Samurshy

"Well, whether or not there are those within your unit that have such convictions is not something I can tell you. But I can tell you, the same wall you put up to protect yourself from being hurt, while it might not be for the same reason, everyone in your unit has also put it up. It isn't that they are incapable of making friends, it is that they have refused, and probably will continue to refuse closeness of any kind." Tally replied.

Tally paused, and put her index finger to her chin, in an expression of thought. "I think you are in good company, then." Tally began to mix a drink known as an Absinthe Suissesse, which was absinthe mixed with almond syrup, egg-whites, and milk. After Tally set the drink down in front of Charles she pointed her finger at Masun who was sitting with now only Franky and Auria. "Let's just ignore Masun for right now." Tally switched her finger pointing to Auria and then dropped her hand to her side. "I don't know what your comrade's name is, there. Nor do I know what makes her, 'special'. But, if there is one thing I am good at, it is knowing when someone is a social outcast. In her eyes, I can see that she has no one but herself, maybe she had some parents at some point, and she probably still does, but in the position she is in, she probably doesn't have very much contact with them. It is obvious that, this team she is in, is the first thing she has been a part of." She lifted her hand and pointed at Franky next, and dropped her hand back to her side. "I have never seen someone more out of place, and lost. I doubt he has had much contact with anyone during his lifetime, however long that might be." Tally began to wipe off the counters again. "I could be completely wrong about those people, but my intuition is normally on point. But since I don't know for sure if I am right or not, let's talk about Masun" Tally paused. "He has lived here for eight years. Even though I wasn't a bartender until recently, I have lived her most of my life, and I did notice Masun. Sure, every so often he would have an escort come up to his room, but other than that, he never talked to anyone unless he had to. I now know he is much more broken than I expected, but I did have my suspicions before I slipped up bringing the drinks to the table. I know that Masun has no one he calls friend, any more. The saddest part is, I am sure he used to have a few people he called friend at one point or another. But that was probably long ago." Tally explained.

"The easiest Absinthe drink I can make you is called an Absinthe Drip, which is really just absinthe with sugar water. I also can make an absinthe drink with egg-whites, if you are willing to try something more daring." Tally explained. Tally smirked at the small joke he made. "You said it, man. Not me."

Tally looked at the mage who was just talking to her, and then to the Australian. "Well, thank you for the compliment. I have had a lot of experience mixing drinks over the years." She redirected her attention back to the mage "Well, as long as you are buying something, I don't mind if you follow me back to the bar. My job is basically making drinks and listening to sad saps who have personal problems, or just lost all their winnings at blackjack." She waved to Masun, and walked back to the bar with the tray she brought the drinks on, and began to wipe the bar counters down. "Well, technically I was right that she is a human. But, you were right." Masun said with a smile. Masun turned his attention to Auria, "You alright, Auria? You've been pretty quiet. You've hardly touched your Long Island Iced Tea."

"Riiight, a private facility for private investigation. I can't say much, because this city is full of Hunters at the moment. But, let's just say that my father tried to get me to join your little private facility many times, because of my 'special skills'. Every time he tries I tell him to get bent. I won't serve a system that is hellbent on turning those with special skills against each other." Tally replied, and then pursed her lips "Also, your appearance transmogrification was not as subtle as you thought. Just be glad none of The Hunters saw that." Masun stopped drinking and raised an eyebrow. "But, that doesn't make any sense. My... uh." Masun looked around the open room, nobody outside of the current group seemed to be listening in on them, but there was a group of burly men wearing leather jackets playing a slot machine ten yards away. So Masun lowered his voice again and attempted to speak in the euphemisms that Tally was using. "Let's just say that my 'special skills' allow me to detect other.... uh... special skill users through the uh... olfactory senses" Masun whispered. "I know what you are and why you are wearing those glasses, Masun. Your ability allows you to detect natural born 'skill users' sure. When it comes to things that aren't fully, uh... average, your abilities would work. But I am an average young adult female. My 'special skill' is actually truly a special skill, in the fact that I wasn't born with it, I learned it. My art is the..." Tally lowered her voice as well, "Occult teachings from the necronomicon. In a word, I could be called a Necromancer, though that does not fully sum up what I am capable of." Tally explained. This made sense to Masun. Masun was aware of the Ellis Classifications. A system of oddity classifications that was created by Doctor Howard Ellis. In the classifications, oddities are separated into two categories that are then separated into further categories within those two categories. The classification looks like this: So, from what Tally was saying, she would be categorized under Full-Human Oddity. Masun was aware that there are certain magic abilites that can only be used by people born of a certain ancestry, those are called Magi. Tally uses magic she learned purely through the teachings of a book. Of course her blood would not smell like a Magi's blood. She is still fully human. "I see, that does make senes." Masun replied. So that is how she has stayed hidden from the Hunters for as long as she has. The Hunters use tactics like blessed silver against the skin, to find out whether or not someone is an oddity. Tally has no weaknesses like that, she is a full human. Though, a knife through the heart or a bullet through the head, blessed silver or not, she is dead.. So she has all the disadvantages of being a human as well, Masun thought. "Well, I got to get back to work. So unless anyone needs anything else, I will be leaving." Tally said

Masun noticed that Charles had zoned out after he was asked the question by Tally. "Ey Charles, you okay, man. Charles? Crocadile Dundee?" Masun snapped his fingers in front of Charles face, but there was no response. :"Charles?" Masun put his hand on Charles shoulder.

