The light coming in through the bars of the cell was bright. Of course, in jail, Seph LeVay knew that there would never be any sort of curtains, but it would have been a lot nicer if he wasn’t forced to wake up at three in the morning when the Youkai sun rose. On the bunk under his own lay Mark Lieberman, somehow able to sleep through the glaring shine. How the hell had he gotten into this situation… All they did was bring back the stupid bird! He swung his legs over the side of the hard bunk and leapt to the ground.

“Least I kept my sword…”

He grumbled as he paced around the cell, wishing for the trial to begin. It was scheduled for today, and according to Koichi they had a good shot and being found innocent. Well, as long as they followed some plan he had cooked up. He’d mentioned something about the king making the trial a tad bit unfair, but if they could completely prove innocence not even he could reverse the charge.

Whatever got ‘em out of here sooner. It would have been nice to look around the Youaki capital for a while, but the whole arresting got in the way. The last time he went through here was with his father when he was a kid, but both then and now were strictly business it seemed. Shame, there were some good swordsmiths here that might be able to confirm what his sword really was. At least those police couldn’t legally take that away.

Oh yeah, Mark had mentioned that the only reason this was cooked up in the first place was because the capital really had it out for the fox girl. Oku’d been some sort of war hero, and if he had to guess, the king wanted her back to reaffirm his rule. Kings really liked that petty shit.

Seph took a corner of his shirt and began to polish the sword. How come he had to sleep in this dump but Lawrence got some friggin hotel paid for by the king as a guest to trial? Stupid, he was forced to help anyways.

Suddenly the door to the jail was opened, and in walked Lawrence and Koichi.

“Alright the trial’s today, they’ll be coming in about twenty minutes.”

“Yes, and I have a plan to keep you guys out of the slammer.”

Seph looked at Koichi, and at the sound of voices Mark leaned up in his bed, stiff.

“Lawrence? The trial’s today?”

“Yeah, you need to hear the plan. Inari is in telling the girls, along with Doro and Gorgo.”

“Alright, here’s what we have to do. According to the files I’ve seen necromancy is strictly illegal, but the law doesn’t state anything about mask reformation, and I believe that fetching a Youkai from limbo is thought to be impossible. Necromancy, as you may know, is the process of bringing Youkai or humans back from the dead, normally as a revenant. What we did with Hato was completely different. Instead of forcing her body to function, we returned her spirit energy to her. I believe this can get us out of the necromancy charge.”

“Man you really been thinking about this, huh Mr. Detective?”

“Contrary to your belief Seph, I’m not all about people getting tied up in a political power grab.”

Mark rolled his eyes.

“So what evidence do we have to support that claim.”

“Well obviously Hato isn’t a revenant. She was alive, as the bird.”

“You don’t think they’ll need the process to believe us?”

“There’s actually a law that prohibits courts from forcing mages to reveal the way they perform rituals or spells, so we’re good on that front.”

“Which means that all we have to do is show that we returned her from limbo…”

Lawrence cheerfully had the answer to that question.

“It’s simple, all we need to do is use Inari’s orb. We can locate the area that she was right before she was brought back to her body, there will be residue.”

“So ya really think it’s gonna be that easy? You are against the Youkai king you know.”

“Well actually we’re against a Youkai jury, which are the sleepfathers.”

Mark’s eyes widened.

“The whats?”

“Sleepfathers are traditionally used in Youkai courts, as they cannot be bought off. They’re basically pure creatures that sleep until they are needed to aid in a dilemma. Which means we have a completely fair jury. If we can prove it to them, we’re off the hook.”

Koichi’s face hardened. There was one other issue.

“One thing though, the king may slam Oku with something extra. I have no idea what, and if we can’t prove her innocence…”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Oku was the reason all of this had happened in the first place. Koichi had known that they couldn’t get pinned for the necromancy case, but the king probably knew that too. Bringing in Oku was his only goal, it didn’t matter if the rest got away. In fact, he’d probably set it up specifically this way. Let the useless ones go, get the prize.

“We can only hope there’s a way around the extra charge on Oku.”

Suddenly the door opened again, and Koichi’s partner Aimai poked her head in.

“The chief says it’s time Koichi!”

“Alright.”

He took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. In the hallway, the group was rejoined by Hato, Inari, Doro, Gorgo, and Oku, who had been filled in on the plan as well. Lawrence took a quick look at Oku to see how she was holding up. She caught him staring, but gone was the usual silver tongued crack at his expense. It was pretty bad if she wasn’t even doing that.

“Hey master! It looks like we can get out of this one pretty easily, right?”

“If everything goes well, did Inari tell you about the extra charge the king could place on Oku?”

