I was taking a stroll through my kingdom at around lunchtime. I decided to revisit that alleyway. I saw she returned there also. "Hey, what are you doing back here?" I asked. "I could say the same to you". I didn't know for sure she'd be here but just had a gut feeling that she would. I don't normally like doing things like that, but this time it wouldn't really do anything to me. "Well I don't come here every time I'm feeling down, so whats up?". "Uh, well, uhm, you see its like...hm". So she doesn't want to talk about it. I decided to change the subject, "Actually I'm here to investigate something". What I said was partially true. I needed to find out how the oni men got here. "Isn't that something you hire detectives to do or something?" she asked. "I like to do my work myself". This was sort of a lie. The detectives in my kingdom aren't trained to pick up on these sorts of abilities, and I didn't want to go through the hassle of explaining it to them. The lie part was, Yori fought all my physical battles thus far. And my plans require a lot of team work. "Oh ok, I'll leave then". She got up then as she exited, I told her thank you. I went to the end of the alley.
There were three burn on the bottom. Implying that they possibly came out of the ground. Although they did have fire based powers. I also don't know when the arrived. I needed to ask Hikari what happened soon. Although I did earlier today, and she said her memory was fuzzy, so I shouldn't rush things, doing so would probably cause her pain.
I went back to right outside the alley. I saw a someone with a white coat and a suit underneath. His hair was pure white, and he had cyan eyes. He accusing someone of stealing his own book. "Look bitch, I know you stole my book. And now you're using it to make money!". The shop owner replied, "I- I have no idea what you're talking about, leave now! You're driving away customers". The way the shop owner spook, he was almost certainly at fault. I couldn't prove it however, and this situation was getting out of hand. I decided to grab the arm of the one with white clothes. As soon as I did, he turned his head to me. "What are you doing!?" he asked me. The store owner clearly knew who I was and had a shocked expression on his face. He quickly ran back inside and pretended as though we never encountered him. "Hey come back here!". Of course the shop owner wouldn't. "What's your name?". I asked him calmly as if I was trying to console him. It's obvious he thought I wasn't and assumed I meant the worst by talking to him. He quickly broke out of my grab and pulled out a gun with ace symbols on it. He then pointed it at himself and said, "Yes, this man is probably part of it, yes I will be careful. Indeed they have hypnotized the Emperor to attack me". Well it was clear to me now, he had a zōkyō. Either that or he's just insane. I think I should just play along. I put my hand on my eyepatch, "You see, I have the same ability as you, which means I can't let you walk away.". He immediately said, "Wha- What?! You- You are one of them aren't you!? You've come to silence me!? You haven't been brainwashed at all". I told him it was kinda impossible to brainwash me. Well this shit was really embarrassing. The people around us must've been thinking their king is so weird. I decided just to grab him and run. I grabbed him aggressively. I took about 4 steps to gain some momentum. Then suddenly, I couldn't feel his shirt. I looked back behind me and he vanished. Well I didn't expect that. I looked all around me. I looked left and right before looking up and seeing him on the wall about 2 stories up. He had a knife stuck into the sides so that he wouldn't fall off, and he had both of his feet on the wall as if he was trying to run up it. "See ya". He pulled himself up from off of the knife. He jumped up and managed to put his feet on the knife. Then he jumped off the knife and grabbed the ledge. I decided to fly through the alley and see him at the top. The alleyway ended after 2 buildings so I had to fly up. I managed to fly up and saw the runner. He jumped back and fell on the ground as soon as he saw me fly up. "Uh oh" he said. I was about to fly to him, but a bright blue light surrounded him and then suddenly both he and the light vanished. I noticed some small rocks on the ground by him. He immediately returned to world about 12 feet away from where he previously was, and where I was now. Whats stranger, the rocks I saw disappeared and didn't even appear where he showed up. I threw my eyepatch off in the hopes of catching a glimpse at his eyes. He was about to run off the building into the alleyway, I yelled "stop running!". For whatever reason, he decided to front flip off the building. I guess he wanted to look cool, but it gave me the opportunity to look at his eyes. As soon as we locked eyes, he completely, stopped moving. He didn't even move a finger willingly. I flew as fast as I could to him. He was already above the alley, and was about to fall. I managed to get to the edge but he was already 3 feet off the ground. I wouldn't be able to make it time but there was a ton of trash under him which would break his fall. He fell to the ground with minor injuries. I flew down to him. I knew that he would still be hurt so I decided to go down there and check it out. When I got there he seemed to be fine. A pin with the word celery and a picture of a capital. There weren't any broken bones, surprisingly. I think I could just leave him there, but I would give him a note. I brought out my note book that I always kept on me, with the names of everyone I ever looked at in the eyes as it would give me their name. Apparently his name was Kimmi. I tore a small piece out of the notebook and wrote on it, "I hope you're alright, listen, I do think the shop owner is at fault. When you get the chance come to the capital, the guards should let you in if you give them this note". I had sloppy almost recognizable hand writing. But just incase someone managed to copy my handwriting, I attached a purple cross diamond to it. It was a public calling card of sorts. It wasn't able to be sold, and it was impossible to remake.
