blade, a knife in the creatures' hand and a broadsword in any human's, by his feet "But I'm not going down without a fight!"

-12:00(?), 10 Minutes Post-Anomaly, Iwatodai Dormitory Lobby-

"I have the bandages!" Shuji Ikutsuki exclaimed as he ran down the stairway, taking care not to trip on the steps.

Mitsuru Kirijo leaned over the slumped frame of Gekkoukan high school's star athlete, Akihiko Sanada, now sporting some grievous injuries. The redhead inspected her comrade for injuries before directing her gaze to the source of the panicked footsteps.

"Over here, Chairman," the Student Council president took a step back so Ikutsuki could treat the injured youth.

"I'll be fine here," the silver haired teen weakly waved his hand at the girl, "you better help Takeba and the new guy."

"And leave you two defenseless?" Mitsuru raised an eyebrow in response, "We can't risk the possibility of having more of them coming through the front door."

"We'll just have to believe in those two," the Chairman stated, no worry in his voice, "won't we, Mitsuru?"

"I've got the feeling that there's something that you two aren't telling me," Akihiko grumbled, uncomfortable at being left out of the loop, "because from where I'm sitting, Takeba doesn't have any offensive capabilities and the new kid hasn't even awoken to his potential yet."

"It's something that'll necessitate a better time to explain, and time is something we don't have, and I'm certain that Arisato himself will be better suited than I to do so," the girl stated, "now try not to move, I'll mend your wounds."

With steeled resolve, Mitsuru unholstered a gun-like object from her thigh and raised it to her eye level.

"I know you can do this, Arisato," the redhead took a deep breath as she readied herself for what she was about to do, "...just like you did all those years ago."

"Hmm," Ikutsuki's face turned cold and expressionless, "she's thinking about the last time she saw him...in London."

-1999, Millennium Invasion of London-

Takeharu Kirijo cursed his misfortunes over the past year, deposing his crazed father in a hostile takeover was one thing, but now, he and his daughter were caught in the middle of a hellish landscape of fire and blood. The last things he heard over the comm lines was a wrecked battleship docking in the harbor and a blimp on the verge of breaking down.

"Ikutsuki, are there any exits left?!" the man growled, pulling out a cigar to calm himself.

"I'm afraid not, sir," the bespectacled man bowed in apology, "but if we can reach a sufficiently fortified area with fewer points of entry, I'm sure that both Kurosawa-san and 'this' would be able to keep us safe."

"..." the steely-eyed Kurosawa said nothing, instead resting one hand on the heirloom katana around his waist and giving a few quick glances to the suitcase in Ikutsuki's hand.

"Let's hope it doesn't have to come to that then," the one-eyed man said flatly as he readied a pistol from underneath his coat, "stay behind me and Kurosawa-san, alright Mitsuru?"

"O-okay," the frightened child nodded as she clung to her father's leg, not before spying something moving from within the blazing inferno from the outside.

"Stop," Ikutsuki stepped forward, pointing at something moving around the flames from the other side of the cracked window.

"Movement," Kurosawa discerned quickly, his hand gripping the tsuka of his katana, "but I don't think it's...human."

"Agreed, far too calm for somebody on fire," the head of the Kirijo Group nodded and turned to Ikutsuki, "ready the case."

Just as Ikutsuki thumbed for the locks on the briefcase, a hail of gunfire and explosions drowned out the sound of the blaze.

"What in the world is going on?" Takeharu scowled, rolling for cover with Mitsuru in tow, "Kurosawa, what do you see out there?"

"Soldiers, likely mercenaries considering their equipment, and it seems they're fighting...Nazis," the man responded, unsheathing his blade in anticipation.

"Nazis?" Ikutsuki repeated with apprehension.

"Yes, Nazis, by the make of their uniforms," the security chief repeated as he took a quick step out of the room for a quick moment, the sound of blood splattering on the walls preceding his return, "my apologies, it looks like there were a few stragglers."

"Any more?" Takeharu raised an eyebrow as he raised his pistol, ignoring the bumbling scientist's idea.

"No, the way they came in is now impassable," the man with a bloodied sword replied, "an explosion took the hallway out."

"So there's only one way in or out now," the bespectacled man said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Not exactly comforting knowledge to have," the eye-patched man clicked his tongue.

"If I may suggest once more, while it's just prototype, we could use the Evoker," the researcher suggested frantically.

