In a small room off the main hall, Koichi talked strategy to them.

“After Oku’s little sacrifice we’ve gotten you all off most likely. I’m also surprised to hear that the king didn’t push any other charges on you Oku. If we can get her extradited off to the exorcists, in theory, we should be safe. We should be.”

The door slammed open and a cheery faced Reinhardt walked in.

“We were wondering where all those books had gone, but a sneaky fox? Bahaha! We never even thought of it! That isn’t to say we won't definitely require that you return them as soon as possible.”

“I will.”

“Oh good! Well then, I’m sure you won’t get much of a punishment when you’re brought to our court. Usually folks don’t get the book thrown at them unless it’s pretty damned bad bahaha!”

As they were talking, voices were heard outside.

“The king!”

“He came? Why?”

“The king came to a tiny case like this!”

Looking outside, Lawrence saw a large carriage led by strange creatures. They appeared to be half toad half horse, but as they stopped, a tiny masked Youkai was lowered to the ground. Soon two very large Youkai followed after, and they flanked him on the sides.

Seph looked outside as well at the sight.

“I think that extra charge you were talkin’ about is gonna be applied real soon.”

“Impossible, more charges can’t be added halfway through a trial.”

Inari looked back at Koichi.

“What if the king decrees it?”

These words left Koichi stunned into silence as a bell was heard, signalling that they should be getting back to their seats.

Once they’d sat back down everything unfolded just as Seph had expected. The king stood at judge Nise’s desk and looked down at the crowd.

“Hello, I will be assisting judge Nise in today’s proceedings, and I have advised him on something that may have been missed in the very beginning.”

“Y-yes, of course your majesty. A-according to the shown evidence, Sephaniah LeVay, Hato, Mark Lieberman, Gorgo, and Doro may be excused with no charges. B-but Oku, the beast Youkai, has another charge not previously detailed.”

Kachinonai yawned and looked up at the judge.

“You can’t open another charge after the trial has started though, right?”

“This charge was actually on the page since the beginning d-defendant Kachinonai!”

“Well, what is it?”

The king smiled.

“Orchid, you have been found guilty of nine accounts of war crimes, including pillaging, hostage taking, and the killing of Kuun the Intrepid.”

Oku, who had been leaning back in her seat, set the front legs of the chair hit the ground with a loud snap.

“What did you just say?”

Seph, Mark, Gorgo, Hato, and Doro were ushered out of the room by a few large Youkai, but Hato looked back at Oku with a concerned look. Lawrence, Inari, and Koichi stayed in their seats however. They couldn’t miss this.

The king cleared his throat, then spoke again a high voice.

“According to my men, many counts of war crimes were filed against you. War crimes you never stood in trial for. Just because you live in the mortal realm doesn’t mean you will not follow the laws of war, laws which were decided upon by the very god you fought with!”

“I-”

“You think that just because of the amount of years passed you can get out of the deaths you caused?”

“I never killed Kuun! I never took hostages, I never pillaged! Nobody in her army would have done that!”

“The reports were very graphic, would you like me to go over them once more?”

Futo, foot tapping once again, took center stage.

“I think we have substantial evidence at this point, the jury should be given time to decide upon their verdict.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Kachinonai simply shrugged and looked back at a horrified Oku.

“Did all I could.”

He got up and walked away, and back in their seats, Koichi, Lawrence, and Inari were silently fuming as they whispered to each other.

“It’s completely rigged! Oku didn’t even have time to answer to the crimes!”

“Yes Inari, but what the hell can we do about it? Going against the king would not be wise.”

A few minutes later the gavel was heard again, and the final verdict was gathered. Of course, it was unanimously guilty. The king seemed quite happy with himself, and barked some orders to take Oku with them.

“She will be kept in Tetsu maximum security prison! Five hundred years! Take her away!”

As she was dragged past Lawrence, his heart practically broke at the sight of her face. There was nothing. She looked him in the eye and muttered something quietly.

“So cliche…”

But if she’d still had her sense of humor… she had to believe that they could get her out of this shitty situation.

“Court dismissed!”

Suddenly Reinhardt stood up, cell phone in hand.

“What about the book stealing case!”

“You’ll get her in about five hundred years exorcist.”

With that, the doors were slammed shut, and the last they saw of Oku was her being put in a cage and driven away by the luxurious carriage. After they left the building, they were met by the rest of the group. Mark was in the lead.

