"Ojou-chan, stay away from Akuma!"

Zatoichi moved infront of Niko, who was approaching the strange well behaved Mummy infront of them.

"Oh come on, Idiot samurai, look at him, he's harmless, and he was going to show us the way, so move out the way"

She waved her hand dismissivily at Zatoichi who refused to move.

"Hm..I am not quite sure why thine impression of mineself is so negative, but mineself hath no intention to harm any of thou, especially not since thou art mine saviours."

The Old suit wearing Mummy bowed again, holding its umbrella behind its back.

"See? now move out the way, so i can have a normal conversation!"

She snapped, making Zatoichi move reluctantly to the side, and letting her advance towards the Mummy.

"Niko! What are you doing, Niko!"

Gary whispered loudly at her from behind Zatoichi, With Niko completely ignoring his angry and concerned whispers.

"So, you said you knew the way to the...City?"

She asked after approaching closer to the creature, keeping a safe distance of 2 meters away from it.

"Why yes indeed, young miss, i would gladly begin to repay mine dept to thou by guiding thou all back to the city!"

The Mummy answered cheerfully.

"I must say, tis strange how thou could get lost so far away from the city, very few dare to venture this far away, and those that do, do it in groups."

The Mummy scratched the dried up skin of its chin thoughtfully, creating a slightly disturbing sound of paper rubbing against paper.

"Right? Before that though, can i ask, what are you...?"

Niko looked him up and down, trying to determine something with her brief examination.

"Mineself? Why mineself am the fourth heir to the Menxson family, well, mine house is a small one, but tis still a noble house, so thou can ask for anything from a great variety of things and favours as thine compesnation. A gentleman like mineself would do his outmost best to repay such an important debt."

The Mummy babbled on, casually spinning his umbrella in his left hand.

"So youre a gentleMAN, a male huh..?"

"Why of course, i do not look like Gentlewoman do i? I only dress like that in the confines of mine own chamber, Hohohoho!"

Henry the Male Nobleman mummy laughed at his own joke. Holding his stomach as laughter echoed out of his dried but still lively lungs.

"Pfft...you're funny, i like you, Henry!"

She giggled at his terrible joke, nodding in acceptance.

"So, can you show us the way back, to the uh...city?"

"Why of course, right this way!"

Henry the Mummy immediately began leading them through the forest.

Twirling his umbrella around in one hand, and moving leaves out of his dried face with the other, whilst whistling a cheery tune.

--

"Niko...we've been following this...guy? For hours now, who knows where he's leading us.."

Gary breathed out heavily from behind Zatoichis back, as he was being given a piggy back ride by him, to Nikos amusement and repeated snapping of pictures of them.

"Indeed...cannot trust strange Akuma, even if behave well..could be trick..best slay now, and not regret later."

Zatoichi nodded, moving his Sword up with one leg to emphasise his intentions.

"Oh come on, he seems like a nice guy!"

Niko dismissed the two, moving towards the front, where Henry the fourth, more specifically the mummy, was busy hitting plants out of the way with his strangely pristine umbrella, like some form of crude machete.

"So, Henry, you know when we're going to get to the 'city' yet?"

"Oh? But hasn't thou noticed, we have already arrived!"

He responded with a last bash to a nearby vine, which caused a large shrub to tumble out of the way, revealing a large open space infront of them, with something shining in the distance.

"Is that it...in the distance?"

She squinted, unable to see that far.

"Why yes, is it not obvious, from here on out, we art able to travel by normal road, if we simply travel down this hill, we should be able to make our way towards a nearby small road, leading directly towards the main entrance of our dear city!"

Henry pointed a beef jerky looking finger down the hill they were standing on, a small road, indeed visible in the distance below.

They slowly slid down the hill, Henry doing it in an elegant motion as if he was ice skating, whilst Niko and Zatoichi were forced to keep their balance by placing their hand behind themselves, sliding slowly. Gary tumbling down the hill past them, reminicent of a loose barrel traveling down the road.

"Uh...I hate nature...."

Gary muttered as he was getting up and dusting off his torn and dirty and suit.

"My, My, it seems thine suit hath become ruined during thine travels, worry not, i shall call the finest seamstress to repair and upgrade thine suit so that it shall be greater than it ever was before, we shall embroider it with golden silk and silver buttons!"

Henry popped up next to Gary, almost scaring him to the point of getting a heart attack.

After calming down a bit, holding his hand over his heart, Gary asked.

"Wait..youre going to pay for my suit, and get it stitched with gold?"

"Why yes indeed, tis the least mineself could do for mine saviours!"

Henry took off his hat in a light bow.

"Well why didn't you say so sooner, let's go, what are we waiting for!"

Niko and Zatoichi were getting pushed forward by an overly eager Gary.

"Alright alright. Geez you do love your suits"

Niko commented whilst getting pushed forward.

"Well after all a Suit is a gentlemans first sign of dignity!"

Gary and Henry spoke in unison, getting surprised whilst giving each other strange looks.

"You know, Henry, I like you, you got style, i'l give you that."

Gary said while nodding continuesly with an approving expression.

"Why, i must also say that thine tastes art quite impressive as well, dearest saviour"

The rest of the walk to the city was spent by Gary and Henry chatting away happily about suits and various other 'gentlemanly' things, Garys fear of the mummy person long forgotten as he chatted away like to an old friend, which caused both Niko and Zatoichi to frown in annoyance, lagging behind a bit in order to avoid the full brunt of their conversation.

"Geez, that Gary..."

Niko smiled with a sigh, Zatoichi giving her a dirty look.

"Is best if do not trust Akuma so quick. Maybe show us way, but could be trap, or worse, seems old Zatoichi has to be moral compass as they say."

