Blood Red Moon Resurrection Chapter 5:
        To the Heart of the Matter

     Disclaimers: All characters belong to their various
copyrights, with the exception of Reinhart Masaki and Rosa
Masaki.  Those two are mine.  Beyond their usage in this story,
I claim no ownership, no rights of creation, no nothing.  Please
don't sue me.  Comments, quips, insults, death threats can be directed
to Platinum_Dragon@uisnternet.com
     The Tenchi Muyo Characters in this series are based on the OVA
versions, but don't be surprised if there aren't one or two TV
references.  The characters Carrie Fernandez, Alucard, Death,
Dracula, Maria Renard and Lisa all belong to the Konami Castlevania
series. This cross-over series is placed roughly 17 years in
Tenchi's world, 120 years in Alucard's world after the events in
Blood Red Moon.  Reinhart and Rosa Masaki, the children of Tenchi
and Ryoko, are now young teens.

     "To what profit is it to a man, if he gains the world and
loses his own soul?  Mathew 16:26 I believe." - Dracula, as he dies
at the end of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

*****

     As they rode into Eagle's Point, Reinhart breathed a deep sigh
of relief.  The past few hours of riding had been only just short
of torture for him.  It wasn't really the physical nearness to
Carrie that had him so unsettled.  Once he had gotten used to it,
he had managed to force himself to relax, at least a little.  It
hadn't been the near constant stream of wise cracks from Rosa,
either. Those, he had heard all his life.  He had even managed
to get her to stop with a couple of well placed comments and
lightly veiled threats to reveal some of her more adventurous
hobbies to their parents. Such as her monthly skinny dip into their
school's pool.
     No, what had been torture had been that he was very well aware
of the fact that he was holding onto a very beautiful girl.  It
didn't really matter that he knew she was quite a bit older than
she looked.  She acted like, spoke like, and looked like she wasn't
much older than him.  He was so afraid of accidentally offending
her that he could hardly think straight.  He had laced his fingers
together so tightly that they had long since cramped.
     He was so close to her that every breath he took came with the
scent of her.  He had had trouble deciding, but Reinhart had
finally come to the conclusion that she used some sort of lilac
scented oil in her hair.  She wore no perfume, but very faintly
he could smell the rose blossoms that she folded into her clothing
to keep them fresh smelling.
     Under his hands, he could feel the smooth, soft flesh of her
stomach.  He thought that she must be a little ticklish there,
because every time he shifted his hands, she would giggle quietly,
little more than a soft shaking of her shoulders, which of course
he could feel because he was pressed against her about as tightly
as he could be.  Her skin was comfortingly warm to the touch.
     He felt her body as she breathed, and had no doubt that she
could feel his breathing as well.  It was a strange feeling,
he reflected; a natural feeling, and yet, very uncomfortable,
for him at least, at the same time.  He realized that this was the
first time that he had been even remotely this close to a girl
other than those in his family, and that was a different situation
entirely.
     So, his state of mind upon entering the town was, to say the
least, somewhat uneasy.  The first signs of the town were the
large, spreading farms.  It was the peak of the growing season,
and corn and wheat stood tall in the fields.  Here and there,
flocks of sheep grazed, bleating loudly now and then.  Farther
in, they came to a small cluster of buildings, including The
Eagle's Nest, the village inn.  The two floored, red-tile roof
building stood on the edge of a cliff.  He saw that the town lived
up to its name.  Several eagles spun and wheeled in the air above
them, and one pair landed on top of the inn.  Rosa looked around.
     "It doesn't really seem too much different from home, does
it?" she remarked.  Reinhart nodded.
     "Except home doesn't have a blacksmith's shop next to it."
>From where they were, they could hear the loud sounds of a hammer
striking down on an anvil, a clean, steady ringing.  The smithy
was a flat, squarish building with a large, open pen.  It also had
a corral next to it, for storing horses to be shoed.
     "We have Washu's lab in the broom closet."  He looked at her.
     "Good point."  Reinhart carefully unlaced his fingers, wincing
at how stiff they felt, and then dismounted.  Carrie looked down
at him in curiosity as he walked over and took West Wind's reins
from Rosa.
     "In a broom closet?"  He grinned, running his free hand
through his hair to try and straighten it out.
     "It's a long story.  Grandma was...  somewhat eccentric
in her youth."  Rosa snorted.
     "You could only call Washu young if you were comparing
her to, say, the age of the universe.  She's over 20,000 years
old!"  Carrie did a double take, silently mouthing the words twenty
thousand in disbelief.  After a moment, she shook her head.
     "Let's get West Wind over to the blacksmith, and then get some
rooms for the night," she said, getting down from Cloud's back.
They nodded in agreement, and led their horses to the blockish
building. The blacksmith turned out to be a man with a barrel of a
chest; arms as thickly muscled as most people's legs, and legs that
could have doubled as tree trunks.  Reinhart decided that he
definitely didn't want to get into a fight with him.  The man
looked like he could snap him in two with his pinkie finger.  The
burly man took a look at the horse's hoof, and nodded.
     "I can shoe him.  You're lucky; I'm in between work loads