Masun was about to reply something offhanded to Charles, when Tally showed up at their table carrying a tray of beverages. She set the tray down on their table. "Don't get this twisted, It's not like I like you or anything, I just made too much" Tally said Masun marveled at the free alcoholic drinks, not so much at the fact that she didn't ask anyone for their IDs and just offhandedly served alcohol to a minor, but the fact that she gave free drinks at all. Masun stood abruptly and gave Tally a big hug. He then sat back down and wiped a tear from his eye. "It's beautiful." Masun said, before sipping down his drink. Tally blushed at the hug and got flustered for a moment. She then regained her regular demeanor and examined the group at the table. Two girls, with Masun. Obviously there is something going on there. "So, how long have you been two timing these girls?" Tally said bluntly. Masun's drink went down the wrong, and he began coughing and spat a bit of his drink out, and then resumed his composure. "You got it all wrong, I don't two-time. I haven't even had a girlfriend in a millennium" Even though it was a bit of an over exaggeration, it was not as much of a long shot as some might think. "I have had some issues with love since I lost someone a long time ago. I don't like to talk about it." Tally quickly realized that she overstepped her bounds because Masun's face turned from an expression of happiness to a serious expression. So she tried to switch her target. "U-um... I see, so the two-timer who has the girlfriends is him." Tally said, and pointed at Charles.

"Magi blood is particularly very succulent and sweet. I've heard that it is a delicacy among vampires, but since I have never really met any other vampires, I have no way to corroborate that. I can, however, say that I have had Mage blood, and it was the tastiest blood I have ever had." Masun paused and cracked a smile that bared his right extended canine tooth for dramatic effect. "I would never drink my comrades blood, though. So how about we get some drinks instead? I believe even though I arrived first I was actually second to go through the doors of this casino, so if I am not mistaken, it would be Auria. And since she is not old enough to buy alcoholic drinks, I suppose I could buy the round."

Masun saw Charles sit down next to him and listened to what he said. "Hmm..." Masun thought about it for a second. "I doubt she is anything. I've smelled her blood already, if she were a natural born mage, a vampire, a werewolf, a dragon, a ghoul, a demon, well pretty much anything I would tell immediately from the smell of her blood. She has normal smelling human blood." Masun replied. He took his flask out and opened the cap, knocking back a swig of alcohol.

"As Sam said, her name is Tally. She's the daughter of the owner of this Casino, and she takes her job as a bartender a bit too seriously." Masun replied to Charles, "You mentioned The Hunters? Did you have a run in with them or something? I was just about to explain about them, and was waiting until Auria arrived but since she's here I suppose I could start, but lets go in first, and grab a table for our group." Masun walked through the entrance of the casino. The Casino was a bit more than just a casino, as most casino's in vegas are. The casino was a hybrid beast, much like a mall. It had multiple levels with gambling on every floor. There were different restaurants, run by different businesses and chefs. There were family areas that kids could win tickets at arcades. There were souvenir shops, electronic stores, even vending machines that dispensed charging cords for various popular phone models. Choose your favorite sin, no doubt there was a way to purchase it at this Casino. Masun lived in Las Vegas for ten years, eight of them were spent living at this casino specifically. Masun knew this casino inside and out. The first floor, along with all the vibrant buzzing gambling machines, had an all-you-can-eat-buffet with a bar right next to it. Masun began walking to the buffet/bar area, when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in a mirror that was outside a sunglasses kiosk. He stopped and looked at himself, realizing, in a fully lit environment, it was easy to tell that he had red eyes. And red eyes are a specific trait of a vampire, something that would give Masun away in a heartbeat. Masun pulled out his wallet, but quickly remembered he had no money due to Area seizing his savings. There was a ATM nearby, so he decided to check and see if his account was still seized. Masun pulled out his metallic gold MasterCard, and swiped it in the ATM. Instead of rejecting his card information, which would have happened if his account was still blacklisted, it pulled up the prompt for his pin number. He quickly punched in his pin, 2-4-8-6, easy enough to remember, and simple to punch in if he was too drunk to work his motor-functions properly. The screen changed to an options screen that looked like: --Deposit (Check) --Withdraw --Check Balance --Español --Exit Masun selected check balance and was surprised with what he saw, he expected to see the $12,363 dollars he had in his account prior. What he saw instead was: --Current Ballance-- $262,363.00 Masun's eyes widened, it had been a while since he had that much money in his account, three years to be precise. Masun wondered if he was the only one that got compensated to this degree, or if everyone in his group had $200,000 beamed to their accounts overnight. Masun pushed the exit button and walked back over to the kiosk. The kiosk was a Sunglasses Hut Kiosk with a small selection of overpriced eyewear behind thick glass. A large black gentleman was standing with his arms crossed, behind the kiosk. Masun bent over and pointed at a random pair. It was a pair of Oakley: Oil Rig's, the man behind the kiosk withdrew from the cabinet. Masun didn't even bother trying them on, he got his total from the cash register, swiped his card, and placed the glasses over his eyes. After buying the glasses, Masun found a large enough table for them to all sit at, in the buffet area, and sat down at it. ((Picture of the Glasses Masun is wearing))