“How the hell do you propose we get her back now, huh?”

Koichi was dumbfounded.

“I… we can…”

“No we can’t, she’s been legally slammed. We can’t do anything.”

Yeah we can, we just gotta prove foxy innocent, right?”

Doro chimed in.

“That would be fairly hard, war crimes are difficult to prove. Especially when they’re almost two thousand years old.”

As they squabbled, Inari had an idea.

“Don’t we just need to talk to Kuun?”

The group stopped and looked at her.

“What? Isn’t he dead?”

“We’ve talked to the dead before.”

“Master, if there’s any way to get her back, proving this would make the most sense.”

Lawrence looked from person to Youkai, and once he realized he had the final say, went with it.

“That is all we have right now. We kind of have to go with it, don’t we?”

Seph rolled his eyes.

“Finding some random guy we don’t even know in the abyss ain’t gonna be a walk in the park you know. We need info on this guy. It would easier to take down a god than it would to find a needle in an endless haystack like the limbo.”

He had a point, limbo was almost endless, as it contained the spirit energy of every single Youkai that had ever lived. Inari had an answer to that too, however.

“Mark and Hato found info about Oku in Jeremiah’s library, right? It stands to reason that there would be information on Kuun there as well, right? Maybe even a picture drawn out, or a description.”

Lawrence was still reeling from what had happened, but knew it was their best option. Oku had wanted to stay free, it was the only thing she’d wanted. Lawrence had sent her into the lion’s den without a second thought, and she’d went with anything he said. If she was in a cell in this place for five hundred years it would be his fault, and he wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Let’s go to the library.”

“Alright!”

Koichi showed them back to the portal, where they were able to get to the mortal world once again. Doro and Gorgo took a different portal as well, needing to return to the forest to control a few ravenous spirits. They promised to help if anything came up, and waved goodbye. Reinhardt had gone a different way, so Lawrence found one of Jeremiah’s owls as quickly as possible. Within an hour the entire group was in the library, some of them for the first time. Seph looked very drained.

“Don’t ask me to do this reading shit, alright?”

Mark looked back at him, annoyed.

“Jeremiah is going to find the book for us, never fear…”

“Good, what’s Jeremiah?”

“The worm that helped us with the ritual to bring Hato back?”

“Oh that thing!”

At that moment Jeremiah himself wormed himself towards the group.

“Yes, but remember “that thing” is here to help you. I’ve found Kuun’s data file on floor 1894 row twenty five.”

Mark and Hato felt the familiar feeling of whizzing through the library in the strange elevator, but it was slightly more cramped this time. Once they’d finally arrived at the correct floor and row Jeremiah ushered the group out.

“Let’s see… Omoikane… Rizen… Gen... Ah, here it is! Kuun. Strategist during the war under lady Ukano. According to these records he was captured by the lesser god of knowledge, and killed either by the god or by the Orchid. It is unknown which.

Hato was taken aback.

“What?! They really say that?”

“I would think that death by Oku would be highly unlikely though, they were in a squadron together. They seemed to get along… very well actually. According to the account of a Youkai named Gen, the Orchid dashed past the enemy army to free Kuun, as he was about to be run through by the enemy general. It seems they had turned down a surrender option, and the general was going to execute his hostage. Anyways, Oku battled the general, and Gen met back up with her after the battle had been fought. The enemy general had been defeated, but Kuun had died as well. After this the enemy army was routed.”

With this information, Koichi put his hand to his chin.

“If we could get Gen’s eyewitness account from word of mouth and bring this back to court we would stand a shot at getting the charges dropped… Does it have any sort of description of Kuun?”

“Yes actually, around five ten with black hair and intensely gray eyes. Smiley, soft spoken, and had an affinity for sake. Why?”

Inari explained.

“I believe I can contact him in limbo, and if we can get his account of what happened…”

“You really believe you can talk to someone in limbo? With just a description?”

“We sure hope so.”

“Well, good luck. I’ll be rooting for you.”

After having gathered the info they needed, the group went back to the inn. There they were met by Mitch and Elaine, who had a meal ready. Oku’s open seat next to Lawrence kept a sort of cloud over their heads, but they had a plan.

Seph once again said what everyone was always thinking.

“We can’t ever seem to have a full crew for more than a week huh?”

They ate in silence after the comment, but were all readying themselves for the next day.