right now.  A day later and it likely would have been a week before
I would have had the chance to shoe him.  He'll be ready for you by
tomorrow morning."  It took a few more moments to haggle out the
price.  Reinhart watched with interest, as Carrie managed to get
the blacksmith's price down from forty pieces of silver to a mere
fifteen.  The man bowed to her, sealing the arrangement,
and then excused himself to begin working on the shoe.
     The walked their remaining two horses back over to the inn,
and a pair of stablemen came up and led them away, into the inn's
stables.  Carrie led them inside.  The Eagle's Nest was just short
of empty.  A couple villagers sat inside, gathered around one
table. A fire blazed in the hearth, keeping a comfortable
warmth there. Reinhart looked down as a fat orange tabby cat bumped
its head into his leg.  He grinned, and reached down to scratch
it behind the ears momentarily.
     The inn keeper smiled at them from a doorway that likely led
to the kitchen.  She was a motherly looking woman, plump, and with
more gray hair than brown, and warm gray eyes.
     "We haven't had many travelers here lately.  Welcome, welcome
indeed," she said.  Carrie asked her about the rooms she had
available, and the woman smiled.  "Feel free to use them.  It is
the Festival of Lights here, and I don't charge for rooms.  They
are all upstairs."  Carrie smiled at her warmly, and thanked her.
The woman nodded.  "If you need anything, just ask for Marin.  The
baths are down the hall, if you would like to clean up from your
travels." They thanked her again, and split up.  Carrie and Rosa
went for the baths, while Reinhart went up the stairs to find the
rooms, finding himself loaded with all of their saddlebags.
     He set the things into their rooms, and then he too walked
down to the bathing rooms.  Through one door, he could faintly
hear Rosa and Carrie talking, though not clearly enough to make out
what about. He went through the opposite, and found that the bath
consisted of a stool to set his clothing on, and a shallow pool
that was fed by water that poured from a pipe.  The excess ran off
through a small ditch that led to a drain; it had a lever that
operated a sluice gate for draining out the pool.  He opened it,
and watched the water flush out.
     While he waited for it to refill, he stripped down out of his
clothing.  Gingerly touching the water, he found that it was hot,
but not scaldingly so.  Sighing, he wished that there was a way to
take a more traditional Japanese bath, but when in Rome, he thought
to himself.
     Ten minutes later, he had finished, and also managed to brush
some of the dirt out of his bedraggled, borrowed clothing.
Refreshed, and redressed, he exited the room.  He could still hear
Carrie and Rosa talking and laughing in the other room.  He shook
his head, wondering just how they managed to find so much to talk
about.  Entering the common room, he found that now not even the
few villagers were left.  Outside, the sun was all but down, just
nearing the horizon.
     Realizing that it would probably be some time before the girls
finished up, he decided to look around.  The inn keeper smiled
at him from behind a counter top, as he opened the door, and
exited.  The wind was a little chill, and he was glad that he had
brought along the cape.  He walked along.  The smithy shop was now
silent; lights burned in most windows, but there were a couple
people out.  Reinhart walked down the earthen street, until he
found a thin, out of the way path.  It seemed to snake down, and
away from the town.  From where he stood, he could see the lake
that Carrie had talked about.
     He shrugged, and began to walk down.  The path was somewhat
steep, but not terribly difficult.  At some points, steps had been
cut into the earth and stone to aid in the passage.  It led down,
as he had thought, the face of the cliff that the inn stood on.
Looking at how much it twisted and turned, he frowned.  Looking
about to see that nobody was around, he walked to the edge of the
path, and then stepped off.  He floated down the cliff face, and
touched down at the base.  The path arrowed fairly straightly
towards the lake from there.
     Reinhart walked down there slowly.  Above him, the sun had
set, and the moon had begun to rise.  It seemed that the blood
effect was only around the castle.  Half full, it shone a bright
golden in the night, and seemed close enough to touch.  Actually,
he realized, he could touch it if he wanted.  Assuming that he
could hold his breath long enough to reach it and make it back to
earth.
     The lake turned out to be fairly unassuming.  The waters were
still, disturbed only by the occasional breeze of the wind.  It
seemed to be cut off here, probably by the cliff.  Just off to the
side, he saw what had to be the shrine that Carrie had mentioned.
It was a large, white stone, with a pair of crosses carven into it.
Flowers and other small offerings had been placed around it.  He
walked up to the beach, and found a large stone to sit down on.
     "What am I doing out here?" he asked himself.  Beyond the
shrill cry of an eagle far above him, he didn't get any answer.
But he did wonder.  Just to get some air was too easy an excuse
to use.  Looking down at the ground, he picked up several smooth,
rounded stones. Although he was back quite a way from the water,
he began to skip them across.  Most bounced seven or eight times
before disappearing under the surface.  It really was an absurd
situation, he realized, and were it not for the seriousness
of the matter, it would have been laughable.  The moon slowly
climbed up into the sky.
     "Penny for your thoughts?"
     Startled, Reinhart twisted to see Carrie picking her way down