"We'll have to push through, but hopefully it doesn't come to that, whoever is fighting the Nazis is cutting through their numbers," the man pulled a small device from under his tie, "Takeba built this device to work within a specific frequency regardless of interference, at least he did this much right, but we'll need to get clear before we can reach anyone else though."

"Father, look!" Mitsuru pointed in the direction of the heaviest concentration of gunfire, "It's him!"

A mop of blue hair was moving frantically and waving a gun far too large for his age with some string-like substance that reflected the moonlight around his hands. He charged behind a group of armed men, likely French, based on the accents and coarse language being thrown around as well as what appeared to be priests who oddly enough kept their distance from the group even as both groups aimed for the same targets. Noteworthy individuals in the group besides the child were a one-armed, katana wielding nun of Eastern descent and a bandaged gunslinger.

"So, the reports we received weren't exaggerating..." the Kirijo Group head recalled the British noblewoman who came to Port Island to claim the child, "Hellsing, was it?"

-2009, Iwatodai Dormitory Rooftop-

Minato made the first move by dropping down and rolling away from the monster, its fallen weapon now securely in its hands. The giant blob made no sudden movement in response, but formed two hands, each with a blade of their own

"So its responding to my movements, but how? No real eyes, ears or even a nose," the boy thought to himself as he stared at the the monster, "can it read my mind or sense my intent?"

"You can't seriously be thinking that you can fight this thing?!" the archer on the background yelled, just noticing a pair of knives, one belonging to the creature and the other was the same one she handed Minato several minutes ago, resting at her feet, "You've got to be kidding me if you'll fight this thing with that sword."

"Fight it? No, we just need to buy time until we can find an opening to escape," Minato responded in a calm that served as a stark contrast to the girl's exasperation, "it's a good thing that this blade is actually much lighter than it looks."

The creature, while humanoid in shape, decidedly moved very different from one, contorting at impossible and maddening angles as it lunged towards the boy, its arms crossed as in preparation for a bidirectional attack.

"-ie." the creature garbled out as its knives neared the stoic teen.

"Let's see just how sturdy you are," the high school student replied with a look of excitement on his face.

Minato dipped mere moments before the monster's attacks could connect and sliced upwards, 'disarming' the creature and causing both its arms and the implements each held, to drop on the rooftop floor.

"Takeba, follow through or get out of the way!" the bluenette barked as he spied a third arm quickly coming from the creature's dorsal end.

The Hellsing operative attempted to block the attack from the front, but the difference in both strength and speed resulted in a shallow cut across his torso.

"Arrgh!" the normally straight-faced teen winced sharply as he jumped back, his vision beginning to blur.

"No!" the girl cried out as blood gushed out of the boy's wound.

"-ghh!" the predator shambled around but made no motion towards its prey.

"Hey, don't you dare die on me!" the girl said with more than a hint of panic in her voice.

"Damn. Why d-didn't you use t-the gun?" Minato strained to speak as his consciousness began to fade.

...

The hapless archer spent the last few minutes staring in awe as her classmate managed to hold his ground against one of the strongest Shadows she had ever seen. After a what seemed to be a one-sided battle that ended with the slicing off of the Shadow's arms, she breathed a sigh of relief. However, that relief turned to terror as the Hellsing ward was suddenly hit by a sneak attack coming from the monster's back.

"No," the girl mouthed silently, "it's going to kill him!"

Gathering the courage to act despite the dread, despite her instincts telling her to run, Takeba drew her gun from its holster, visibly shaking as she pointed it at herself.

"No one's coming to come save us," the girl's breathing sped up as she grasped the trigger, "so if I won't, then who will?"

The sound of glass shattering echoed around the green sky, drawing the attention of the stone creatures. A humanoid figure, appearing to be a blonde, dark-skinned woman chained to a cow head, manifested behind the archer, and as if reflecting the girl's resolve, visibly pooled energy around itself.

"It's now or never. Io!" Takeba commanded, the hesitation in her voice now replaced with grim determination.

Responding to the girl's plea, the chained woman manifested a mighty gust of wind at the masked entity, the process visibly taxed to the archer who fell on one know, but the effect was readily apparent. The giant was knocked back several feet and now turned its attention towards the brunette in a slow, seemingly strained advance.

"Please, get up!" the girl yelled out as she pulled the trigger once more.