Masun busted up laughing as he realized what he must have sounded like when he arrived. "No, no, no. She's not the trash I took out. The thugs who were giving her trouble in the parking complex were." Masun replied. "Anyway, I didn't expect to run into you guys here, I thought it was just going to be Me, Sam, and Auria. Well, it's good you're all here, because there's a problem going on in L.A. and I need you all present to discuss this problem. We'll wait for Auria before I explain, though." "Hey, Masun, is it? I think i can walk the rest of the way by myself" Tally said as she let go of Masun. "Really? Well, wait up." Masun pulled out a matchbook from Rabbit's Foot out of his pocket, and a pen. He opened the matchbook and wrote his cellphone number in it. "If anyone from that gang gives you guys trouble again, call me up. I'll be there right away" Masun said, giving the book to Tally before she turned to walk away. "Sure thing. I'm not quite sure how you did what you did, but thank you for helping me." Tally replied before walking away.

Masun arrived at the Casino, as far as he could tell, before the others did. I wonder if I got here first or if they are inside. Should I just wait, or...? Masun thought. Masun's contemplation was interrupted by a scream coming from a nearby parking complex. Normally, Masun wouldn't think twice about a scream in Las Vegas at night time, but the scream sounded familiar. Masun ran quickly to the parking complex, and was now standing right outside of it. Again, he heard the familiar voice issue a panicked scream. With Masun's vampire senses still active, he could tell the sound was coming from the third floor of the concrete parking complex. Masun leaped in the air rising about thirty feet, and landed on the third floor's concrete guard wall. About ten yards from where Masun was standing, was two large men surrounding a small female. Masun recognized the woman, instantly. She had a few bruises on her face and her dark blue hair was disheveled, but it was definitely Tally, the bartender that took over for Jace. Masun adapted his ears to listen in on the conversation that they were having. "Alright, bitch. I don't care about your rules. There are new rules now. You listenin'?" The man who was speaking had dingy cornrows, not just on his head, but long cornrow facial hair as well. Masun thought it was a rhetorical question, and apparently so did Tally. But the man who gave it, obviously didn't intend it as rhetorical, because when she didn't answer, he slapped her with the backside of his hand as hard as he could. Tally's head whipped to the side with the impact of the slap, and a spray of her blood was realeased from her mouth. The normal person would not have noticed where the blood landed, just the initial mist when it was first released from her mouth. But Masun was a vampire, and the instant the blood was released, his pupils dilated and time seemed to slow down. He saw the spattering of blood particles in slow motion, and the specific areas of the blacktop the blood landed. Masun's instincts were now on overdrive as his nostrils flared to take in the sweet scent of the blood. "I-I'm listening." Tally said, weakly. "Good. Now, I don't care if your daddy owns this casino or not. And I don't care about how seriously you take this shitty job. But, when me, or anyone in The Hunters gang asks for a drink, you give it to him. You don't ask any of us to settle our tabs. You don't demand money from us. We graciously donate money to you when we feel like settling our debts. If you don't like it, tough. We're not very nice guys. So, are we going to continue having problems or are you going you and the rest of the bartenders on the other shifts going to give us drinks when we ask for them?" Mr. Cornrows asked. The Hunters? Shit, why are they in Vegas? Masun thought to himself. Masun had ran into a few Hunters in his time. They were expert oddity assassins. They all specialized in taking down common oddities, like Vampires, Werewolves, and Magi. "I'll let you and the rest of the gang you belong to drink for free..." The men began to laugh and highfive each other like a couple of children. "When hell freezes over" The other big man, who was fully bald, did not like that answer. He instant punched her in the forehead, which caused her head to whiplash back and forth. She was obviously knocked senseless by that punch as her had now hung downwards. She might have feel over, if they weren't pinning her to the back of a white van. The man with cornrows pulled out a knife, that Masun instantly identified as made of holy silver. The mere sight of it, hurt Masun, giving him headaches, making it hard to think. "If you want to die that badly, then be my guest." Cornrows said as he held the knife to her throat. "Oi!" Masun yelled at the men, now walking towards them. Masun had deactivated his vampire senses, so that his eyes were not glowing anymore. He did not want to let them know he was a vampire, he would have to kill them in that case, and that led to a whole slew of other problems. The Cornrows man turned his head towards Masun. "Keep moving, buddy, this doesn't concern you." "What doesn't concern me?" Masun asked. "I was just about to ask you two dapper gentleman why you both smell like fermented pig anuses. Your stench was assaulting my nostrils to such a degree that I was having a hard time walking straight. With stench like yours why do you fellows even need to drink booze at all? You guys could just sniff each others' fart boxes and get drunk from that." The man looked quizzically at his bald friend, who was obviously the smarter one. His friend muttered, "I think he is insulting us." "Hey pall. You got a death wish?" Cornrows asked, their attention now fully on Masun. They let go of Tally and were now turned facing Masun. Masun put his finger in his ear and twisted it. "Huh? I'm sorry I didn't catch that. Did you say something about dead fish? Is that why you guys smell so horrendous? Are you guys so desperate for a woman that you use dead fish for your pleasure instead?" "Alright that's it" The man with cornrows lunged at Masun stabbing from his waist at Masun's stomach with the Silver blade. Masun was now having an extremely hard time concentrating, but he knew that he needed to concentrate now more than ever. Masun side stepped the blade by moving his left foot forward from a neutral stance, and using his left hand to redirect the blade hand away from him. He then issued a quick backhand jab to the man's temple, with the force of an average human male. Now Masun stepped with his right foot, placing it behind the man's feet, in between his legs. Masun, then arced both his arms and struck both the man's solar plexus and the small of his back simultaneously. Then Masun swept his right arm up from the solar plexus up to the man's neck pulling him over Masun's right leg, taking him down to the ground. From that position, Masun issued a swift stomp to the man's head and he was out like a light. All this happened within a split second. The bald man watched this transpire, and his expression went from anger to fear as quickly as Cornrows was taken down. "So, are you going to run, or do I need to take you down as well?" Masun asked. The bald man wasted no time in running. "Tell your boss that this casino is under the protection of Masun Murray. He won't know who I am, but if any of you fuckheads mess with Rabbit's Foot again, he will." Masun yelled after the man. Masun walked over to Tally who was leaning over, holding her head in pain. "If you think this will get you free drinks, you're wrong" Tally said in a weak voice. She looked up at Masun with a smile "But thank you anyway" "Hey, don't talk now. Save your energy." Masun said, pulling her arm over his shoulders to help prop her up so that they could start walking. It took them a couple of minutes to walk back down to the street. He was walking her towards the casino, since that was where she worked and the place her father owned as well, when he noticed that Sam was there already. He began to walk towards the group of Sam, Franky, and Charles. He was about ten feet from them when he yelled out "Technically I was here first, but there was a problem" Masun pointed to the dark blue haired, small framed, gothic looking woman. He got within talking distance and said, "I had to take the trash out."

