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CHAPTER XXXI—SIR LORD ALFIN VAN DOERSCHT BOONE IV

The tomb was musty and stale, but the air was dry. Rōkura stepped passed the fallen door and glanced about. “We have no light.”

“That’s fine,” said Hans. ‘You have your celestial eyes.”

“They didn’t help me that well in the mansion.”

“Ah, oh right,” Hans said. “That’s because the Kurri Warriors are dank little critters that use a subtle magical aura called Blackout.

Her face fell as she put her hand on her hip.

“What?”

“Don’t you think that would have been nice for me to know before I went down there.”

“Indeed,” Shinjiro said, giving the smaller man a look.

“Hey!” Hans cried with an exasperated shrug. “Don’t gang up on me. I had no idea what Lord Asher was doing. I didn’t know they were Kurri Warriors until after he told me that when we were sitting down to lunch.”

Rōkura growled, but left off. “Fine. Let’s just rob this dead guy and be out of here.”

Hans raised a finger. “That ‘dead guy’ would be Sir Lord Alfin Van Doerscht Boone the Fourth, if you would like to know—“

“We don’t!” cried Rōkura and Shinjiro in at the same time.

Hans sighed, defeated. “Fine, fine! Let’s just get this over with. However!”—they looked at him—“do not disturb the body too much. I want to be respectful to Lord Asher’s grandfather.”

Rōkura nodded, then she stalked toward the back of the tomb and looked around. There was nothing. She turned, pointed a finger at the marble enclosure—it was like a high box, reticular in design with a rounded and polished lid full of embossed.

“Oh yes,” said Hans with a nod. “He is indeed in there.”

“Well I thought this would be more complicated.”

“So did I,” said Shinjiro. He glanced toward Hans, waiting for the windbag cat man to give an explanation.

“Ah,” said Hans. “Lord Asher probably means to apologize for the jest he put over you, Rōkura.”

“Oh.”

“Indeed. Now, Rōkura. If you could—the door.”

“That’s right.”

She turned and lifted the door off the sarcophagus and put it against the marble wall with a gentle thud that echoed through the hollow tomb space.

That was when she saw someone outside watching them. “Umm… We have a problem?”

“What is?” asked Hans distractedly as he dusted off the embossed script on the lid. He was quite curious about the lord. “If it’s the door, just put it against the wall.”

Rōkura rolled her eyes.

“There is someone watching us,” Shinjiro said.

“Good heavens,” Hans breathed, turning around. “Ah—well that’s no good. All right you two, let me handle this.” He pulled his vest tight and pushed his glasses up further onto the bridge of his nose with a dusty finger.”

Rōkura followed him outside and Shinjiro took up the rear.

‘Hello!” Hans called cheerily and waved as he stepped down marble stairs. “Don’t mind us.” He chuckled. “We’re just doing a bit of tomb maintenance. Nothing to see here.”

The girl stares at him. She was young, short, wore all black and had heavy dark circles around her eyes that Hans suspected was some form of facial paint, as her lips were also purple.

Chinatsu looked upon the funny little man with the golden hair and sea-blue eyes and smiled. He was cute. Behind him a hot-pink-skinned oni girl stepped out of the tomb wearing close fitting shorts and a shirt, covered by a cloak.

And behind her, Chinatsu was surprised to see… a samurai? “Hmph.”

“…so if you will just be off, we can finish what we came here to do.”

“She’s just staring at us,” Shinjiro said.

“I have an eerie feeling,” Rōkura said.

“She is quite strange,” Hans added. He waved his hand. “Go on. Unless you have a deceased love one to visit, the shrine is closed. Be off with you, now.”

They waited.

She stared.

Hans sighed heavily and then cleared his throat. “Very well. You stay there and do what you like. I and my associated have a lot of work to do. Good day to you.”

Hans turned and gestured in a brushing motion with his hands for them to go back into the tomb. “Go. Go on. Back inside.”

“Yes master,” Rōkura said.

“Hmph!” noised Shinjiro.

“I just don’t want to make a scene,” Hans said. “If that little girl is here, then there are likely others as well. Let’s just get the crystal and be done with this.”

“You read my thoughts exactly, Supporter.”

Hans snorted as Rōkura bent and took hold of the sarcophagus lid with her pink hands. Because of her thick nails that were quite long, she had to grasp the stone without scratching it.

