Chapter 23 - Day 1

The next couple hours are spent negotiating the terms of this investigation. At around 12, Integra and Walter leave the Iscariots to themselves.

"Now that we have an understanding I will have somebody show you to your rooms. If you need me, I will be in my office."

A soldier comes out from the hallway and salutes.

"Now if you may come with me, Sir Integra has ordered me to show you to your rooms." The man says.

If seras was here she would notice that the man is Arthur. The soldier who apologized to her at her first and last training session.

The Iscariots follow along in silence as they reach their destination.

"There are a total of 5 rooms, the three on the right are for the men and the two on the left will be for the ladies. Each one has a bathroom. Are there any questions?" He points at the rooms before asking.

"Yes. Just one. What do you think of the vampires living here?" Maxwell asks.

"You really waste no time. If I had to say it in a word, it would be 'Interesting'." He chuckles before answering the question seriously.

"That's it? Not scary? Awful? Monster?"

"Well, that's what I'd think if I never met seras. But ever since she came here, my views on vampires have changed."

"That little girl changed them?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"You met her, right?"

"Yes, she's a monster." Anderson says succinctly.

"Oh? And what makes her a monster?" Arthur asks a knowing question.

This question stuns them for a while before Yumie answers.

"She drinks from humans and kills them."

"Oh really? Then what about all of those humans who kill other humans? As for the drinking, she's a vampire. Do I admonish you for eating a cheeseburger because it came from a cow?" He says sarcastically.

"You all have killed more humans than she has and you call her a monster? How funny." He continues.

This silenced them for a while before he asks.

"Anything else?"

"No. That will be all for today."

"Then I bid you good day."

Arthur leaves and then the Iscariots go to their respective rooms to unpack.

They all convene in a separate room later to speak about their situation.

"So. Will you care to tell me your thoughts about our investigation so far?"

A few seconds go by before Heinkel speaks.

"Well, the girl seemed to be a lot scarier than her master."

"That's where you're wrong Heinkel. Alucard is very strong and even more sadistic." Anderson denies her.

"Yes but she has these powers that no vampire should have." Yumie says.

"Yes, that does pose a problem. Information is what we lack and thankfully that is what we are here to get. Hopefully there will be no slip ups to our main objective." Maxwell says grimly.

"Speaking of, what is our objective? I mean why did we have to come to this Protestant filled country ourselves?" Heinkel asks.

"Because of the thing we are trying to investigate. We are here to find out how Abraham's seals work. If we find that out, we could seal Alucard forever."

"That's..."

"Impossible? No. A man 150 years ago sealed away the strongest vampire in history. Why can we not as well?"

As soon as Maxwell says this Renaldo who hasn't spoken since they got there speaks.

"Maxwell, are you sure we should be saying these things in the middle of our enemies base? They could have tapped our rooms."

"Don't worry Father Renaldo. I have already gotten Anderson to sweep the room and he says that nothing was found."

"I see. I just feel like someone is watching us though."

Unbeknownst to them, Seras was in the room beneath listening to everything. She smiled a little and finally goes to bed for real.

'That's interesting. A whole new storyline has opened up due to my change. Ooh, I can't wait for them to interrogate me. It will be so much fun.' She thinks to herself as she disappears.

That night seras is woken up by Walter again to meet up with them for the first round of Iscariots investigation. She gets up drowsily and decides to not change out of her pajamas.

She gets up and picks up Basky before portaling to the meeting room. This meeting room is the one that will be used during the Valentine incident.

When she arrived all eyes are on her and they all look shocked.

"What? Haven't seen a girl carrying a dog in her pajamas before?"

"No, no we haven't." Heinkel answers.

"Oh that's right. Nobody here has a family. Isn't that pretty funny?"

This shocks everybody before Alucard starts to laugh.

"Hahahaahah. That's hilarious, the Police Girl is right."

Everybody's faces get angry.

"Now Police Girl. Why haven't you changed?" Integra asks.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? It's proper manners."

"So I have to be interrogated in a military uniform? No thank you. I would like to grab comfort where I can." She denies outright and then sits on one of the chairs. She is still holding Basky with her arms while doing this.

