Dark eyes turned back from the subway station timetable. "So, what are you thinking? Akihabara?"
Mina groaned. "You don't want to go to the Cure Maid again, do you?"
All Soma could manage was a flustered sigh. He should have known better than to pull a fast one on Mina. One time at a maid café had been enough for her. She behaved herself perfectly well the entire time, but she swatted the heck out of Soma with her purse on the ride home. Truth be told, taking Mina to the café had been the easiest experience he'd had by far. Way too many men hit on Yoko the entire time, and Hammer kept making a scene. Worst of all by far was Arikado. Mostly, because he kept teaching the waiting staff new tricks and ended up working the afternoon shift with them. Not fun, for the guy that ended up spending the afternoon washing dishes.
It was just as well they found a cheaper place to eat. There were always little restaurants they could stop at. Yakiniku grills, sashimi restaurants, Turkish and Italian places tucked into corners. If nothing else, it would be nice just to go to their hotel room and relax for a bit, maybe grabbing some Family Mart meat buns or curry rice on the way. Traveling around the Tokyo Metropolitan Area was exhausting. There were so many people going everywhere, doing everything!
But, at least the trains made for smooth traveling.
"Maybe we can go out later tonight, then," Soma offered. "Shibuya?"
Mina's laughter cut through the din of the crowds. "Only after I've had a nap and two cups of—"
She stopped.
"Uh, Mina?" Soma asked.
The shrine maiden didn't move.
Was this some kind of joke? Soma touched her hands, surprised at how they held fast in the air. Pushing on her didn't move her body. Even flicking her hair didn't stir a single strand. The young man tipped his head. If this was some kind of trick, then everyone was in on it.
No one in the train station was moving.
Had this happened to any other young man, they might have been shouting or panicking. Soma was not so easily disturbed. This was odd, yes. Wrong, in every way. He knew when black magic was at work, how it could snap reality over its knee. Soma was soaking in it. He could feel cold prickling at the edge of his mind, a throbbing headache growing out from the center.
Something wicked was here. He had to get rid of it before it could hurt anyone—especially Mina.
Soma called out into the train station. "Who's there?"
Thick, deep shadows rose from beyond the painted yellow lines bracing the train tracks. They surged up, flooding the station. Within seconds it was up to Soma's ankles, surrounding his waist, over his head. A cold, wet mist clung to his clothes. He moved his head. It did not jerk, as he intended. Instead, it sloshed about, as if he was moving underwater.
Bright lights flickered from dark tunnels. His mind struggled to rationalize them. Train lights, perhaps? No, they had to be something else. Nothing was moving down here. Not the trains, nor the passengers, nor Mina nor—
Metal snapped around his arms.
Soma cried out. He took a step back, pulling against the magic that had ensnared him. There were three chains clasped to his right arm, three to his left. They sprang from a glowing ring of magic sprouting around his legs. With every thrash, his binds tightened. When he could no longer move so much as his shoulders, he stopped, panting.
Though he was in no position to demand his freedom, he snarled anyway. "Let me go before I—"
"Before you what, Lord Dracula?"
Red alerts flared in his head. There were only a few people who knew what Soma had once been, and none of his friends would dare call him that. He jerked his head up, then shouted again. The lights he had seen, the strange glowing in the darkness—they illuminated the hollowed, empty chest of a gargantuan skeleton. It crept out of the tunnels on raking claws, bent over as it towered above Soma. In it, he could smell rotted flesh, molding clothing. Rags flowed from the monster's body, illuminated by shining stones strung around its neck. When they started flickering the same color as the magic circle binding Soma, the young man's legs buckled.
"What are you?" Soma gasped.
"I have come from ten thousand years hence," the skeleton rumbled, words booming down the stilled tunnels. "I have come for you, Lord Dracula!"
Despite his helpless state, Soma still fought. "I will not be your master, monster! Let me go!"
That brought fresh, rumbling thunder to the massive lich's laughter. "You are not my master."
A single touch from its bony fingers sent a cold wave through Soma's body. His blood froze at the very glance of it. His head fell back, body just as petrified as the rest of the people stopped in the subway station. Breathing was not an option. All he could do was gulp helplessly, his lungs greedy for oxygen but never getting enough.
"W-wh—" Soma struggled to ask.
"I will pluck you from the flow of time and scrape out what my master has left in you," the skeletal giant growled. "And when I have harvested that power in your soul—"
Soma felt the world crunch as time restarted.
The reaper screamed as its ghastly body was slammed by oncoming trains. It disappeared in a cloud of black mist, dissipating before anyone in the train station could perceive the horror looming over them. The chains around Soma snapped, the magic beneath his feet going cold. He collapsed onto the dirty station floor. Coughing, sputtering, he was grateful when kind arms scooped his aching head off the ground. He lay in Mina's lap, shuddering with dread.
Another shadow coated him. "Is he alright?"
There were many horrid, wicked forms of darkness. The source of dark power that guarded him now was anything but that. Soma lifted his head. Mina propped him up, helped him find the black-clad guardian that was at his side once more. It was always bad business when Arikado showed up unannounced, but Soma was grateful every time he rushed to the young man's side.
"What happened?" Soma mumbled.
Mina patted the back of his head. "You hit the ground pretty hard." She sighed, knowing it wasn't as simple as a fainting spell. "If you're here, Arikado—"
"I'm afraid your assumptions are correct. Both you and Soma are in danger." Arikado placed his fingers under Soma's chin, then tilted his head back and forth. "You were attacked by a time reaper."
"A—a what?" the young man asked.
"They are—or were—rivals to you. Their primary goal is to steal power from gifted individuals in time and wipe out their existence." Arikado's face settled, pulling back from his frown into a soft grin. "You are fortunate. You've escaped with little worse than a concussion."
Soma rubbed the side of his face. His vision was blurred, fuzzy. "Geez. Glad you came here in time."
"This is no time to be making puns!" Mina scolded him. She stopped, realizing her own mistake. "Oh, darn it! Now you've got me doing it!"
"I'm afraid that I don't have enough t—" Arikado managed to catch himself before he got tangled up in their word games. "Much of an opportunity to explain what's going on. I need you two to get somewhere safe as soon as possible. Can you hold out until I fully rectify this situation?"
"If there is a safe place," Soma mumbled.
Mina wrapped one of Soma's arms around her neck. She pulled him up, then steadied him. "We've got a hotel room in Chiyoda. I'll take him there to rest."
Her planning pleased the agent. "Good." He reached into his suit jacket. "Whatever you two do, keep these on you at all times."
He pulled two metal bands from his jacket's lining. At the center of each of them was a pale green gemstone. Mina slipped one around her neck, then placed the other on Soma. Neither knew quite what the jewelry was about, but Arikado wasn't one to hand out trinkets just for the hell of it. It didn't look like something he had fished out of a capsule machine, at any rate.
"Emeralds?" Mina asked.
Arikado shook his head. "Beryl." He bent down to look slumping Soma in the eyes. "Rest well, but don't be caught unaware again. My existence is dependent on yours."
A small spark invigorated Soma. Arikado was right. No Soma Cruz, no Dracula—no son of Dracula. Fate only knew where that would leave Mina in all of this mess. He fought to straighten himself. "Okay. You be careful, too."
"I usually am," Arikado replied.
Before he turned off, Soma grabbed his hand. The agent tipped his head. Soma flushed red, then messed with his fringe. "You might want to go touch up your hair."
"My—" The agent paused. He pushed long tendrils forward, groaning as he caught white and black strands mixing together. "Much too close, Soma."