A warm light bathed the prone warrior, somehow mending his fractured ribs. The cobalt haired youth had recovered enough strength to weakly raise his head, only to be greeted with the sight of his exhausted classmate about to be assaulted by the same creature that had earlier sucker-punched him.

"After all that, I couldn't even take down a single Shadow," the girl teared up as she sank, the strain of pushing Io's power to the absolute limit beginning to take its toll, "I guess this is it then. I'm sorry...Dad."

-12:00(?), 30 Minutes Post-Anomaly, Iwatodai Dormitory Lobby-

The door leading outside shook violently as dust and cracks began to form around it with the walls and windows following suit, the howl of the wind gave off the impression of an ongoing storm. The three people inside observed as the rumbling grew fainter and fainter.

"D-did they win?" Akihiko Sanada grunted as he moved his now bandaged arm.

"It's far too soon to make assumptions," Mitsuru replied calmly as she tightened her comrade's bandage, "so stop squirming or we'll be stuck here all night."

"Mitsuru's right, I had to follow protocol and activated the emergency lockdown sequence for the dormitory, there's no way to get in from the outside," Ikutsuki interjected shakily in seeming regret of possibly leading two of his charges to their deaths, "Akihiko, we'll head to the command center and hold our ground there while Mitsuru heads out to assist them, only go in if there's no other option."

"Tch...Understood, we can't afford to lose any more of our battle power, especially after they pulled a stunt this big," the boxer nodded in dismay, "this is just like back then."

*RUMBLE*

The dorm shook once more, knocking Ikutsuki and Akihiko off-balance, but Mitsuru took it in stride, maintaining her calm composure with only a look of mild annoyance saying otherwise.

*CRASH*

"It looks like we have uninvited guests. I'll clear the way," the Student Council President quickly drew her sword and worked her way to the top of the staircase as the walls of the dorm continued to rumble.

"We better shake to it then, eh?" the Chairman quipped, staring at the student in expectation.

"Please stop," the silver haired teen clicked his tongue at both his inability to fight, and the Chairman's attempts at humor.

-12:00(?), 35 Minutes Post-Anomaly, Iwatodai Dormitory Rooftop-

The sound of slime(?) slithering and hissing a few feet away unnerved even the battle-hardened high schooler. It was at this point that Minato felt his strength begin to return to his arms, marked by an almost reassuring glow, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to see what was waiting for him if he stood up.

"No, that's not right," the teen thought defiantly as the appalling taste of rust in his mouth jolted him from his stupor, "Takeba's still up here, so I can't stay down."

Deciding that the time for action was now, Minato pulled out a pair of small, silver spheres from his pocket before reasserting his balance.

"Takeba, look away!" the boy commanded as he lobbed the round objects in the direction of the hulking creature.

Takeba's now-sluggish reflexes kicked in quick enough to turn her head as the first metallic orb burst into a spray of oily liquid followed almost immediately by the second orb burst into a flash of blinding light accompanied by a loud burst of noise and later, a grave conflagration that didn't seem to halt the creature's advance.

"Th-that won't work, not 'gainst this, you n-need to use this," the girl struggled to remain conscious as she handed the now unholstered gun to her classmate, before finally drifting to sleep out of fatigue.

"Hey, don't just doze of like..." the boy reproached before realizing that the fire he set off did not have the intended effect, "Bollocks!"

The hulking, giant blade wielding, amorphous monster was now a hulking, giant blade wielding, amorphous monster...On fire. And now, the creature was directing the sum of its attention solely towards the boy.

"Fuck!" the youth swore but wasted no time in pulling his classmate into a fireman's carry and bolted for the door, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! What does she think this tiny excuse for a gun can do against something that could survive a flash fire?!"

"-ain, -rning, wAhrgh!" the monster writhed, seemingly bothered by the flames, though its advance remained steady.

Minato reached for the door handle before a flaming sword flew mere inches by his head, instead hitting the door and slowly beginning to immolate it. The boy tried opening the door, only finding it locked. He attempted to kick it, only to find it much sturdier than he had anticipated.

"Oh bloody fuckin' hell, I'm going die to a giant flaming monster halfway 'round the world and no one I know is going to find my corpse," the boy's calm facade was rapidly being chipped away and replaced with a mix of anger and frustration by the events of the evening, "bastard's probably going to eat me."

