How does one walk your pet vampire out in the middle of the day?
That's a trick question, see, you don't.
Instead, you carry him around in a cardboard box over your shoulder.
No, the looks of other people as you do this don't matter.
They especially don't matter when the box occasionally shrieks, cries out, almost falls out, or complains when someone looks at it.
Honestly, I'm kind of shocked Gasper is even looking out through the eye-sized holes I punched in the sides right now.
Those were for later, admittedly, not this.
"F-Fuueee…everything in here…so cuuute…" Gasper partly whines, partly gasps in awe.
All around us? Outfits. Mostly, girls' outfits. From originals, like maids and noble ladies, to outright cosplays of anime characters.
My smile twitches as I stand before the sales clerk behind the desk.
She doesn't even so much as twitch at a voice coming out from the box.
I wouldn't dare peek into her mind, considering this is one of the few shops in Kuoh that sells costumes for cosplay and such…
Who knows what kind of horrors she's seen?
"Thank you for your patronage~!" The clerk bows, smile ever-present, as soon as my payment goes through with a satisfying anime-esque ring, "We hope you have a wonderful day~!"
"Thank you for the wonderful service." I bow, gratefully, matching her angle right back with utmost respect.
"Wry!?" Thunk. Gasper slides down and hits the bottom of the box.
Once again, not even a flinch from her.
I wish I could tip this girl, but that'd be an insult, so the respectful bow will have to do.
I rise to my full height, nod, and grab my bags before walking out the door with a pleased grin.
As soon as we left through the doors, Gasper let out a sad groan…and then immediately shrieked again, as a pair of girls walked past us and into the store.
"Fuueeeee! They looked at m-m-meeee!" He cries, and I could feel him curl up in the box as a result.
They didn't look at him, of course, they glanced at me as they walked past because I, a handsome young man, walked out of practically a cosplay fetish store with a cardboard box and several bags.
It's not even just them; people just casually walking by can't help but glance and immediately avert their eyes anywhere else, sometimes whispering to whoever they're with.
Nice thing about Japan is that, sure, you'll be judged for walking around like this. It just won't be out in the open, usually.
Then again, I couldn't care either way. I was just taking care of some chores before I take Gasper out for a very enthusiastic walk.
Speaking of!
I hum in thought for a second, before nodding to myself, "Yeah, that should be everything. Let's head back."
The box suddenly jerks, as the vampire inside perks up, "R-Really!?" The half vampire inside cries out with hope, "Can I f-f-finally go back to P-President Rias and the o-others…?"
"No." I shot him down, instantly, before I started walking in the complete opposite direction of Kuoh Academy.
"Fuuueeeeeeee!" He cries out, immediately jerking the box as he curled up on himself again, "W-Why!?"
"Because I haven't even gotten you yet." I answer, plainly, holding up the bags a bit, "These were just errands I had to run."
For once, Gasper was blessedly silent.
Then, he asked, slowly, "...w-what kind of errands need several maid outfits, kimonos, and other cute but rather, um, r-risque, outfits?"
"Stuff," I explain eloquently, only to receive a rather frustrated cry in return.
Rude.
But, well, there are some things even I won't say out in public.
Like how one of these maid costumes is for a certain junior brat roleplaying a butler to the shrimp.
And the rest are for my girls. Look, I couldn't really resist. When I was looking around for the proper sizes, I saw a bunch of other outfits, and I couldn't help looking at them and going, 'You know, that would look great on Kunou,' and such.
"...It's hopeless, you know." Gasper finally manages a complete sentence, much to my shock, albeit in a completely depressed tone, "There's only a few days left before, and I…" he starts choking up, "t-this didn't even have anything to do with me, but I still…"
He trailed off into small, choked whimpering.
Now, the people who passed us by looked more concerned than anything.
I sighed and patted the box.
He is right, of course.
See, Gasper's issues are far beyond something like Akeno or Yuuto's extremely borderline obsessive hatreds. You can't fix his issues with a slap, with sheer and utter brute force.
Oho, I wish it were that easy. Carry him around outside the box, suppress his gear the entire time, and make him get used to it.
Basically, sink or swim.
Funny enough, that's exactly what Shirone suggested.
I decided to let him keep his box in the end.
For right now, the fact he's outside is what matters most. I considered things like a paper bag and such, too, but, eh.
Maybe he can use that little trick by the time of the Rating Game, if it's absolutely needed.
In any event, I don't expect him to be one hundred percent 'normal' by the time the rematch occurs anyway.