Masun watched as Auria ran to the elevator to get a head start, or so she thought. Masun looked up at the ceiling which was ten feet above. Masun concentrated on the portion of ceiling right above his head, and then with his vampire strength, he leaped. Right before his head would have impacted in the ceiling, he concentrated, shadow morphing through the solid ceiling, moving through it as if it were a liquid. Masun continued to rise through floor after floor until he rose right out of the shack where he got his ID card. Masun didn't see Auria quite yet, so he landed on the ground and began to do leg stretches. Masun closed his eyes, activating his vampiric senses. When he opened his eyes again, they were now glowing. Feeling the power coursing through him, he began to run as fast as he could in the direction that was Las Vegas, averaging a speed of 400 miles per hour. If Masun was correct, it should only take him about 18 minutes to get there.

Masun watched Auria leave and come back. Since Masun's casino suit wasn't clean, he just decided he would wear the clothes he was wearing now, his officer suit. "I suppose the starting point should just be this lobby, then. First one there gets to choose what drink the last one buys everyone. Sound fair?" Masun asked.

"I think the idea sounds good. But if Sam can't get there, then we would be excluding her, which wouldn't be fair. But then again, we could look at this as a chance for her to try and further develop her powers. If she can't teleport, then she would need to find a different spell to help her out. Well, if we do this, the finish line is the entrance to the Rabbit's Foot Casino." Masun said.

The first place Masun had in mind was the Rabbit's Foot casino that he used to spend all his time at before Felecia approached him and "convinced" him to join Area 51. Hmm, there is no way for me to know exactly how old Auria is, and I doubt Sam wants to spend time at a casino, Masun thought. "Well, to tell the truth, I only really spent all my time in casinos, so unless you are interested in a good Mojito and some Blackjack, I'm all out of ideas. I don't have a car, though, and I doubt ol' Director Blackmail has cars at the ready to send us out whenever we want. I assume if we want a ride, we would have to schedule it with her or something," Masun said, thinking out loud. "I believe Vegas is about 70 miles away. I could get there on foot in 20 minutes myself, and if I were to fly there it would probably take me longer considering I am not that great at flying, and not that I doubt my strength at all, but I don't know if I could carry two people. So, hopefully you guys have an idea, because I am out of them."