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She hated scratching things with her nails on accident. In her fights, she had lost many of her claws due to the sheer force of her attacks, and yet because of her regeneration, they grew right back, quite painfully when they burst forth anew.

“Hmngh!”

It didn’t budge.

Hans sighed with amusement. “Now don’t do what you did to the door—RŌKURA—NO!”

The marble exploded and Hans covered his face with the crook of his arm as dust and debris blew past him. Some of that he was certain was bone meal. Good lord!

Rōkura coughed, waved the dust away from her face and glanced back toward Hans and Shinjiro.

Shinjiro took a step back. In another situation, he might have laughed, but the body was now desecrated. He tried not to allow a harsh look cross his face. “Too much force,” he said.

“I…” Rōkura started. She glanced back at the dust and the rubble. She didn’t think the lid would cause the walls of the box to break apart too. “I’m sorry.”

Hans sighed long and heavy. “Well, I’m not digging through all that.” He slung his satchel off his shoulder and tossed it to Rōkura. She caught it with bid eyes.

“What—me?”

“Yes you,” he said.

“You broke the tomb,” Shinjiro said.

He glanced back, finding no trace of the little girl who had been watching him. That made him feel both relieved and worried. For one, she was gone, but to where? And to whom?

With a mild sigh, he regarded Rōkura, who huffed and started picking through the refuse.

It was rather embarrassing. She hadn’t meant to—

She tuned. “Was that my bad luck?”

Hans raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Impossible to say, Oni-san. You may have just put too much force into what you were doing. You have to take into account your abilities now. You are an overpowered individual.”

“I thought that only happened when I went into my Rage state.”

Shinjiro sighed. “Enough talk. We can discuss this later. We should be gone from here as soon as we can.”

“He’s right,” Hans said. He gestured toward the skeleton.

Rōkura sighed, glanced at the desiccated corpse of bones and old cloth. Sir Lord Alfin Van Doerscht Boone was bedecked in jewels and in the crook of his arm was a book of sorts.

She picked through the rocks and bits of cracked bone, pulling her hand back quickly. This is so gross! Why do I have to be the one to do this?

“Would you stop acting like it’s going to bite you,” Hans complained. “Find the crystal so we can be gone from here.”

She looked up at him, annoyed. “Why don’t you dig through this corpse and get it then!”

The small man cocked his head. There was no way he was going to go digging through all that. “It’s hardly a corpse—the bones are practically petrified rocks at this point.”

“Hurry up,” Shinjiro said.

“Ugh!” growled Rōkura. “Fine!”

She searched a little more… thoroughly, lifting the arm and—

She shrunk back. “GAH!!!!”

“What is it?!” cried Hans.

Shinjiro’s heart thudded in his chest.

“It moved!” She pointed, jabbing her finger toward the skeleton. “It moved! Hans I swear.”

He sighed, rolling his eyes.

“I mean it, Hans. It moved!!!”

“Nonsense,” he huffed. “You just shook the skeleton when you grabbed it’s arm. “Very well,” he said, annoyed. “If you cannot do what needs to be done”—he pulled his gloved tighter—“then I will fetch the crystal.”

He was awkward as he stepped up to the sarcophagus. He had to balance atop some of the rubble so he could actually get over the edge. Thankfully it had been cracked and was now lower than before.

Shinjiro closed his eyes and looked at Rōkura, who was still shrunk back near the wall in terror. She looked at him sheepishly full of uncertain feelings.

Shinjiro smiled and shrugged, both incredulous at her cowardliness and sympathetic forwards her dislike of picking though a skeleton’s sarcophagus. With women, they tended to have certain irrational fears, whether they be of rats or snakes. Perhaps Rōkura’s was bones?

“All right,” said Hans. “This is proving harder than I thought it would be. My gods, Rōkura. To sit there and claim the skeleton was moving just to get out of finding the crystal is preposterous.”

“It moved, Hans. I swear it.”

“Indeed. And also! How you can rip through living bodies and drink their blood, and then shrink back at rocks and bones amazes me.”

She skeleton shook as he moved it about. It did move rather—

The head turned toward him.

“OoouuuwaahhhHH!!!”

“YOU SEE!!!” she cried. “IT’S LIVE!”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Shinjiro barked. “Are you two playing a prank on me now?”