“Of course I told them…”

Evidently this didn’t comfort Oku at all, and she didn’t even utter a word. Not one retort. She was doing even worse than he’d thought. Lawrence wanted to make some sort of conversation to gauge her feelings, but thought that would do more harm than good.

Thus, they began to walk to the trial, which was in an old style building about a block away. On the way there, they were met by Reinhardt, who approached them with a smile.

“Looks like you all got into some hot water bahaha!”

“Stuff it old man, the reason they can arrest me is because of you!”

“Hey now Mark, I’m sure everything’ll be fine. I’ll be sitting in the crowd just in case though!”

With that he gave his large brimmed had a tilt and melted back into the crowd. It was especially busy today, and Lawrence made sure to keep an eye on Oku in case she tried to slip away. He practically wanted her to. Yet… she looked resigned to what was happening. It was so unlike her it was almost sickening.

*BOOM*

The bamboo gavel struck down as the judge took his place.

“I am judge Nise! The jury is consisted of twelve sleepfathers, the defendants are as follows. Mark Lieberman, an exorcist. Sephaniah LeVay, another exorcist. Hato, a bird Youkai. Oku the Orchid, a beast Youkai, Doro, a beast Youkai, and Gorgo, a beast Youkai. The defendant is Kachinonai, a stone Youkai.”

Doro and Gorgo had been brought in later by a different defense policeman, as they had needed to be put in a different jail due to space issues. Inari had stopped there first to let them know, so they were ready for the plan as well.

“The plantiff is Futo, an ayakashi. Thank you all for coming. Let us commence. Your first statements. Futo?”

“Of course.”

A tall Youkai with jet black hair stood up. A mask covered his face and he wore blue robes. His skin seemed a little too pale, almost deathly.

“According to Detective Kurusawa of the defence force, these five were engaged in necromancy, which is illegal under section one B of the lawbook of the king. Simply stated, you cannot bring that which is dead back to life. Detective Kurusawa, directly witnessing the act, stated that Hato, the bird Youkai, was indeed brought back to life due to necromancy, as she was dead previous to the ritual.”

“He’s good…”

“Thank you plaintiff Futo. Defendant Kachinonai, your reply?”

“Of course your honor. I, uh, I think it would be pretty hasty to place Detective Kurusawa’s comments under the evidence against section. All he said was that he saw Hato get brought back from the dead right? That doesn’t instantly uh… mean necromancy.”

“Elaborate.”

“Well…”

Suddenly Oku stood up.

“Excuse me, your honor, it means that we brought Hato back through unconventional means. She was brought back from Youkai limbo. Her physical form was not dead. Her physical tether, a dove, was used to place the spiritual energy of Hato back into her mask, and the dove was of course her body. Therefore, it was not necromancy, but something not written in your little law books.”

“I see. I ask in the future for you not to interrupt your defendant Orchid.”

“I’m not Orchid.”

“Moving on! Plaintiff Futo?”

“Yes sir, I would like to ask these six directly, how did you perform the ritual?”

“I believe that it is unlawful to ask for the exact-”

“No, I believe this to be a special case. Necromancy is cut from the regular spells. If you are suspected of it, you must show how it was done to prove innocence.”

Back with Lawrence and Inari, Koichi swore.

“Shit. Necromancy is separated from that law.”

Inari looked over at him.

“You mean there’s already a hole in our plan?”

“Well as long as-”

Suddenly, Oku opened up her disconnected space, books pouring out. In the crowd a small distance away from Lawrence, Reinhardt could be seen craning his neck.

“What are these.”

“They contain the ritual to recreate masks and transfer spiritual energy back from limbo.”

“What?! Where did you receive this knowledge?”

Lawrence, Koichi, and Inari held their breath. She couldn’t say it. She wouldn’t say it.

“I stole them. From an exorcist library.”

Gasps could be heard in the crowd, and Reinhardt stood up. After a moment, he sat back down, but had reached into his pocket for a cell phone. Koichi looked down, and Inari seemed dumbfounded.

“What?! She just- she’s done! Why!”

Lawrence sat there frozen, barely able to utter a sentence. Yet he could strain a few words out.

“She’s saved them all. Except herself.”

Judge Nise slammed his bamboo stick on the desk, and Futo could be seen joyful on the plaintiff side.

“Does that mean you admit to a crime?”

Oku looked over, still resigned.

“For the case, that means one thing. We’re all innocent of necromancy. You can look in these books for the exact ritual, there was no necromancy involved. According to the small bit of knowledge I have on these idiotic courts, you also have to extradite me to the exorcists, do you not?”

Futo’s foot suddenly stopped tapping and the room became silent. Nise, hard pressed for an interjection, banged the stick once again.

“We will now be having a ten minute recess! Ten minutes!”