The teenager had faced a great number of monstrous creatures in the past and had long since decided 'if it moves, it can die'. Takeba's gun was tightly in his grasp. The boy tells himself that he couldn't miss a target this big and squeezes the trigger.

*Click*

Nothing.

"What?" the boy's eye twitched before making a second attempt.

*Click*

Nothing.

The blazing giant raised yet another sword and lobbed it at an incredible speed, this time landing a glancing hit on the boy's left calf.

"Dammit! Is this a toy?" the Hellsing ward dropped on his uninjured knee, ignoring the all too familiar smell of seared flesh, "What the hell am I supposed to do with this useless thing?!"

Before he could throw the unconscious girl's seemingly ornamental handgun away, something at the corner of his eye caught the injured high school student's attention.

"It's that kid from before," Minato wasn't sure what the child was doing standing so calmly in the face of a genuine monster or if he should even warn the child to leave, lest the gargantuan creature redirect its efforts.

The eerie child smiled and pointed in the Hellsing ward's direction.

"Me?" the injured teen squinted his eyes as he tried to figure out the child's intent, "no, he's pointing at the...gun."

As if some telepathic force were in play, the child nodded and pointed his index finger at his temple.

"Bang," the child spoke, his voice strangely echoing in spite of all the chaos unfurling.

The creature came to a halt and turned towards the young boy, drawing concern from the bluenette, only for the surprise that the child wasn't there.

"It doesn't matter," Minato knew that the next few seconds would mean the difference between life and death, so he imitated the child's earlier position, gun in place, "bollocks to gun safety!"

*Break*

It was disconcerting to say the least, for the veteran of the Millennium raid on London had come to expect that guns would make a bang when fired, and not shattering glass. Compounding to the strangeness of the moment, time had seemingly stilled, for the creature had slowed down to a crawl. Then a sharp pain soon followed, like his mind was now breaking apart.

"Gaagh!" the young lad screamed, his mind now racing in nearly every direction, dreams and memories melding into a convoluted mess, "Focus!"

The shadowy mass, still alight, resumed its advance towards Minato and the prone Takeba. The creature's gait seemed unusual to Minato as if instinct was telling it to run.

"C'mon, C'mon, C'mon," the boy tugged at his subconscious to force himself towards the task at hand, before a single word insinuated itself into his thoughts.

"Persona!"

Minato would remember the feeling for the rest of his days. The sound of gears and chains, of machinery coming to life, his psyche made manifest, completely focused to a single purpose.

-Inside Iwatodai Dormitory-

"Wow," Akihiko mouthed quietly.

Mitsuru was like a dancer on a routine. Elegance in motion, her blade moving almost effortlessly against the heavy pressure exuded by her foes.

"Amazing," Ikutsuki shared the silent sentiment of his charge.

"No...Spectacular," the silverette corrected, internally envious at what his contemporary had achieved, "is this really the gap in power between us?"

"Akihiko, behind you!" Mitsuru lunged in their direction, her epee poised for a single-stroke kill.

As if on reflex, the boxer moved his good arm towards his holster, and grabbed the instrument within.

"I'm not just dead weight in this fight!" the teenager proclaimed, pistol whipping his would-be assailant, "sorry about this, Chairman."

"About wha-?" Ikutsuki strained, his response interrupted by Akihiko using his body as a pivot to kick some distance between them and their immediate foe.

"Now! Polydeuces!" the boxing ace screamed as a being, mirroring his injuries, came to life and blew the creature away with an electrified punch.

"I'd much prefer it that you wouldn't strain yourself, a Persona reflects your current physical and mental state," the chairman chided as he grabbed his back in pain from the earlier stunt, "at least there don't seem to be more of them nearby."

"Except the one on the roof," the redhead corrected, "we can't lift the lockdown until the Dark Hour is over so I'll have to break through the do-"

*Screech*

A loud screeching noise echoed in the heiress' head, nearly knocking Mitsuru to the ground.

"I can sense it," the girl stated as she clutched her forehead, "he's awakened, but I feel something else."

-Iwatodai Rooftops-

Power was coursing through the air, forcing the unearthly creature to discard all pretense of civility and assume an arachnid configuration, one blade in each of its many immolating appendages.

I. Art. Thou.

Thou. Art. I.

From The Sea of Thy Soul I Come...

I am Romulus, the Founder of an Empire!

"Go," Minato stretched his arm out, his will to fight slowly returning, "Romulus!"

