Chereads / A Lost Memory: Alitheia / Chapter 20 - Episode 17: King of Skulls

Chapter 20 - Episode 17: King of Skulls

Kacey round up the residents one night and told them a story she'd read in the journal. They met in Colchester's room, bare and not much could be said about it other than the essentials of a bed and cupboards. She then begins to relay the story about what events had occurred on Earth, the beginning of time, during the period of Adam and Eve.

"But like didn't the world evolve from monkeys or something," Fitz queries and Akira nods in agreement.

Jiro agrees with Eliza when she says, "I think it started with Adam and Eve and all the animals created by God." 

A man by the name of Enoch is first shown what transpired on Earth following Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Angels known as the Watchers were given the task of monitoring human activity on Earth until a day came when two hundred of them made the decision to come down and marry human women. In addition to taking human spouses, they also taught men how to create swords, shields, taught them about astrology and constellations, and eyelid beautification. 

"We learnt makeup from fallen angels," Fitz puzzled.

"I mean they were angels weren't they extremely good looking and stuff why'd they bother with us mere mortals," Fitz questions and Kacey shoots both of them a nasty look though later adds a cheeky grin.

"Sorry, go on," she chuckles.

Their offspring were great giants that plagued the Earth and whose appetite were humans. 

"Okay so everyone knows this part, God sent a flood to wipe out mankind and the giants," Kacey ends her storytelling and Akira offers to get some snacks. 

"I didn't sign up for this!" Akira cries out, carrying an empty white plastic bag, it catches the wind like an air balloon as he bolts down the stairs and while being chased by a humanoid creature that followed closely behind. The creature hooked its claws into his back pocket of his blue jeans he tosses the plastic bag over its head and knocks it against the wall and this momentarily stunned it.

He suddenly bursts through the double doors of the kitchen; he rounds the aisle and heads straight for cupboards while shoving in various snacks and drinks. The creature creeps into the kitchen on all fours; its pupils coloured in completely black with no sight of the whites of its eyes, it was naked, pale frail skin with no genitals and not a single hair on its head or body. 

Akira sees the creature's movements and quietly makes his way to the double doors.

"Oh, come on!" he yells as the creature spots him and chases him up the stairs.

"What happened? Why are you out of breathe?" Mandisa asks him while he breathes heavily with his back leaning against the closed door.

"Some weird looking animal or person just attacked me," he tells them and drops the bag of snacks.

"Did you get Pocky?" Jiro asks him and Akira grills him on why that wasn't important right now.

"I think it's a Tangata Devva," Kacey informs while paging through the journal.

"Don't we know of that already?" Eliza asks and she tells her that that was the Agma Devva.

"What's the difference?" 

"The Agma Devva are evil spiritual beings or demons and Tangata Devva are humans who turned into evil beings. They can seem human at first but their behavior says otherwise," Mandisa explains to them.

"True that, I thought I was being chased by a naked old man," Akira says with a nervous laugh.

"How do we get rid of this thing?" he asks and Gherro appears before them.

"You don't," he simply says.

"Huh, then what are we supposed to do about it?" Kacey asks a question that weighed on all their minds. 

"I have an idea!" Jiro shouts and the residents are taken aback.

"Aren't you scared? You usually hide behind me or stay in the room," Akira asks him and Jiro stares at him with furrowed brows.

"I want to help too," he finalizes and they let him tell them his plan.

The residents make their way down the stairs, treading the red carpet with baseball bats and broom sticks once again. 

"Where do you think-?" Akira asks and they shush him.

"Over there!" Jiro yells and rushes towards it, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Jiro, wait, that's not the plan!" Fitz calls while running after him.

"Well, what now," Eliza says hanging over the railing.

The humanoid creature chases after Jiro as he runs in the direction of the attic. Fitz realizes his plan and calls to the residents to follow them.

"Why didn't he just say we should trap it in the attic?" Kacey asks, breathless.

"He probably had a feeling we would say it's too dangerous," Mandisa suggests and she nods in agreement.

"There!" Jiro yells triumphantly as he closes the door to the attic with the Tangata Devva trapped inside.

It was nighttime, in Akira and Jiro's room, they lay side by side in white futons in the lounge. Akira hears shuffling and the tick of the bathroom light switching on. 

"Don't forget to switch off the light, again" Akira mumbles in Japanese, his voice still groggy.

He hears the crinkling of the futon next to him and asks whether he has turned off the light.

"Okay, Anki," Jiro says standing in the door frame of the lounge.

"Why's your voice so far away- who's this?" Akira jumps out of his futon, startled by the figure crouched in the sheets of Jiro's place.

"Sorry, I scared you," a soft voice of a girl speaking in Japanese can be heard under the sheets.

"You speak Japanese?!" Jiro shrieks in Japanese and Akira asks who she is.

"Kaida desu," she says still covered in the futon.

[Translation; I am Kaida] 

"Can we see you?" Jiro asks and stands beside Akira.

"As long as you promise not to scream," Kaida asks them and they nod as though she could see them.

Kaida slowly removes the sheets shielding her appearance; the first thing to come into view was her pointed horns, an eye in the middle of her head, long black hair, green eyes, sharp protruding teeth and red coloured skin from head to toe with no clothing on.

"Wow!" Jiro cries out.

"What the-?" Akira is startled once more.

"I thought you promised not to scream," Kaida shies away from them and puts the sheet over her head once more.

"That was a happy scream not a scared scream," Jiro informs her and complements her horns.

"Okay, fine" Kaida says and removes the sheet and stands up towering over them.