Masun saw Charles approach and listened to what he had to say. Masun figured that he would be put in the new group, which was their group. Not much was disclosed to Masun about any of the other field agents and Agent units, but Masun had seen some random agents walking around the facility that he didn't recognize, so he assumed there were plenty of other units than theirs. Taking that into consideration, the group name should be something that incorperates the general theme of the group as a whole Masun thought. Masun turned to Aria, "Well, I can't think of any names for our group at the moment, so I suppose if we did something else something might come to me. Sure, I'll go with you. What did you have in mind?" Masun asked, hoping it was a place that served alcohol of some kind. Even if the place didn't he would just bring his flask anyhow.

"Well I'm glad you said that you like playing investigator, because as luck may have it, I am assigning him to your guys' unit. As far as we can tell, he is a natural immortal. He is not a vampire, zombie, ghoul, demon, half-demon, angel, nor any manner of oddity that we have in our files. He is a completely new discovery." Felicia explained, "I want you to notify Masun about Franky's addition to your team, and also tell him to expedite the consensus on your unit's title, I don't want to have to refer to you as a number in board meetings any longer. Might I suggest you go with something easy? Like The Shadow Hunters, or Abyssal Assault? Something cool and edgy." Felicia took a sip of her coffee that was in a white mug with her name emblazoned on the side. "If that'll be all, I have some light reading to do. Thanks for stopping by" Felicia said with a smile. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I don't know what to think of Franky. As I said last night, my Vampire sense detected that he is deffinitely not human in the sense that I could suck his blood. It felt like he was running on energy that was completely different from that of any oddity or human I have ever encountered. Almost like he had some sort of internal battery running his body. As for fighting him, I doubt we will ever fight him as an enemy, I am pretty sure he is on our side, but I wouldn't mind sparring with him to test his abilities." Masun replied.

Felicia retrieved the paper and placed it back into the file. There is no doubt that he saw what was on the paper, but there wasn't anything too important on it "Something interesting indeed." Felicia replied. "I am sure you have at least seen him. The large dark skinned, long haired fellow? We have in our midst a naturally created immortal, something that was not created through a curse of some sort. An oddity created by chance. Isn't that exciting?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Sorry, man. I don't know anything about you. But, fuck, man. Put some clothes on" Masun replied.

I see, he doesn't even realize his demonic vampire energy is the thing that cursed his weapons, does he? Felicia thought to herself as she read the document she had in her hand. Felicia was in the middle of reading classified information from Masun's file when she heard a knock on the door. She tried to quickly put all of the papers she had spread out on her desk back into the file, but, without realizing it, a paper with Masun's various alias's including the Kanji, HIragana, and Romanji spellings fell on the floor in front of the door. "Come in, It's open!" She yelled to the door -------------------------------------------------- Masun was looking at the television, but wasn't really watching the program. It was just some sensationalized propaganda about how tensions were rising in the middle east. Being the position Masun, and well, everyone else in this entire facility was in, he knew long ago that nothing made public could ever be trusted at face value. As he continued to stare blankly at the hanging flat screen, he reached for his drink and took a sip. He didn't notice Auria approach until she had spoken. Masun broke eye contact with the television and looked over at a pajama clad Auria. "Ohaiyo gozaimasu, Auria-chan." Masun said with a smile. Masun looked over at Franky and Sam, he noticed that they had been deep in conversation as he was just sitting there staring blankly at the tv. "Area, an acronym that stands for Anonymous Reserved Esoteric Agency. Area facilities are state of the art agencies that deal solely with supernatural entities, or as they like to call us, 'Oddities' if you are here, you are either an Oddity or very well versed in Oddity culture, like Charles who hunts Oddities." Masun explained to the newcomer. "My name's Masun, by the way."