the tail end of the path.  She had a small basket in her hand, and
smiled at him in the moonlight.  Carrie walked over to him, setting
the basket down, and sat down on the rock next to him.  He stared
at her blankly, and noticed that she had left her cape in the inn,
apparently.
     "Huh?"  She smiled, shaking her head.
     "I thought that you might be down here, when Mistress Tiran
said that she had seen you leave not too long ago," she said.
Carrie looked out across the lake, where the moon was reflected
in shimmering detail.  "You seem like the kind of person who
sometimes needs a chance to get away from things."
     "I don't really know why I'm out here.  Just kinda followed
my feet down this way."  She nodded.
     "Sometimes that's best.  I wanted to say that I'm sorry.  I
didn't realize that Rosa would tease you that much."  She grinned,
and he looked at her.  "If it makes you feel any better, she made
a couple of jokes at my expense too in private."
     "I'm used to it.  She was actually being somewhat restrained,"
he said, shrugging.  "I was more worried about embarrassing
you or offending you."  She laughed.
     "So that's why you were stiff as a board all the way here.
I thought...  well, that's beside the point.  Listen, if I hadn't
have thought that I could trust you, I wouldn't have offered.
You don't need to be so tense around me."  She turned more towards
him, the moonlight glinting off her hair and eyes.  "I've often
wondered what it's like to have a brother or sister as close as you
and Rosa are.  My parents died when I was young, and I never really
had any family until after we destroyed Dracula.  Even then,
Reinhart and Rosa were at best close friends, the closest to family
I ever had, and Tenchi and Ryoko too, but I still never really
had that sense of belonging.  What is it like?"
     Reinhart frowned in thought, trying to think of a way to put
it that would even remotely make sense, and realized that he wasn't
entirely certain himself.
     "It's hard to explain," he said slowly.  "It's a sense of
acceptance for what you are...  Of trust...  Rosa may be a little
wild... well, really wild, but at the same time I wouldn't want
anybody more like me for anything.  Mayuka, Mom and Dad, Washu,
everybody really...  We know that if we have a problem, we can talk
to each other about it and get advice.  Maybe we do have our
differences, but even so we stick together."  He paused,
thoughtful. "It's more than just belonging...  it's like we're all
parts of each other."  Carrie nodded slowly.
     "I think I know what you mean," she said.  Reinhart suddenly
realized that during this entire time, he hadn't stuttered once,
or worried about how close she was.  In fact, now that he actually
thought of it, he noticed that she was all but sitting on top of
him in order to fit on the rock.  She looked at him, smiling
slightly.
     "Why...  why did you want me to ride with you?  I could have
walked, or even ridden with Rosa if I had to.  I don't understand."
Carrie blinked, and looked away.  He knew that it was probably
just his imagination, but he thought that he saw a blush rise to
her cheeks.
     "I'll be a hundred twenty seven years old in about two months.
I don't know if that sounds like a long time to live for you, but
for me, it's a very long time.  Every passing year, I kept
wondering why I seemed to have stopped aging.  Friends came and
went; I never really let them get too close, certainly not as close
as Reinhart, Rosa, and the children.  I wasn't exactly a socialite,
even in the best of times.
     "Then, suddenly, you and Rosa appear.  The children of two of
my closest friends.  Without me even realizing it, I found that I
already consider you as close as them."  She paused, and the
silence stretched into something almost uncomfortable.
"And then, I realized something else.  That I want more than just
a friendship, no matter how close it is."  He looked at her, and
was surprised to see a few teardrops glistening on her cheeks.
She turned away from him somewhat, shaking her head.  "So much for
being subtle," she said. Reinhart took a moment to absorb what she
had just told him.
     "I'm... not good with words; certainly not good with emotions.
But I think that... if what you are looking for is somebody to...
care for you, than I think that I would be most honored to try.
You said that just because as person doesn't think that they are
special, it doesn't mean that others don't think that they are.  If
you think that I'm worth being thought of as special, than I will
do my best to live up to that feeling," he said softly.  Slowly,
she turned back to him, tears glistening unshed in her golden eyes.
     "If I wasn't certain of it before, now, I am sure that you
are." She leaned forward, then, and kissed him.  Not on the cheek,
the innocent kiss of a child or a mother.  She gently kissed him on
the mouth, a soft promise of things to come.  He felt her place
her arms around his neck, and hold him to her.  Uncertain,
he placed his own arms around her, drawing her body close to his.
She leaned into the embrace, and lay her head on his shoulder.
     They just sat there, like that, for a time.  Reinhart looked
up to see the moon nearly at its half-way point.  On the point of
saying something, he noticed that she had fallen asleep, a smile
on her face.  He smiled gently, and carefully stood, lifting her.
He looked up the face of the cliff, toward the inn.  Carefully,
he flew upwards, bearing her in his arms.  He reached the inn, and
floated there a moment as he remembered where her room was.
Finally he figured out the location, and then phased through the
wall with her.  He lay her down on the bed, and then pulled the
covers up.  She sighed in her sleep.  He smiled, and then moved
to the door.