The only chair left is the one next to Anderson so she sits next to him, much to his chagrin.

"Lass?" A Scottish accent sounds out.

"Yes?"

"What is that?" He points to her chest.

"My breasts?" She asks genuinely confused.

"Wha! No I meant that animal!" He blushes before yelling.

"Oh! I'm sorry, this is Basky." She pushes the animal forward showing him off.

Anderson sees the cute dog and goes to pet it when all six of its eyes open and it starts to growl venemously.

"What the!? You foul beast!" Anderson gets surprised before he brandished his bayonets.

"Calm down Father. It is only a dog. Even if it is a demon." Heinkel says.

"Whatever. It's only been a couple hours and I'm already tired of this charade." he storms out of the meeting room.

"Can we get to the matter at hand?" Maxwell asks to everyone.

"We're listening." Integra answers.

"Good. I'm conducting this meeting to inform you of our schedule for this week. We're going to be interrogating your soldiers for the next two days and then after that we will be conducting a search of the rooms in the whole manor. The last two days will be our interrogation for Sir Integra, Mr. Dolnez, and Miss Victoria."

"That's fine with me." Integra says mildly which surprises everybody.

'What the hell? THE Sir Integra is not yelling about this?' Maxwell thinks to himself as he starts to feel something wrong.

"Do you need us for anything else?" She continues.

"No, that is all right." Maxwell waves his hand and all of the Hellsing members leave.

After the last one leaves, Maxwell is still thinking about the weird feeling he had.

"Bishop? Are we going to be conducting the interviews?" Yumie asks.

"Yes. Yes, I'm sorry Sister Yumie. Please bring the first of our interviews." Maxwell sighs before affirming the question.

A few minutes later, Yumie comes back in with a male soldier in his mid-30's. The man looks confused as he is lead to a seat surrounded by the Iscariot members.

The room is completely dark except one source of light projecting from the ceiling onto the table.

He keeps looking around as he sits down. Before he can ask any questions, Maxwell leans forward making light bounce off his glasses.

The man is unnerved at the silence and flinches when Maxwell begins to speak.

"So.....Mr. Brian Stephens. You're 34 and have been with Hellsing for 6 years?"

"Uh....Yes?"

"Are you questioning the information?"

"No! Not at all." He yells a little in defense.

"Calm down Mr. Stephens. I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to ascertain a few things."

He sighs in relief before looking back up with a little more confidence.

"How has your time at Hellsing been?"

"Sir?"

"Please answer the question."

"Well, when I began it was scary to say the least. Vampires are real and I'm going to be the person fighting them. On more than one occasion I have almost died."

"Oh? Go on." Maxwell feigns interest trying to get the man to loosen up.

Brian talks for a few minutes and when he is done reminiscing Maxwell begins the more important questions.

"Speaking of vampires, what do you think of the Hellsing pets?"

"NO!" He yells trying to stop Maxwell from saying the word.

Before he can continue Yumie has her sword against his throat from the left, Anderson has his bayonet from the right, and Heinkel has her gun pointed at his head from behind Maxwell.

"It's fine." Maxwell waves them to stop and they go back.

"I'm sorry." The man stutters while looking everywhere frantically looking for something....or someone.

"Mr. Stephens? Are you ok?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine. Just please don't say that word." He stutters again.

"What word?"

"The p-word. Please, I don't want to die." He begs while saying so.

"You mean pets?"

As soon as he says it again, he feels a chill down his neck before turning behind him. He looks at the wall and notices a piece of paper taped to it.

He gets up and picks it off the wall.

'Dear Bishop Maxwell, this is the third time you have used a derogatory term to reference me and my master. I would like for you to take Brian's advice seriously and think before you speak.

- Seras V.'

Maxwell trembles in anger and freight as he feels like he is always being watched. He crumpled the paper in his fist before walking back to the interrogation.

"You're very Lucky. I bet sir Integra has told her to not hurt you, but she can do so much more than that." Brian offers his view looking at the paper.

"What happened Father Maxwell?" Heinkel asks.

"Nothing Sister, just a small joke." He tries to smile assuringly, which looks very ugly.