Looking at the time, Masun noted that it was 5:21 A.M. before everyone had called it a night. Masun lumbered back to his room, noticing that he had drank way more than he could handle, even according to vampire standards. He opened his room and staggered in, flopping on the bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes. The whole world was spinning, and it felt to Masun as if he were on a small boat in the middle of a stormy sea, tossing and turning to the waves. And with every wave a dizziness he felt, a wave of nausea slowly built up as well. Masun thought for sure he was going to vomit, but he thought that if he moved it would only compound the nausea. so he laid there on his stomach, with his eyes closed, riding the sea of drunkenness. Masun was suddenly on top of a rocky cliff, in mountains that he didn't recognize. But he had been around Mount Fuji enough to recognize a volcano when he saw one. Even without the copious amounts of smoke cascading into the sky every second, the terrain was jagged glasslike rock with only very few smooth places to step. Forty to fifty feet ahead of Masun, towards the edge of the cliff, was the form of a person Masun instantly knew, even with their backs turned to him. Masun began running towards this feminine form that was standing on the edge of the cliff looking down into the volcano. Masun knew what was going to happen next, and he was running as fast as he could to prevent it, but it seemed that no matter how many steps he took, he never got any closer to the person. It felt as if Masun was stuck on a conveyor belt, and the harder he tried to get to the edge of the cliff, the further away he got from it. Finally he began to make progress, and was only ten feet from the cliff, but it was too late. The woman jumped off into the volcano. Masun used his vampire agility to get to the edge within a nanosecond of the female jumping. He reached out his hand and was able to grab the hand of the woman who jumped. He looked down to see Haruki's familiar smiling face looking up at him. She was mouthing something as if to speak, but the ambient noise of the volcano instantly rose to a large rumbling roar, snuffing out any sound. She continued to mouth something but it wasn't becoming any clearer. Masun should have been able to instantly pull Haruki up with his vampire strength, but for whatever reason he felt drained, it was the same feeling as when it was daylight out. Masun felt powerless, and to make matters worse, his grip on her hand was slipping. Haruki continued to mouth what she was mouthing, and Masun still could not hear what she was saying. Her hand was slipping centimeter by centimeter, from his grip until it was only his finger tips on her finger tips. "Tebanasu" All of the ambient noise stood still, and he finally could hear Haruki, even though it was her normal soft voice. She continued to look upwards at him with smile full of love and understanding. She repeated herself again "Tebanasu" She wasn't exclaiming it, she was saying it like she normally spoke, in a soft, endearing voice. I don't want to let you go, you are the only one I truly loved. I can never love another. Masun wanted to reply but his words stuck in his throat. All he could do is lay there with his moth agape, attempting to form a sentence but not even coming close to forming a single word. "Tebanasu" She said one more time locking eyes with Masun, before extending her fingers forward, releasing the grip she had on Masun's hand. Masun could do nothing but watch as she fell hundreds of feet into the glowing bottom of the volcano. A knock sounded on Masun's door that opened his eyes which were streamed with tears. "Wake up, Masun. You have been asleep for 12 hours" Felicia's voice said from beyond the door. The first thing he noticed was that he had a wicked hangover, the second thing was the time 5:29, the third thing he noticed was that he had been crying. "Bullshit" Masun said, angrily, wiping the tears from his cheeks. "It has only been eight minutes" "That's P.M. on the clock not A.M. Your digital clocks in your rooms aren't military standard, they are A.M. P.M. clocks" Felicia replied. "if you don't wake up within the next 20 minutes, I am sending someone in your room to wake you up" And with that she was gone. Masun flipped over onto his back and sat upright. His head feeling the sensitivity that only a hangover could induce. Every little movement, every little sound, sent waves of pain through Masun's head. Masun walked over to the bathroom and flipped the light on, which sent another wave of pain through his head. He opened the cabinet where he stored the blood packs, and retrieved a pack from it. Masun used his teeth to rip off the two small cap tubes that are on the pack so an IV needle could be inserted. Masun drained the pack within seconds, and instantly he felt reinvigorated. The hangover left him, his eyes glowed with more intensity, and he no longer felt hungry. Masun was surprised how much blood he had been drinking lately. He normally would only need a few pints of blood every two days, but he had just had two pints within a twenty-four hour period, on top of some blood he drank from a girl he brought back to his hotel room the night before that. Masun chalked it up to him not having had any blood for a few weeks before he drank the blood of that girl in his hotel room, and the fact that he was forced to regenerate due to the fight he had with Auria. Masun stripped off the clothes that he was still wearing (the Air Force Officer uniform) and tossed it into the hamper that was in the corner of the bathroom. He also stripped off his boxers and tossed them in as well. He walked back into the main part of his room, nude, and retrieved another Air Force Officer uniform that was hanging in the closet. Masun went back to the bathroom, and hung the new uniform on the inside of the bathroom door which had clothes rack bar on the top of it. He closed the door, and stepped inside the shower and turned on the water. He stood at the edge of the shower not fully committing to the water until it reached a warm enough temperature, and then he stood completely inside the shower stream. It only took about 10 minutes for Masun to shower and get dressed. He was staring in the mirror, with a comb in his hand, attempting to brush his shaggy unruly hair. Nothing that he did looked natural to him, so he just ended up shaking his head back into its natural wild, shaggy state. Masun opened the refrigerator and filled up his flask with more rum, and then placed his flask on his inside pocket. He then opened a cabinet that had glassware inside, and grabbed a tall glass. He had all the ingredients to make a Long Island Iced Tea except the coca-cola. He made it anyway, without the coca-cola, and then exited his room. Masun made it out to the lounge area where he found a soda fountain. He placed his Long Island Iced Tea under the coca-cola tab, and pushed the glass into the cola fountain lever that promptly dispensed the sweet liquid. The glass was about three-fifths full of alcohol before he placed the glass under the fountain, which he topped the glass off with. Masun grabbed a straw next to the fountain, and stirred the drink up so all the liquids blended together. Masun made his way to the couches and sat down, picking up the remote to the TV and flipping to morning news.