I left the alley swiftly. Since there wasn't much left to do I decided to head back to the capital. I passed a building which had a poster about a kingdom called Tempest. It looked like it became famous for having good vegetables. It tasted absolutely divine. I guess I should check that out later. Although, I heard from the crowd that apparently its on the verge of a war. With another kingdom called Unitarum.
I finally got back to the capital. I told the guards at the front, "There might be a white haired man coming here with a note from me. Please let him in". They replied to me, "Understood". I immediately went by the throne room. I saw the wall was already open. Of course Mayumi was in it. She was reading a book. It was an unimportant book about physics or what not. There were candy wrappers all over the floor. She had a chocolate bar in her mouth.I decided to search for a book with the words "Kimmi Adachi". It brought me his book. The info in the book was weird. It said he lost his memory, it wasn't a case of amnesia or a spell. It wouldn't show me his old memories, which means he doesn't have those memories. But the book still should've told me what was keeping his memories from returning, or at least what caused it.Earlier I saw him teleport, but small rocks disappeared after. I had about 5 ideas in mind as to what it could be. It seems my 4th guess was indeed correct. The strangest thing about him was, his birthday. "06/48" and was only 15. He was younger then me. But his birthday was impossible to have. There aren't 48 days in a month, and even if he was born somewhere with a completely different calendar, they still had only 12 months, and 24 hours in each day. What's more, he was born in japan. No alternate universe or anything. "Hey what you got there?". Mayumi asked. I hadn't yet told her about Kimmi. I explained how I encountered him earlier. "Oh can I see?". Of course that would be the first question she asked. I gave it to her. She quickly skimmed through it. "Oh so he's an extra..?". I quickly asked her what that is. She explained while handing me a book. "So there's like this thing, where months have more then 29-31 days. It isn't able to be seen by anyone. Some people who are born like that, have really powerful zōkyō's. They also for the first 14 years of their life, they don't retain memories. They are just kinda are stuck in this fog void thing during that time, no one can even comprehend it till they go back to it. I don't know how someone would do it". As I was reading and listening to her, I started feeling quiet dizzy. Something Mayumi found out while I was gone is that people who take in too much knowledge from the Mirror house, start feeling extremely dizzy and could even pass out. I had to rush out of there.
I ran to my room. I jumped on my bed. Immediately I felt like I had to sleep. I got up and faced myself towards a tv in my room. On the news, the ruler of Tempest. They were supposed to give a public opinion, on the new Hai ruler. And the almost complete overhaul of the kingdom. "I think that we should invite them for doing this public service for us". It seems like they want to thank us. I can head over there tomorrow. Based on my estimation, it would take 2 days to reach. I couldn't see the rulers name because this was a television recording. It doesn't seem like he has bad intentions however. I lay down, and start feeling my grasp on reality start slipping. I left the tv on and I didn't change out of my royal clothes. After about 5 minutes of just looking up at the ceiling and counting sheep, I fell asleep.
9 hours later
I was awaken by the sound of television combined with the noise of a tapping on the window. The television was just doing its normal weather report. The time said, "9:24 PM". The tapping noise I heard when I woke up intensified. I decided to look out my window. The window was about 4 ft tall and wide. I saw a silhouette of someone familiar. Then they slammed their hand onto the window. It didn't break, but there was a note in their hand. It was the message I gave to Kimmi. The hand was also unusually white. It was like looking at a piece of paper. So that concluded, the person by my window was Kimmi. Someone normal would've already been freaking out. I knew if he had the intention of hurting me, he could've done so. I suppose since I was asleep and didn't wake up, he couldn't get a meeting with me.
