Otherworld Welfare Inc. Branch 666

**Otherworld Welfare Inc. Branch 666** is an organization that exterminates vampires.

## Overview

Otherworld Welfare Inc. is no secret society; it publicly advertises its services via magazine and newspaper advertisements, and has an official website-*cum*-online shop replete with anti-vampire tools. Sales of these wares generate millions in annual profit, with examples of wares including garlic spray, talismans written in chicken blood, and wooden stake-and-hammer kits. The majority of customers buy such products for 'amusement purposes' rather than serious business.

However, Otherworld Welfare Inc. *does* treat vampire extermination as a serious business, and this business *does* attract its own clientele at a far reduced scale. The few customers seeking actual extermination assistance are customers who have been threatened by actual vampires—customers who were turned away by hospitals and law enforcement and then turn to Otherworld Welfare Inc. in their desperation. 'This business' also attracts a number of job applicants who usually fit into two categories: fanatics obsessed with the occult; and people willing to do anything for money.

Cargilla is of the money-motivated vampire exterminator persuasion, and thus claims that the most 'important' element of the business is wringing as much money out of its customers as possible.

## Vampire Extermination

Otherworld Welfare Inc.'s exterminators have no main operations base and simply move from location to location on an assignment basis. They are expected to audiovisually record their exterminations for reference and proof purposes.

The actions taken by Cargilla's team remain the sole examples of Otherworld Welfare Inc. practices to date, and to what extent they represent general company policy or methodology is unclear. Cargilla's team almost exclusively hunts weak vampires deathly vulnerable to the sun, killing their targets in broad daylight and never looking at their targets in the process.

Though it is unknown whether other teams also commonly choose safe targets, it is likely other teams employ the types of tools used by Cargilla's team in *Vamp!* One such tool is a "messy fusion" of a spear gun and a bazooka, a projectile weapon that fires a long silver-coated cylinder. If fired into a surface, such as the surface of a coffin, the cylinders will blast a hole and fall apart to reveal a white wooden stake; this stake is then ejected into the hole created by the explosion. The stake itself is filled with additional explosives, which ignite soon after the stake finds its mark. How many projectiles are necessary for an extermination is undetermined.

## Plot

In 2004, Hilda and Michael Dietrich's parents hire Otherworld Welfare Inc. to exterminate Gerhardt von Waldstein: the vampiric Lord of Waldstein Castle on Growerth Island. Cargilla and his team, including newbie Val and an outsider by the name of Shizune Kijima, arrive on the island in May to fulfill the contract.

On extermination day, Cargilla's men surround Gerhardt's coffin and fire multiple cylinder-stakes into its sides while one exterminator mans a camera and Shizune observes on the sidelines. The ensuing explosion sends blood splattering everywhere—blood that *thanks* Cargilla's team in multiple languages for freeing it from its confines. This blood introduces itself as Gerhardt in the metaphorical flesh, and as a vampire when Shizune inquires. Shizune declares she wants to 'eat' him, and takes chase when he then promptly flees to the roof.

Cargilla, once recovered from his shock, orders the cameraman to erase all footage following the coffin's explosion; he intends to give their clients the video and then abscond from the island before sundown. He and his team thus pay a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Dietrich at their house—a visit which goes utterly awry: Val reveals himself to be a vampire immune to sunlight, and Pirie Mistwalker—a vampire who had subjugated the Dietrichs—subjugates Cargilla and his teammates.

Now Pirie's puppets, Cargilla's team and the Dietrichs return to Waldstein Castle under her command—where Gerhardt and Pirie's interactions results in Garhardt 'hiding' himself in the exterminators' bodies. The Dietrichs, exterminators, and Masashi Mamiya then file into the castle's ballroom, where Watt Stalf's corpse lies and Shizune is sucking Michael's blood while Hilda, Ferret and Relic von Waldstein helplessly watch on. Cargilla questions Shizune, and Gerhardt soon spews out of Cargilla and company's mouths in a cascade of blood; Gerhardt, Pirie, and Masashi all confront Shizune before Watt, unexpectedly alive, renders Shizune down for the count.

In the day(s) following the attack, Gerhardt 're-educates' Cargilla's team; what becomes of them afterwards is unknown.