*****

     As Reinhart floated away, the sleeping form of Carrie in his
arms, Rosa smiled broadly.  She had followed the sorceress down the
path, and watched the entire exchange from the branches of a tree.
She swung down to the ground, and looked up after him.  He was
moving slowly; she was sure that he was afraid of waking her.
     Although she would have never said anything to him, she was
glad that he had chosen Carrie.  She knew that Misato in their
school was interested in him, but the girl would never have stayed
with him. He was just too unassuming a person for somebody of her
tastes.
     She was just about to teleport back up to her room when she
suddenly noticed that the forest had gone silent.  Automatically,
she formed a fireball, and looked around, hand outstretched.
She saw nothing, yet now that she was aware of the silence, she
could feel hidden eyes watching her.  She listened carefully
to the silence, and heard, off to her right, what sounded like
flapping wings.  Spinning, she released the fireball.  It streaked
through nothing but air, but in its illumination she caught a quick
glimpse of a huge black wolf, and what looked like a small, tiny
girl, with four delicate wings sprouting from her back.  She looked
surprise, and then the wolf flashed away, and she flew quickly
after it.
     Startled, Rosa thought about giving chase, but decided instead
to go back to her room.  She teleported up.  As she appeared,
she suddenly laughed, and then phased through into the hallway.
She got there just as Reinhart was coming through the door to
Rosa's room, and tapped him on the shoulder.  He gasped in
surprise.
     "My, my Reinhart...  Am I going to have a story to tell mom
and dad when we get home?"  He paled.
     "No!" he exclaimed loudly.  Wincing, he lowered his voice.
"I was down at the lake, and she came down to talk.  She fell
asleep, so I brought her back here."  Rosa grinned slyly.
     "Oh, so she didn't kiss you, or fall asleep in your arms?"
she asked innocently.  He went several shades whiter.
     "You were watching us!"  She grinned.
     "Guilty.  Oh, relax.  I won't tell mom or dad.  To tell you
the truth, I think that it's kinda sweet.  She and I had a long
talk today."  She put her hand on his shoulder.  "For a male, you
do sometimes make good choices."  She made her expression more
serious. "She's had a lot of pain through her life.  We certainly
don't have anything to compare to.  Be careful with her.  She tries
to act like she has left her past behind, but she still feels it."
Reinhart looked away, nodding.
     "When I said that I would do my best to live up to her
expectations, I meant it.  You should know that."  She nodded.
     "Good night, Reinhart."  She grinned mischievously,
and added, "Hope that your dreams are... ahem, enjoyable."
He stared at her, startled, and groaned.
     "You really aren't going to give me a break, are you?"
     "No."  Shaking his head, he disappeared into his room.  Rosa
smiled, and then poked her head through Carrie's door.  The woman
was sleeping, a small smile on her face.  Rosa smiled again, and
then retired to bed.