"Hmm. Yup, that was definitely an oddity of some kind. He wasn't human, that's for sure. His circulatory system was normal in his arms and legs but as the veins got closer to his center mass, there was some sort of energy that was distorting my vampiric sense." Masun replied. "I have never encountered anything like that before."

Masun appreciated what Sam was trying to do for him, but it wasn't necessary. "My sword is fine, I just shattered the whetstone that I was sharpening it with, that's all." Masun said, with a sigh. "And since I don't believe in a god, I guess that would mean no one is sober, right?" Masun took a swig from his flask. He extended his hand and summoned his blade once more and held it by the scabbard out in front of him showing everyone in the group. "This is my blade, Haruki, but it wasn't always mine even though I was the one who forged it about 700 years ago. I used to run a smithy in a little village of Izu. I spent all of my time at my smithy, I was a master at black smithing, so I was spending the majority of my time perfecting my craft. You can imagine that living the way I did, I didn't interact with very many people, let alone females." Masun took a moment to sip from his flask "But there was one, she was the daughter of the Master of Izu's Kenjutsu dojo. Every so often her father would send her down to do business with me. She would come down to my shop and either request repairs for some chipped katana, or buy full swords that I had crafted. The first time our eyes greeted each other's I knew I was feeling love." Again he sipped more rum from his flask "I noticed as often as she came down, she didn't have a sword of her own. She talked about her father's dojo often, but never spoke about training herself. So I brought it up to her one day, she said that her father refused to train her because she was a female, and the dojo was no place for a woman. You might have noticed her name was Haruki, believe it or not, that is a male name. Haruhi is the female form of Haruki. She said that her father wanted a boy and was very disappointed that he got a girl. But she said that even though he never taught her, during the night she would sometimes slip out of the house and train with one of the swords they had on their wall in the dojo. But she said that she stopped doing that because her father had caught her during one of these late night training session, and beat her." Masun paused to clear his throat. "So one day, I had the idea to forge her a katana as a gift, and I would give it to her as a proposal gift. I finished it that night, and was going to give it to her the next day, but I didn't expect what happened the next day to happen. You see, during this time, the emperor of Japan had just recently been overthrown. The previous emperor was not a bad emperor, in fact he was revered for his benevolence. Some saw this as a weakness and overthrew his empire, and took it over for themselves. The new emperor was a megalomaniac, and began to build up a large standing army. The emperor knew about my forge, and how high quality my blades were and sent a few samurai to my shop to try and convince me to only forge swords for his empire. I refused. Fast forward to the day after I finished the blade that I am holding in my hands right now. This was probably a month or two after I refused to forge exclusively for the emperor. Haruki shows up at my smithy, which is actually where I lived, very early in the morning. She tells me that my parents have been executed by the emperor as a show of force to those who dare oppose the new empire. I flew into a rage, and became consumed with revenge. The next evening I was drunk on sake, and decided to go for a walk. I ended up at this shrine in the mountains. I was so desperate that I prayed to the shrine for revenge. Instead of being answered by a god, I was answered by a ronin who lived up at that shrine. The ronin told me he could give me the power for revenge, all I would need to do is be turned into a vampire by him. I was so consumed by rage and revenge, that I didn't even hesitate. After the ceremony, I blacked out, and woke up, maybe the next day, maybe a week from when it happened. All I know is that it was a full moon when I woke again. I could feel the vampiric energy flowing through me. So I ran with supernatural speed back to my smithy looking for a sword I could use to exact my revenge. Because I want to spend time making a new blade, I grabbed the one I made for Haruki. I sieged the castle, and slew the emperor and all of the forces who didn't immediately surrender, which was most of them. I found the previous emperor in the dungeon and released him that he be reinstated as the emperor. It was still night time when I made it back to my place. I was cleaning the blade of the blood when Haruki showed up. She confessed she had feelings for me, and I showed her the blade that I made for her and told her it was to propose to her. She immediately accepted, and we spent the night together. It was early morning when I woke to the sound of an intruder downstairs in the smithy part of my house. I told Haruki to stay in bed and I went to investigate. It was the ronin who made me a vampire. I asked him what he was doing in my house and he laughed and said 'I have allowed you your vengeance, but now your life is mine, as you shall forever be my servant. You will forge blades for me and only me, and I will rule Japan for all eternity.' When I refused, the power of the Master/Servant contract that is formed when a vampire makes another vampire caused me intense pain. Haruki heard my cry out and came downstairs with her katana. The ronin disarmed her and gave the katana to me. He told me to kill her, and when I refused I fell to my knees in pain. Haruki realized what was happening, and to save me from the pain she grabbed the tip of the sword and ran herself through on it. With her dying breath she told me that she just wanted to see the sunrise one time with me by her side. I slid open the rice paper door right as the sun began rising and she died in my arms. The ronin was behind us, watching the whole thing with a sadistic expression. I pulled the katana from Haruki and ran at the ronin. He tried to command me to stop, but the sunlight that was flooding in from the open door weakened us. This caught him off guard and I slew him right then and there. I named this blade after her and have carried it with me through the ages." Masun finished the story and took a big gulp out of his flask, finishing the run that was in his flask as well. Masun released the Haruki and the blade dissipated. Masun hovered his hand over the cleaning supplies he brought with him that were resting on the coffee table. Shadows began to weave themselves into around the supplies, forming a shadow bag again. He picked up the bag of supplies and placed them on the couch next to him. "So there you have it, Charles. That is the only time I have felt love before. I have had plenty of one night stands since then. It's an excellent way to get blood from sleeping women. Being a vampire has its perks, I can't get human diseases. So sexual promiscuity isn't a problem for me." Masun ended.