He mumbled to himself, slightly upset with the situation.

"Oh cheer up, worst case scenario, i'l have you chop everyone up, after all isn't that what you're here for?"

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"I will slice all Akuma, when danger presents, i will slay all danger, until only dust remain."

"Whatever you say, buddy.."

She patted him on the back with an awkward smile, as they were nearing the entrance to the 'city'.

--

A white wall covered their view, circling all the way around the city, a large heavy metal gate stood inbetween them and access into the supposed city.

The gate was filled with markings and writings winding around it in spirals, if one stared too long at the texts on the gate seemed to almost move on their own, shifting from side to side as if bored.

"Oh dear, they seem to have shut the gate again, although mineself always says to hold it open until mineself returns, how disheartening.."

A heavy sigh came from Henrys direction, all eyes resting on him, waiting to see what would happen next. Zatoichi ready to slash him down at a moments notice.

"Oh worry not, this simply means i shall have to unlock the gate on my lonesome, which is an irritating but fairly manageable task, if thou simply excuses mineself for a moment."

He gave a light bow, before continueing towards the gate.

"Oi there, do wake up, mineself am in dire need of passing through"

He said to no one in particular whilst gazing at the gate.

"How rude, do wake up, sloth filled one!"

He tried again, this time thudding the gate a few times with the tip of his umbrella.

After the fourth thud upon the gate, the writings carved into it began to...shiver, for a lack of better words.

As the writings were beginning to shiver frantically, Henry stepped back, his task seemingly complete.

The gate began to move in motion with the writings, shaking slightly in the process.

The carvings on the gate began to look smaller and smaller, as if they were getting further away, yet they were still etched onto the gate.

The gate, as if lagging behind, quickly moved as well, and as it did, the carvings seemed to regain their original size, as if the gate was catching up to them from far away.

A few seconds of such motions later, and the gate was now fully open.

Niko and Gary had already forgotten about the strange gate upon seeing the sight beyond it.

Whilst Zatoichi was wearing a serious and nervous face, his eyes jumping all over the place in his attempt to keep an eye on everything.

"Well here it is, Welcome back home!"

Henry motioned past the now open gate dramaticaly.

The streets were filled with buildings built so closely together they were but only a hairbreadth away from each other.

All built in completely different designs and sizes. Ranging from 1800th century european mansions to small medieval huts, chinese mansions, Japanese towers, and anything inbetween.

The entire architectural situation of the city was a complete and utter mess.

Even though it was utterly strange and unfitting, it somehow still had some sort of charm. All the buildings did not look like some sort of recreation whether cheap or expertly built. All the buildings looked like the read deal, authinticity seemingly bleeding from their every crevice.

Other than the strange buildings, the streets were littered with lamps of every possible sort, hanging on the outside of every building. From Asian paper lamps to robust steel oil lamps.

The most strange thing about the place, other than the building. Were the people.

They all wore clothes as varied as the buildings they lived in. From dirty rags that were no more than potato sacks, to modernistic suits and everything inbetween.

Another striking feature of the inhabitans of this strange city, was that almost all of them wore Masks, full face carnival masks that covered most of their heads. And there seemed to be atleast a few traders who were selling masks at every small corner of the street.

Those few who were not wearing masks, looked pale and slightly sickly, as if they had been avoiding the sun for a bit too long.

"Oh excuse me, i almost completely forgot!"

Henry snapped his fingers, remembering something.

He quickly dug out a small mask from within his suit, and put it on.

The mask was a small black mask embroidered with gold lace, that only barely covered his eyes, leaving almost all of his dried shrunken mummy face unprotected.

"There, wouldn't want to flaunt mine beauty to all the less unfortunate would we, Henry thou art a kind gentleman indeed!"

He praised himself as he adjusted his minimal mask.

"Right..."

The trio looked at him with blank eyes, and awkward smiles, unsure of what to say to his statement.

"So...is this some sort of carnival?"

Niko asked Henry as they all got inside.

"Hm...Carnival?"

He looked back wuth a raised nonexistant eyebrow.

Just as he did so, a small carriage drove past, carying barrels of various goods, surprising them.

What surprised them wasnt the wagon itself, but rather what was pulling the wagon.

Pulling the wagon was a large lizard standing on its hindlegs, its small arms covered in small feathers. Its Large jaw filled to the brim with obvious sharp teeth was held closed by the leather strap binding it to the wagon.

The wagon slowly rolled away, as everyone in the group other than Henry looked at it disappear in the distance.

"A...dinosaur...?"

"Akuma...!"

"What have we gotten outselves into..."

They muttered at the same time, each pair of eyes filled with different emotion. Curiousity, Hatred, and Worry.

"What is wrong, mine saviours, shall we head towards mine mansion now, and get ourselves cleaned up, i assure, mine servants shall make sure thou art sparkling clean by the time dinner is ready!"

Henry motioned them forward, as they slowly walked towards his mansion.

"Henry?"

Niko asked.

"Why yes, what is it, thou wishes for me to hire a carriage, stead of walking..?"

He began to call one of the nearby dinosaur driven carriages, motioning for it with a hand wave.

"Ah no, i mean, Yes that sounds amazing!"

She agreed to Garys and Zatoichis dismay.

"But i have a few questions other than that, that i need to ask"

"Why of course, but say you we wait until we art sitting at the dinner table and we shall discuss as much as thou wish, for now, relax and let us enjoy a warming bath as soon as we arrive!"

He smiled kindly, his dried face creating wrinkles where no wrinkles should ever be.

"Oh sure i guess"

She shrugged and relaxed into her seat ontop of the fancy Lizard driven carriage.