The next morning, Akira and Jiro introduce Kaida dressed in a long grey baggy t shirt that sat by her thighs, to the residents, though she was met with apprehension at first.

"So you don't thirst for human blood and bones and crave the demise of mankind," Kacey asks taken aback by her appearance and Akira translates for her.

"She says No, and that she's a vegetarian," he says and adds that that was offensive.

"Sorry, I read about the Oni in the journal and apparently that's what they do," Kacey admits and Jiro tells them Kaida forgives her. 

"Why are you here?" Eliza asks and she responds.

"She says she found a portal to this location while going on a hunt with her family," Akira says and Colchester's questions whether she is really vegetarian if she goes hunting.

"The women in our village are the hunter gatherers," Jiro speaks for her.

"In your village are there any humans?" Mandisa asks.

"No," Kaida says with a slight accent and she explains to Akira in Japanese that she is starting to pick up the language.

"Wait, how did you know to come to our room?" Akira questions her and they have a conversation in Japanese.

"What are they saying?" Fitz asks Jiro and he says that Kaida found the portal in the hallway near our room.

"Can you take us there?" Mandisa asks Kaida and she agrees.

Kaida had taken them to a translucent hole in the wall of the corridor leading to Akira and Jiro. The residents agree to take a look inside the portal though only Akira had managed to go through.

"How come I'm the only one who came through?" he asks her in Japanese and she mentions that he might be a blood relative of the Oni.

"That doesn't make sense because Jiro would have-" Akira begins to say though trails off realizing he might not be his father's child.

"Gomen," Kaida says and pats his back with her palm.

[Translation; Sorry]

"Why are you sorry it's not like you lied to me my whole life," Akira bitter.

"Are you guys okay over there?" the sound of Kacey's voice travels to their ears.

"Yeah we alright, we'll see you guys in a minute just want to check out the place," he yells back into the portal and the residents tell him they will save him a plate of lunch.

The hours pass by, midnight rolls in and Akira steps out of the portal wearing an Oni mask that covered the bottom of his nose and mouth. It was blue coloured that had protruding pointed teeth on the sides of the mouth like an elephant's tusks and he wore an untied blue stripped kimono rob over his black jeans and white t-shirt with wooden traditional Japanese shoes.

He made his way to the lift, stood with his back towards it and yelled at the top of his lungs, I'm home. The residents hurried from their rooms to his aid asking him what had happened and Akira explained that he had defeated the Oni King and was crowned the King of Skulls.

"Woo that's a cool name!" Jiro exclaims.

"What's it like in there?" Mandisa asks him and he replies that it looked similar to Earth with fields that had been worked on by the Oni of red and blue colours and with a red sky.

"Also how exactly did you manage to pull that off?" Fitz questioned clearly skeptical.

"Aren't they at least twenty feet tall?" Kacey says and mentions she read it in the journal.

"Okay so this is what I did, I got attacked by a group of blue Oni claiming to be the leaders of the village. They said that in order for me to prove my innocence. Innocence of what I don't know either. I had to defeat the Oni king, Kaida's older brother, so they put us in a pit and gave me a katana. Mind you, all the male Oni had only one horn on their heads, which meant they were defeated by the Oni king. So, I thought that's all I gotta do is get rid of one horn but I accidently took out his eye," Akira tells them and the residents stand in awe.

"You should have seen me, I was praised like I was Jesus or something, set them free you know,"

"How did you reach its eye?" Mandisa asked him and he says that he climbed up the pit's railings from above them and katana fell out of his hand into his eye.

"This is such a unique mask, where did you get it?" Eliza says and fiddles with it in hand.

"They skinned the Oni King and made a mask for me," Akira tells her and she immediately drops it on the floor, Fitz elongates the word 'ew'.

"Wasn't Kaida upset you killed her brother?" Colchester asks him.

"Nope, he constantly tried to impregnate her so she was more than happy," Akira says and Fitz says that was messed up.

"Where is Kaida- Nee?" Jiro asks and Akira explains that she was grounded for going through the portal.

"Why do you only have half the mask?" Mandisa asks and Akira tells her that they couldn't fit the rest of his flesh on his face.

"That's disgusting," Mandisa says with a nervous chuckle.

"Also there's something I realized while being with Kaida's family. The Oni look just like the giants in that story you told us about," Akira tells Kacey and the residents' joke that the Oni might be the Japanese version of the great giants that plagued the Earth, all except Kacey as she found that to be more intriguing and contemplated what had been said.

"So they just crowned you the King of Skulls because you just so happened to kill their king?" Kacey adds.

"Well technically after that I kind of convinced them I was a God," Akira mumbles his answer and they all begin to laugh.

"Okay, okay I get it, funny, all I did was showed them a few tips and tricks from the human world," he says and Eliza asks if he could give an example.

"I gave them my lighter to make fire," he says and the residents continue their laughter.

"Wait why King of skulls, couldn't they have just called you the Oni slayer or something?" Fitz asks amidst the laughter.

"That's a perfect question," Akira beamed and went on to explain to them what had happened.

"They asked me to kill more low level Oni as part of the test after I defeated the Oni king. Therefore, I decided to just take out their middle eye or go for their horns instead of making my life more difficult. However, I soon discovered that because they were small, I could just bash their skulls in" Akira stood up this time with his chest out, boasting.

"They even gave me wine from the skull of one of the Oni," he added.

"Ew," Eliza stated with furrowed brows.

"No, wine for you, you underage remember," Fitz whines and pinches his arms, he lets out a cry.

"Ouch," he whines.