“NO! NO! NO!!!” Hans rushed, his face red as he shook his head emphatically. “It is indeed moving. It is as she said, sir.”

A subtle worry came over Shinjiro, but he held it back in case this really was a prank. Nevertheless, he reached for his katana hilt, resting his hand over it softly as he leaned over the box.

The skeleton shot up and he lunched back, his sword coming out in a fast deadly strike while Hans and Rōkura screamed at the top of their lungs.

Shinjiro cut through the moving skeleton’s neck, severing its head from its body.

“OH MY GODS!” cried Rōkura. “It’s still moving!”

“I know it’s’ still moving!” shouted Hans. “SHINJIRO—ATTACK IT!”

He brought his sword down in an overhanded strike, putting his blade through the chest down to the hip bones. The skeleton of Sir Lord Alfin Van Doerscht Boone exploded into bits of bone as a cloud of bone meal dust enveloped them all.

Everyone coughed hoarsely and Rōkura shrunk back toward the wall. In reality, she wasn’t certain why she was so afraid of a moving skeleton. Surely she could destroy it easily?

Still though, the very thought of a living dead thing was…

Gah!

“Is it dead?” asked Hans.

“I believe it’s been dead for some time,” answered Shinjiro.

“Oh—you know what I mean, man!”

“Is this… is this another prank planned out on us by Lord Asher?” asked Rōkura, hopping that it was.

Hans cleared his throat. “Well, unless he’s been learning necromancy in his spare time, I wouldn’t think so. And I certainly doubt ‘Sir Withersbee’ has been dealing in the dark arts.”

“It is dead,” Shinjiro said.

They looked at him.

He nodded toward the remains of the skeleton. “Dead, dead.”

“All right,” said Hans. “The crystal. Where is the bloody crystal at?!”

“Isn’t Lord Asher going to be really angry when he finds out what we did here?” asked Rōkura.

“Not if we tell him what happened,” Shinjiro explained. “And if he’s still offended—well then he can challenge us to a duel.”

Rōkura looked at him with horror in her eyes. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Wait!” Hans snapped. “Necromancy?” He glanced about suspiciously.

“Hngh!” grunted Shinjiro.

“What is it?” asked Hans.

Rōkura watched as the samurai turned around, his sword bared.

“Someone attacked me from outside.”

Rōkura gasped as she saw what was protruding from his back. The smell was wonderful. She wanted his blood so bad.

“It’s… a shuriken sticking out of your shoulder.” He glanced toward Rōkura and stepped toward Shinjiro before plucking out the shrunken blade.

The samurai grunted slightly as the blade came out.

Hans looked at it.

It was black with silver edges where the blades were sharpened. “Ninja?”

“No,” said Shinjiro in all seriousness as he stepped forward, leading them out of the tomb.

With a gasp, Rōkura saw the little girl outside again, multiple shuriken in her hands and flanking her, were corpses, both old and new, and skeletons. There was a small army with her.

“Who are you?” asked Hans.

The girl giggled. “I’m Chinatsu.”

“And that means what to us?” asked Rōkura.

“I’m with the Soulless Night gang.”

“Ah,” Hans said with a nod.

Rōkura glanced toward him. “Hm?”

He turned to her. “Sir Alaric Deen was somewhat associated with this group, Rōkura, these people were also there attending your sacrifice.”

Shinjiro glanced toward their oni companion with concern.

Her stomach sunk and her heart started hammering inside her chest. Rōkura almost wanted to bite her hand right then and there. No one was about.

Except Hans and Shinjiro.

“Go,” she said.

“Rōkura,” Hans said. “No. We don’t’ know enough about the situation.”

“That is interesting,” said Shinjiro.

“Yeah!” snapped Rōkura. “Seeing as how you want more than anything for me to go into my rage state, consequences be damned, Hans!”

He shrugged. “Well, I’m turning over a new leaf.”

“Yeah right.”

“Hey,” the girl said calmly, her voice demure. “Are we…” she smiled. “Are we going to stand here and talk all day, or are we going to fight?”

Hans cleared his throat.

“We’re going to fight, you little freak!” snarled Rōkura. “Send your skeletons at us!”

Chinatsu laughed. “I always prefer willing participants.” She outstretched her arm and fingers, clearing commanding her minions to surge forth. “Attack them!”

The dead people and skeletons ambled forth with increased speed.