The whetstone glided over the edge of the blade, as if to attempt to hone its already perfect edge. Masun began to get in a rhythm with the stone, speeding up ever so slightly every time relationships were mentioned. Finally, Charles asked Masun the question about relationships, and Masun was starting to go so fast that the stone began smoking, until the stone shattered under the strength of Masun's grip, and he ended up cutting his hand to the bone across the palm because the stone was no longer there. "ITAI!" Masun exclaimed, withdrawing his hand to examine it. The cut was so deep that a few of the drops of blood managed to make it on the coffee table, despite the blood that was still on his hand receding back into the cut due to his healing factor. Masun took a few of the cleaning cloths and cleaned up the small puddle of blood, balling up the tissues and leaving them on the corner of the table. Masun realized that the whole room was looking at him now, waiting for his response. "I- Uh. I'd rather not talk about that subject" Masun replied as he began to reconstruct his sword, placing the tang through the tsuba and then the tang into the hilt. He then put the pins back into the hilt which went through the holes in the wood and the tang in the metal underneath to bind the hilt to the blade. He then placed the sword back into it's sheath which then immediately dematerialized into black smoke.

Masun's head was spinning, and even though it was partially due to the half bottle of whiskey he downed, it was also because of all the memories he had kept buried coming up to the surface. Masun barely heard Auria because of how dazed he was, but after about thirty seconds he replied with, "Ee... Genki desu." He took another swig of his whiskey before placing it back into his back. He then placed a hand on Auria's head and said, "Oyasumi nasai" as he patted her head. He then turned and walked out of her room. He walked down the hall, and into the hallway of the male wing, and found his room, the one without a name placard because he took it off. He opened his door and placed his shadow satchel on his bed. He noticed the mini-fridge, and opened it to reveal various IV bags of different blood types. Masun took them all out and placed them on his bed, and then grabbed the liquor and placed it in the blood's stead. Cold blood is disgusting anyway. He thought as he searched for a place to put the IV packs. He found a few cabinets inside the bathroom that were empty and placed them in there. He kept one pack for himself and walked back to his bed, and sat down. Masun opened his mouth, his canines extended to three times their normal size, and he bit into the plastic, using his straw-like canines to suck the blood out of the pack. What most people didn't consider about vampires is that their oral anatomy was different from a humans. A vampire's straw-like hallow canines were connected to two tunnels that run up through the gums and up to the roof of the mouth, so that the blood could be sucked up through the teeth and deposited into the mouth where it could be swallowed. Immediately the sweet taste of blood filled Masun's mouth, and he graciously gulped it down. Even though it was cold, it had been a while since he had a full meal, so this blood was extra good to him. Masun drained the blood pack and tossed the empty plastic into the trash. Masun walked back into his bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet, there was some rubbing alcohol, some baby oil for the skin, some cotton balls and swabs, some unopened tooth brushes, and some cleaning wipes. He grabbed the cleaning wipes, the baby oil, and the cotton balls, activated his power to consume them in a shadowy cloth, and draped it over his shoulder. He reached into his coat pocket, and grabbed his empty flask, filled it back up with rum, and walked out the the lounge. He placed the satchel on a coffee table in front of a leather sofa. The satchel disapaited into shadowy wisps leaving behind the items that were in it. He then extended his hand, summoning his sword Haruki, and quickly disassembled it. Taking out the pins from the handle, he was able to take off the handle, the tsuba and the cap from the bottom of the handle, leaving only the blade and the blade's tang. The blade's tang had an engraving on it which was the kanji of Masun's old name Muramasa 村正 He opened the cleaning wipes, which were wet with a cleaning solution, and carefully and quickly rubbed down his blade. He then took the cotton swabs and drenched them in oil, dabbing the blade down with oil. Masun then pulled out a whetstone and began sharpening out any imperfections. There weren't any imperfections, there never were, the mixture of the original craftsmanship, which gave the blade its mirror sheen, and the magic which made the blade bound to him, made the blade almost indestructible. But blade maintenance was always a sort of meditation for Masun, and it kept his mind from wandering.