That's plain unrealistic, especially for me. I'm no therapist. Certainly not Issei, I can't really connect with Gasper like the pervert miraculously did.
I guess I could maybe see Gasper looking up to me? Eh, wouldn't be the greatest role model, considering what I'm about to do.
But Rias is paying well.
See, I can't fix Gasper, or get him into a truly workable state in a few days.
But. I know someone who can.
So I shrug, Gasper yelping as the box does a tiny jump, "Eh, I wouldn't worry about it."
"D-D-Don't worry about it!?" Gasper sputters, his eye damn near bulging out of a hole in the box as he looks at me, "H-How!? W-Why! W-What are you planning to do to me!?"
I really don't like the way he said that.
"Stop talking like a maiden, I'm not going to do anything to you." I huff out with a roll of my eyes.
I can feel the relief roll off him in waves as he settles in the box.
"I am going to take you to Romania, though." I then add, completely nonchalant, causes the smallest squeak I've ever heard to radiate through one of the tiny box holes, as Gasper abruptly jerked still, "Yup. We're gonna head to your old stomping ground, and then I-"
"F-FFUUUUUEEEEEEEEE!" Gasper, not so surprisingly, screeches.
My hand clamps down on the lids of the box, as they begin rumbling desperately, a rare moment of Gasper trying to leave the box for once.
"No! N-NO! YOU CAN'T MAAKKEEEE MEEEEE! PLEASE DON'T MAIL ME BAACCCCKKKK THEREEEEEEE!"
Every which way, the cardboard box started jerking, as though he was trying to break out of it.
I stared blankly as he completely failed to even make a dent in the cardboard.
I…don't know if he just forgot that he can tear cardboard easily, or if this specific box he made is just somehow especially durable.
But even discounting all that, he can turn into bats. Into mist. A bunch of stuff that would make escape very easy.
The fact that his fight or flight doesn't even realize this is slightly worrying.
Also, holy hell, the lungs on this guy.
It's a testament to everyone else around me that, even with what sounds like a little girl in a cardboard box on my shoulder, nobody even so much as opens their mouth or gives me a second glance.
I stop.
Wait a minute. That's actually really bad, isn't it?
I continue walking with that souring realization in mind, shaking the box as I do, replacing Gasper's screams of begging not to get mailed with pleas for mercy, or else he'll get sick.
He doesn't receive such until we make it to our destination, the Junior High Division of Kuoh!
I'm just going to store my legally begotten goods in the club storage area for now. After I'm done with the cardboard box vampire here, I'm going to be heading to visit Sword Cult anyway.
"U-Uwwaahhhgg…sun god senpai is mean…" Gasper drolls out, in a daze, once the shaking stops.
"I can get meaner if you call me that again," I state, drawing another whimper from the poor vampire trap.
…I feel like I'm going to need Holy Water after all this, what the fuck has my inner monologue been lately!?
"Now, Gasper," I continue, "vampire territory. Where exactly is it? I know it's in the mountains of Romania somewhere, but I need specifics."
"...I, I don't wanna say, I don't wanna go ba-"
"You wanna see me save Valerie or not?" I interrupt him, casually.
That made Gasper go a different kind of silent.
"...Y, you, how, w-why…?" He barely managed to eke out, through the sheer tempest of emotions I could hear in the back of his throat.
Confusion. Hope. Sadness. Anger. One terrible cocktail, I can tell he has no idea how to let out.
I can bullshit answers to his questions; it's not hard, but I'd really rather not.
Instead, I go straight to the point, answering earnestly, "Because I can't fix you, Gasper. Or, rather, I guess the proper term would be help you. You've got issues I can help you through, I know that."
"T-Then-"
"But it's not hopeless." I interject before he can go into a self-deprecating spiral, "Never hopeless. I'm man enough to admit that my usual methods wouldn't work on you; they'd just make your issues work, and I'm also self-aware enough to know that I can't go about this how I should, because I don't care enough about you in that way to consider it worth the effort. So, instead?"
I look at the box and give it a smirk, "I'm pawning you off to your old friend, while I reap all the rewards. Pretty sweet, eh?"
Silence.
Then, a chuckle. A small, nearly self-depricating chuckle. But at the same time, for once, Gasper didn't choke or sputter at all, despite the emotion.
"...If I can get Valerie back, sure. I guess it is a pretty sweet deal, sun senpai." He states, voice low, but light. Almost warm. "B-But," uncertainty dips back into his voice, "the King, he and his sons aren't weak, are you sure it'll be fine?" Gasper asks, his voice smaller.