*****

     Alucard caught himself breathing a sigh of relief as the girl
teleported away.  She had surprised him with that fireball,
and he knew that his tail had gotten a little singed in the blast.
He still didn't understand how she had even known that he was
there.  But the blast was too contained to be a random shot.
     He returned to human form, wincing as the transformation
ended, and looked at Sheann'a.  She was examining a trailing
edge of her dress.  Suddenly, he became aware of the constant,
almost too quiet to hear flapping sounds that her wings made as
they moved up and down, keeping her in the air.  But that had to be
too quiet to hear for a human.  But if she had...
     "That was interesting.  A hair to the right, and more than my
dress would be toasted," said Sheann'a, breaking his train of
thought.
     "Do you recognize them?"  She shook her head.
     "The young man and the girl with the fireballs have the look
of Tenchi and Ryoko in them, but the other girl I did not
recognize. The young man and she seemed rather close, no?"  He
nodded absently.
     "But they definitely are the ones.  The Belmont power is so
strong in them that it has left a residual effect.  I doubt that
any demons will ever come near here again."  He walked out of the
foliage, toward the shrine.  Sheann'a floated behind him.
     "I wonder what the people would say if they knew what had
really happened here?  That the woman really just ran away to
another man in the next village up the road when her husband went
to war, and that he really was killed defending that fort, all the
while believing that his wife was being true?" she mused.
     "I doubt that they would listen to you.  They have believed
in the myth for centuries."  He bent down, and picked up one of the
flowers, examining it carefully.  "Perhaps, though, that belief
is truth enough."  He tossed the flower to the water, and it slowly
floated away.  Sheann'a looked at him in surprise.
     "Just when I think you have no surprises left in store for me,
you somehow manage to show yet another facet.  Does it wear on you,
this endless fight against the dark that you have taken on
yourself?" He looked at her, and for a moment, he truly did feel
the years of his constant battle, first with himself, and then
later with his father.
     "It has worn on me since the day I was born, but that matters
not.  I will continue it till I take my last breath.  For me, there
can be no other course."  She nodded solemnly.
     "Where did Drathar go off to?"
     "I sent him ahead to watch for trouble at the Belmont burial
ground."  He looked up at the inn, where all of the lights had now
gone out.  "Tomorrow, we shall reveal ourselves to them.  And that
is when out battle shall truly begin again."

     Tenchi looked about himself warily.  This place... was
different.  In the blink of an eye, a rolling field could become
an asp-filled pit, or worse.  One thing always remained the same,
though.  To the north, he could see an ancient castle, with a moon
of blood hanging over it.  What ever this place was, Castlevania
was the key to it.  He had to get there, he knew.  Where ever he
was, it was evil.  He could not feel Ryoko's touch in the back of
his mind, and it worried him.
     A movement caught his eye, and he turned, red force blade
snapping up, ready to defend or attack, as needed.  He was
surprised to find Reinhart Schnieder standing there.  But something
seemed out of place to Tenchi; he wasn't quite certain what, but it
was making the hair on the back of his neck tingle.
     "How are you, my old friend?  The last that I saw you, you had
returned to your own world!"  Tenchi was silent, studying him
closely.  The height, the voice, the blond hair, the whip, the
black eyes...  Tenchi paused.  The whip, and black eyes?  But
Reinhart had had blue eyes like ice, and they had sealed the whip
away not long after escaping from the castle.
     "I am well," Tenchi lied.  "Tell me, does Rosa still wear the
cross that I carved for her?"  Reinhart nodded, and Tenchi sighed,
shaking his head.  For a moment, he had almost...  "That's
interesting, because I never made a cross for her, I gave her a
head piece."  With startling speed, Reinhart flashed forward,
his hand changing into a heavy, black blade.  Tenchi dove aside,
and then came up swinging his own sword.  The demon's head tumbled
to the ground, and the illusion that it was Reinhart disappeared.
In reality, it was some sort of humanoid demon.
     "Let's see... that makes Reinhart, Clown, and Azusa," he said
to himself.  He wondered when who ever it was would start in with
his family.  He knew, instinctively, that his enemy was trying
to wear down his resistance.  Afraid now of what might come, what
he knew would come, he hurried along his way, toward the evil
castle.  That was the key to what was happening, he was certain.

---
The Platinum Dragon
"The rising sun will eventually set,
  a newborn's life will fade.
  From sun to moon, moon to sun,
  Give peaceful rest to the living dead." - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
http://dragonsanime.dreamhost.com - Dragon's Masaki Shrine of Tenchi Muyo
Proud Member of the Ryoko Forever Fan Club