The interrogation goes on and when a Brian leaves, Maxwell is still thinking of that paper.

"Anderson, did you not feel her?"

"Who?"

"That vampire Victoria! She treats me like an idiot. Look at this!" Maxwell yells before throwing the paper onto the table.

The rest of the Iscariot's read the paper and they all grow angry.

Anderson storms off to find the vampire. He walks all around the mansion shoving anyone and everyone who gets in his way. A few minutes later, he gets to the kitchen and finds seras looking inside the fridge.

He trudged behind her and slams the fridge close, shaking it. She turns around and sees a very angry Anderson.

"What did you do that for?" She asks slightly annoyed.

"How dare you insult the Vatican! I am gods instrument of divine justice and I will smite you where you stand!" He brings out his bayonets.

"Just shut up! Do you have any idea how annoying you are? What do you mean an instrument? You're a human being, act like it." She yells at him before continuing.

"You! I do God's work!" He keeps saying.

Seras gives him a look like her anger is rising before closing her eyes and sighing in annoyance.

"Do you even know what you're saying? If god is all mighty and doesn't make mistakes, why are vampires bad? Does that mean god created something bad? If so, isn't he just using his creations to kill his other creations?"

"Yes! Stop talking and fight!"

"Why should I? All it will do is make Sir Integra angry and I definitely don't want that. Come back when you actually want to fight for some reason that isn't ridiculous."

"....."

"If you ever have anything nice to say, I'll listen then. Please excuse me for I want to go back to bed." She brushes him aside before leaving.

A few minutes go by and Anderson is still standing there frozen. Yumie comes up behind him and speaks.

"Father? Are you ok?"

When he doesn't answer she steps forward and taps his shoulder. He turns to her and opens his mouth.

"Yumie, why do I fight?"

"Father?"

"When have I stopped thinking and just started to mindlessly kill everything I was told?"

"Haven't you always been that way?" She asks back confused.

"I see. I have always been that way." He stares upward at the ceiling but is obviously looking at something else.

Before Yumie can speak up, he talks again.

"Let's go back Yumie, Maxwell muse be angry." He smiles again before walking away.

seras reappears in alucards room and proceeds to lay on her bed. Before she can feel the sweet relief of sleep, a hand nudges her.

"Maaaaaassssssteeeeeeerrrrrrrr..." she whimpers while covering her head with her blanket.

"Get up. We have to talk."

"Fine." She uncovers her head and sits up.

"Since you learned how to use that ability, I've noticed that you've been using it every chance you get."

"Yes?"

"You shouldn't. Unless it's a dangerous situation I don't want you to be using those extra abilities you received." He looks at her in all seriousness.

"Since you're the one who is asking, I won't. But I want to learn some other abilities then."

"Like?"

"I want to learn how to change my appearance and how to walk on walls."

"Fine, we will train while the Vatican are intruding in our home. I really like it when you scare that weasel. Integra likes it as well so you might lessen her anger while doing so." He agrees before walking to his coffin.

"Master."

"Hmm?"

"Do you like it here? At Hellsing I mean?"

".....I hated it once, but I've been here for so long it has turned into a home for me." He pauses for a few seconds before answering without looking at her.

"I see."

"Anything else Police Girl?"

"No, have a good sleep master." She denies and lays back down.

While seras and Alucard are sleeping, the Vatican are conducting the interviews with the soldiers.

After the 32nd interview, Maxwell sighs in tiredness at the repetitive questions he has to ask the soldiers of Hellsing.

"You wish to take a break Maxwell?" Anderson asks.

"No, Anderson. It's just that the answers these men are giving are incredibly boring." He yawns again before asking for the next person.

"Well, we have to do some of the work we promised the Pope. I bet we can find more information about our main objective when we search the building." Renaldo puts in his two cents.

"Yes I thought so as well. After all this building has been passed down since the first Hellsing. There is bound to be something that can tell us about the creation of the seals."

Right after Maxwell says this, there is a knock on the door and Maxwell says to come in.

They get surprised as it is Walter coming in.

"Mr. Dolnez, I wasn't expecting you."