"To be honest," I begin with a small hum, "I was planning on just kinda, wiping out all the vampire royalty while there," I admit, as if that answers his question. "Tepes. Carmillia. The branch houses. All of them."
"W-Wh-WHA!?" Gasper sputters, "Sun senpai! That! You c-can't!"
"Why?" My eyebrow raises, "No, seriously, why? Who's gonna stop me?"
"U-Uhm…" I can practically feel Gasper biting his lip in the box.
When he doesn't answer promptly, I add, "They have no supporters. No allies. They don't do business with other factions. They look down on literally everyone to the point that everyone legitimately hates them. They're basically a condensed block of blood parasites that no one has really felt the need to burn down yet, despite the fact they're pretty much asking for it."
Seriously, is that not insanity? The vampires have no worth; they mock and look down upon everyone, and they still haven't reached the 'find out' stage of existence yet.
Well, to be fair, the Church probably would have shown them that by now if they knew where the vampire territories are located.
Or rather were.
Because I'm coming!
"T-That, I mean…" Gasper sighs, "You're not really wrong, I g-guess, sun senpai, but hearing it kind of hurts…"
I snort, "Don't compare yourself to them. At least you run a very successful business online, from what I heard. That single act alone puts you so far above them it's crazy."
Yeah, isn't that insane? The literal dhamphir, too afraid to go outside and talk to people, is somehow more employed than the entirety of the vampire race.
Wild.
"Y-You heard about that!?" Gasper squeaks, and I feel the box wriggle at that, for some reason.
Okay, weird vibes now. Moving on!
"So, vampire territory?" I quickly bring it back up.
That gets Gasper to, thankfully, stop with a sigh, "...I-I'm still not so sure about this, but," he trailed off for a moment, waring with himself, "okay, let's do it, t-then. It's crazy, but if the President trusts you, I g-guess I will too?"
He didn't sound so sure about that.
Surely, this'll cheer him up.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I did beat a primordial god in one-on-one combat." I give him.
It took him a minute.
"...y-you dID WHAA-"
~ A New Sun ~
Romania.
Or at least, I think this is Romania?
It should've been like going back in time, considering Romania is several hours behind Japan.
Instead, all I see are gray clouds, cold, sludgy rain, and chilly winds.
Sometimes, there's a little snow if it gets cold enough.
Which sucks, because underneath it are surprisingly good-looking rolling hills, idyllic little trees scattered everywhere, with the mountains looming gloriously overhead.
It could almost look like a perfect fantasy destination!
Instead, it looks like we ended up in an average day in England. Maybe we over shot it?
What doesn't help is that I used Maps to guide our flight here, but it kept getting pissy because I was apparently 'going too fast.'
The fuck did it think I was? A missile!?
Then I lost service halfway across the waters, really, it's a wonder I got as far as I did to begin with.
"... I-is it over yet? Are we there?" Gasper asked, in his surprisingly still dry cardboard box, dazed and almost tipsy-sounding.
"I uh, think so?" I answer, damn near as questioning as Gasper himself, "Could've sworn we passed through Greece on the way here, thought I saw a horde of minotaurs stampeding around…"
Someone really should take care of that; it did not look safe.
The top of Gasper's head poked out of the box, and he looked around.
"...u-um, when I was with Valerie, we didn't really go out much." Gasper begins to explain, "I only learned of the exact location of where we were from the President, after the fact. So…"
"None of this rings a bell to you, huh?" I get to the point of what he's trying to say.
"S-Sorry…" He slides back into the box, slightly. I see him start to shiver as well.
Man, what is this box made out of?
I wave him off, "Don't worry about it. Let's do this, then…" I form a single sign with my hand.
Clouds seem to explode into being around us, several dozens of times over.
"Weh!?" Gasper cries out, falling completely back into the box.
Before us? Now stands a whole horde of clones.
Very weak clones, but that's alright, they aren't meant to fight. Just learn about where we are, and where we possibly can go next.
I wave my hand out to them, "Go, commit- er, wait, don't commit crimes. Find out where we are!"
They all salute before letting out a shout, "HAI!"
In moments, they all vanished, having scattered off in random directions.
"...duplication magic?" Gasper asks, his eyes poking out again.
"You could say that," I smirk in response.
I considered trying to find a tree or something to take shelter from some of this rain, but ultimately, it was only mildly annoying. I couldn't feel the cold anyway.
Besides, my clones do fast work.