I opened up the window, Kimmi jumped in. "You know its really rude to keep someone waiting by the window". He said. I start internally laughing. "You know its really rude to be waiting by someone's window". He immediately sat down on the floor across from the window. I sat down across from him and we started talking. "So why do you think the shop owner stole the book I wrote?". Now that I think about it, it was a gut feeling if anything. Not that I wasn't going to keep investigating just because I assumed it was the shop owner's fault. But he seemed nervous, this could've been because he's nervous to talk to people and tries his best to avoid confrontation. He was a shop owner however, he has to talk to people a lot to make money. So it didn't make sense he was nervous, unless Kimmi had a point. As I explained this to him, he asked, "So, do you trust me?". I can't automatically trust anyone who doesn't seem guilty, after all, what makes you trust someone could just be an act. "I do, but that's because you ran away from me. Then you returned". He seemed relieved. Like a moment when you think you might die, then it turns out to be a joke. I remembered something strange he said earlier. I asked, "I want to know what you meant by, "are you one of them?"". Kimmi explained to me, "You see, there's an organization following me and erasing my memory. I haven't been able to find where find they are, for obvious reasons". The way he described his memory wipe, he didn't sound at all like the extra day phenomenon. I tried getting out of him, who he believed it could be, but he repeatedly didn't have an answer. I offered to bring him along to go to Tempest. He agreed. It would've only been me and Yori, because Julius needed to watch the kingdom while we were gone, and Mayumi would never leave the Mirror house. We ended up talking all night, for some reason he doesn't have a need to sleep. There was a second reason I explained to him, tempest might be where the organization is. And I had just woken up.
In the morning, I decided to go see off Mayumi and Julius before I left. I had gone to the throne room. Of course because I believed Mayumi to be in there. When I got there, the wall was closed. I opened it, but she wasn't in there. And she left a pile of candy wrappers all over the floor. I closed it and went to her room. When I opened the door, she had a cow on a table. "Oh hi!". She said, while chewing on a candy bar. "You shouldn't talk why you eat". I didn't really care too much about the cow. A day prior she did an experiment on a horse for a special carriage. She asked me if I was going anywhere. I told her I was going to tempest. "I heard they have great celery there". She said. I guess I could go and check that out. I went by her lab table. For some reason, she had a list with almost every conceivable candy item out there. The top of the paper had the word grocery list with 3 underlines. "What the hell is this grocery list?". I could sense the irritation in her voice when she replied to me, "A grocery list". "For whom, a 10 year old alone for the weekend?". She seemed a little frightened, "Who leaves a 10 year old alone for 2 days?". I replied, "Mine, as well as a few". I talked with her for a little more. It turns out she had met Kimmi at the candy store. He was buying some hard candy. She forgot what it was called, but it was being investigated for presumably having drugs in it.
I left her room. I went to Hikari's room. She was still asleep. Yori was in there. He was just reading. I told him, "Yori get ready, we are leaving to tempest". He closed the book and put it on the ground. "Why?". This isn't something a Knight could usually ask their Emperor. But I told him that he could be comfortable around me. "They invited us, it would be rude to stand them up...also it could be a chance to take over their kingdom". I could tell Yori was a little bothered by the fact it would only be me and him but he said ok. I also told him someone named Kimmi would be joining us. He had also met Kimmi prior. They had a run in at the book store. They were causing a commotion there. Much worse then what I saw, where everyone choose to ignore them. Yori was also guarding the front gate last night. And told Kimmi I was asleep. "You think he's innocent right?". I didn't feel a need to deny it. "Indeed, he also talked about an organization, it might be in Tempest". Yori didn't feel the need for an explanation about the organization. "I do know Kimmi is innocent. Because the shop owner had followers who were too aggressive and tried to scare me and Kimmi off". I decided to leave a note for Hikari. The note said, "I'm going to tempest for 5 days. Please stay out of trouble. And make sure Mayumi doesn't get diabetes while I'm gone". I left the note on her face to insure she would read it. Yori left the room and went to the front gate. I exited Hikari's room.
I roamed through the halls, where I found Julius. I was planning on talking with him in his room, but this is fine. "Hey, I'm leaving to go to tempest". Julius had a sort of shocked expression. But fine overall. "Oh, ok, anything else?". I don't know how, but he always knew if I had more to say, like a mind reader. "Yes, the other day I ran into a zōkyō user. He had his book stolen from a store owner named Reijo, I need you to investigate it, ok?". He said ok. I didn't feel the need to talk to him more.
When I got out of the capital, there was a small crowd outside. My guards tried to calm them down. But eventually the crowd was so annoying they were thinking about resorting to violence. I normally tell them not to, as people will pretend to be the real victim, and blame everything on the guards for scarring them. There were about 20 to 40 people so I could't use my zōkyō. They were complaining about my visit to the book shop. How I let Kimmi go away. It seems Reijo knew I was gonna do an independent investigation. He must've thought it was pointless. Or if he was innocent it would. But it seems like he wanted to be immediately found innocent, despite lacking proof of it. It was very annoying. Kimmi grabbed my arm. Then he pointed his gun to his head. "Well then we're off". A cyan light surrounded it us. The light moved in the patterns you would see electrons move around protons and neutrons. Suddenly my mind and body felt like we were being separated. I saw flashing images of the world being looked at from below in space. This feeling lasted for 5 seconds but after, we were directly behind the crowd. We managed to run away stealthy to the front gate.