The energy in the air pooled in his immediate area, crystallizing into a humanoid shape. A marionette garbed in red armor that belonged in myth took form, sword in hand and poised to strike.

"Die," the creature spoke with a disarming clarity, striking at its adversary from five separate angles.

"You first!" the bluenette responded, commanding his mental construct to attack the creature at the center of its mass.

The founder of Rome acquiesced and launched a fireball with a quick thrust of its blade, hitting the masked fiend before the creature's tentacular assault could connect. The fire did more than faze the creature, and burned off two of its arms.

"No! Not supp- b- lik- th-s," the monster's voice seethed against the raging fire, resuming its garbled state, and shattering several of its blades with its own hands, "i aM mAgiCiaN...I WILL NOT BE DENIED!"

"A tantrum? Really?" the vampire hunter was more upset at himself for almost dying to such a...childish thing, no doubt imagining a thorough scolding from his guardians in London, "Still, there must be something special about Romulus' fire."

However, the youth's musings were cut short by the glob now using the broken shards of its blade as impromptu projectiles, several of them leaving visible marks on Romulus, including a crack on its face.

"Oh?" the boy almost grinned in excitement, willing his mental construct into deflecting the incoming shards, though a few shallow cuts to his skin almost broke his concentration, "Here, I'm giving this back...with interest."

Minato tossed the blade he had taken earlier that night, followed up by Romulus grabbing it with its free hand and rushed for a strike. The Magician parried the initial attack, only to be met with a second strike that took out one arm, leaving both sides with an even number of weapons. Both inhuman beings crossed blades once more, causing sparks to fly from their blades.

"W-y? yOu ar_re oN- -f -s," the monster demanded, the flames surrounding its body slowly fading away.

"..." Romulus kept silent, admirably keeping the creature at bay.

"Hey asshole! I don't know what the fuck you are, what any of this is or even what the hell is going on," the high school student set off on an angry tirade, his clothes ruined and his body broken, "damn, I don't even understand half of what you're saying, so do us both a favor and go to hell!"

Minato flipped the bird, a gesture that the Magician likely wouldn't understand, and flung three more metallic orbs in the monster's general direction.

"Now, Romulus disengage!" the boy ordered and his construct obeyed, shoving the creature away and swiping with both its main blade and the stolen sword.

Romulus' sword strike accomplished two things: Preventing the Magician from closing the distance and the second, cutting open the orbs to coat its blades with oil. The founder of Rome followed up by igniting both blades and performing a double stab at the eye sockets on the monster's mask.

"I noticed you're not a big fan of his fire," Minato grinned from the high of battle...or the copious amount of blood he lost in the past few minutes, "checkmate, motherfucker."

The monster could neither respond nor counterattack for it was slowly being consumed by the flames of its ethereal adversary's attack. Romulus, sensing the lack of resistance, drove his blades deeper into the blob's dark mass, causing the flames to flare with each inch of steel.

"Glad that's ov...er," the boy said in relief before collapsing from his wounds.

*Creak*

The wooden door leading back to the dorm was slowly turning into ice.

*Shatter*

"Takeba, Arisato, are you both al-," Mitsuru quickly called out, only to be greeted by the sight of Romulus standing over its summoner's prone frame like a silent guardian, "Chairman! I need to get Arisato to a hospital, I don't think we can wait for the Hour to end."

The mental construct did not react, only continuing its vigil, the wound on its face leaking a black substance. Rome's founder remained corporeal until Minato was carried away for medical attention, the stolen sword of its foe remaining as the spoils of war. The black substance it bled out skittered away beneath anyone's notice towards the city of night.

-End Chapter-

Post Chapter AN: And...I'm back, though not full time, obviously.

Switched Comps twice and had to format the one I'm using so I lost A LOT of story files.

Originally, I planned on making the Shadow vs. FREAK argument one of strength/skill, with the humanoid enemies being weaker, but more dangerous as the Shadows are more predatorial/force-of-nature. Ultimately, I decided on this being a general case with the Arcana Shadows being higher in the heirarchy and therefore, more intelligent. That and it adds to both the mystery AND exposition of the story's canon.

Don't have anymore beta reader(s), since she moved to AO3, so I'm pretty sure the action was rushed. My goal was just to show the team as being more, well, competent in general. Mitsuru sets the bar, Aki is still a good fighter even when injured and Takeba at least learned Garu and bought precious time for Mina to recover.