And by that, I mean they immediately found several villages, sneakily invaded a bunch of homes, and found maps and phones to figure out where the hell we are.
A bunch popped, all at once, causing me to stare off into the distance with a blank look.
So we are in Romania. Thing is? Romania is huge, and we're just at the border, having only barely crossed into it.
I tilted my head, considering our options, before shrugging and forcibly returning all the clones.
With another hand sign, I made a fresh batch.
"Up high, focus purely on sensing." I pat Gasper's box, "Anything feels like him, you nab it. If it feels holy, you pop immediately, got it?"
"HAI!" They all scatter again, but this time spreading out like a wave, soaring across the sky.
Considering the current lack of the sun, I wonder, just how many vampires are running out and about right now?
It wouldn't hurt if, say, a few of them got caught and interrogated a few of them thoroughly, no?
Yeah, I'm sure they won't be missed…
"W-Wuhh…" Gasper quivered, "Sun senpai looks l-like he's planning something vile…"
I immediately turn toward him, "Stop! Saying stuff like that! In that voice!"
"S-Soorrryyyyyieeee!"
~ A New Sun ~
Marius Tepes slammed the heavy wooden door behind him, the crashing echo of wood and metal crashing causing the guards and maids in his immediate vicinity to flinch and hurry about quickly.
They know not to be around the Tepes Prince when he's like this; by now, they all know why.
"Again…!" Marius seethes, raking his fingers through his platinum hair as he slams his back into the door, his ruby red eyes looking down, shaking and bloodshot, "Another! Failure! Again!?"
Ever since he had started researching his repugnant half-breed sister's sacred gear, it's felt like it's all been for nothing!
Every test brings no results. It's always the same. That same stupid white liquid from those cups, what's the bloody point!?
All it does is heal scrapes! It's useless! Surely, the fabled Holy Grail can do more than that, no!?
So why? WHY!? Does it feel like he's going nowhere!?
He's tried everything at this point! But the girl can't make anything else, and it's always the same!
Is he missing something? A resource, a knowledge, he lacks? There has to be, right? RIGHT!?
He sneers, his teeth gritting as anger shakes his arms.
This was originally supposed to be covert. This is his project! He wanted to use the halfbreed's Longinus to take over the Tepes, make himself King in all but name, essentially, beat the Carmilla, then eventually expand out!
With the Grail, he envisioned making vampires the strongest! With himself as their ruler from the shadows! A second Dracula! No, greater than the Dark Father, even!
Yet. His father and elder brother found out about his research, but, crucially, not his plans, so instead of putting him to death or something, they decided to humiliate him.
They made him Chief Advisor of Sacred Gear Research.
A position within the royal court, all for him!
It was a mockery, because despite that position, he had no results.
Then, and even now.
So sure, he could ask for more resources, but he'd have to do it in front of everyone at court, and at that point, if he did, and still nothing, he can kiss ever having any real power ever again!
"Such a, useless-" he almost slammed the door, surely smashing it to bits.
Wouldn't have been the first time.
Instead, the entire castle rumbling made him stumble, falling to the floor.
"What, the!?" Marius snarls, looking up from the ground, as guards ran past him in a hurry, and maids scrambled into rooms.
Marius stood back up with a huff and focused his senses outward. A bold attack from Carmilla? Likely, and cute. Even assuming they're making a push, it's not like-
The barriers are broken.
"..." Marius stopped, his body completely still. He physically couldn't go any paler if he tried.
All the barriers, of which there were several, are broken. They are completely and utterly exposed.
…How-
Another crash, another rumble of the whole castle, sent him straight onto his back.
But this time? It felt far closer.
Marius didn't have time to think; he bolted, straight for the throne room.
He saw the dust, felt the heat, the power, the divine power, before he even entered.
He heard the screams, smelled the burning, the agonizing wails of his kind, long before that.
He would have joined them, had he not taken one step out, felt liquid agony race up his arm, and forced himself back into the shade.
The throne room was bathed in light.
Sunlight, in specific. Across the hall, soldiers writhed on the ground, charred, bodies burning into ash.
Several managed to take pieces of the blown-off ceiling, turning them into shields to stop the light from pressing down upon them; amongst them were his elder brother and father.
In the sky, the only one he can assume who brought the light is a god.
Clad in a blue robe, holding a strange, long, curved blade in one hand, with night-black hair and infuriatingly golden eyes that reminded him of the sun itself, he merely floated there, the late morning sun at his back…
Is, is that a cardboard box over his left shoulder?
The god smirked down upon them as he intoned two simple words, "Found you."