When we got to the front gate, I was extremely exhausted from running. Yori was there. He was setting up a carriage. Yori attached a special horse to it. Yori said it was called a Sleipnir. The horse had a barrier that would protect us from most attacks. It is the result of Mayumi's "failed" experiments. She apparently wanted one with wings. This one had 8 legs, so its travel speed on land was immense. I got inside the carriage body and fell on my face. I didn't feel like getting up, and fell asleep. Kimmi was poking at me but I wouldn't get up.
When I woke up. We were just about to arrive to tempest. I was off the ground of the carriage body and in the seat of it. Yori must've moved me. Kimmi was drooling in his sleep. Yori asked me if I was up. He must've heard someone got up. "It's me". Yori said that we were close. When we got to the front, I poked at Kimmi to get up. Much like me earlier. I opened up his eye and took off my eyepatch. "Wake up". He immediately jumped up. He seemed a little freaked from that, and got a little defensive. "I'm up, I'm up!" he said. "Good morning". He immediately calmed down. He said good morning back, then noticed my eyepatch was off. "This is, I think, the first time I've seen you with that off". I told him "You're not entirely wrong". I did use my zōkyō on him once, but he didn't see my eye that time. When we pulled up to the gateway, 2 guards came up to the carriage. Yori said, "I am the body guard of Akito Ryusaki". The guards were still defensive. "We have to take a look inside". They saw me and Kimmi inside. They still weren't satisfied, but noticed the amount of cross symbols on our clothing and allowed us in. They showed us an area to leave our carriage. I saw from a distance, people in a church. I decided to go near it and overheard the priest. "Oh lord Celery, we offer this clown as sacrifice". I had never heard something so ridiculous. The person they were scarifying didn't seem too out of the ordinary. They looked like just an average person you could find walking around anywhere. Neither me, Kimmi, or Yori felt compelled to help that person. I still walked in, with the orders for Yori and Kimmi to stay out. "Hello, it is I, Akito Ryusaki". They seemed quiet happy to see me. It was strange. "Ah, yes the one invited by our god. To what do I owe this pleasure?". With how these people reacted to my mere presence, it seemed like I could reason or trick them. It also appears, Celery is the name of their king, or Celery is the name of their god, and that god made the king request them. "I just wanted to learn the way of Celery". The crowd seemed pleased, "Of course you do, we were just about to sacrifice this low-life". I asked them what he did. They replied, "He called our methods cult-like. We are just trying to honor our god, and for that he must pay". I asked what else he did. "Oh yes, if that was all we would just let him go, however he has also stolen from various people, and had murdered several people. He did this for the soul purpose of insulting us, by leaving the bodies here, and trying to convince people we we're a cult". They brought the bodies to me. This kinda annoyed me. "As a god of death, it is my only purpose of living to vanquish the filth from this world". They gave me the dagger that they used for all their sacrifices. The one who I would have to kill, his name was Kazuki. I lifted the dagger up. And with one swift stab. Kazuki died. For a moment, I saw a faint Kazuki separated from his body, fall under the ground. The priest thanked me. They were glad to have a Shinigami with them. "Listen, I must leave for now but I will return". I existed the church and outside Kimmi and Yori were there waiting for me. "What happened?". I told them a crazy church helped me kill a criminal. Everyone inside told us to come with them.
They dragged us over to this restaurant called, "V'ento". It was a giant building shaped like a cat. We went inside. Me, Yori, and Kimmi sat at a table in the very middle. They immediately brought celery to us. I have always hated celery. It was the only vegetable I would never eat. I grabbed it and pulled it closer to my nose so I could smell it. It smelt horrible. I could tell Yori and Kimmi felt the same way. And definitely didn't want to be the first one to eat it. "How about we eat it at the same time?" I asked. They seemed to be in agreement. We were all repelled to eat it. We each took a bite of it. We chewed on it for a bit. I could tell the priest and the followers were watching us. After a bit more chewing, I spit that shit out. I immediately stood up from my table and said, "That was horrible". Yori also couldn't handle it anymore. We all sensed the frustration from the crowd. The priest said, "My, how unfortunate". Yori drew his sword. He used his zōkyō ability called void. It made a barrier around us. I saw out of the celery I chewed. There was some small magic lime green circles around it. I grabbed it and put it in my pocket. Kimmi put his hands on both of us. A second later, we were outside. Directly outside V'ento's door. Outside, we found a news paper. Saying that we had already came over and threatened the king. We were now wanted in this kingdom.