Justice Hunter

Roko walked down the long flight of stairs into Shizuka Castle's dungeon. He wasn't sure what he would find there. The entry in the journal seemed to be ages ago so there was almost no chance that he would find anything there relevant to the zombies or this assassin from years ago. But at the very least, Roko could retrace this veteran soldier's steps and perhaps find out how his body was disturbed to serve this mastermind. That was Roko's best bet for now.

Downstairs, Roko was met with a long hallway with rows of cells lining both sides. Not a soul was in sight, no guardsman nor any prisoners in any of the cells that Roko could see. In fact, it seemed like there was no sign that anybody had been down here in years. Though the main hallway and guard room seemed to be well maintained. Free of dust for the most part. Roko walked down the hallway, turning his head this way and that to peer into every cell. There wasn't a single body to be found, alive, dead or close to dead. Prisoner or not. Rusted chains and splatters of blood decorated the occasional cell though they too were aged. If Roko recalled properly, the entry he was investigating was about the Tatsuki rebels. There was no signs of any such rebels, though Roko didn't even know what to look for even if there were. The cells were completely empty, of any prisoners and of any clues.

As Roko neared the end of the hallway, he pulled out the journal again and flipped through it, irritated at his own incompetence. He couldn't just blindly follow each entry that came next. He was going to have to spend time to read through it in its entirety and form a list of possible leads to check out instead. Some of these entries were rather sizable though and Roko knew none of the basics such as location names so he was going to have to do some research on top of that. Roko sighed. He sure hoped Fuyuki had some good hot chocolate and tiramisu.

"Can I help you, son?"

Roko jumped, surprised as he spun around to see an elderly man with a broom, standing there with a well worn frown.

"Oh. H-Hello." Roko said, unsure of how to start, "I'm Roko. I'm an acquaintance of Kaguya."

"Izzat right?" The old man rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Ol missy found herself a friend after all this time? Well I'll be."

Roko studied the old man. There wasn't much to him, just an elder who was well into his retirement ages in a simple work uniform fit for a janitor. From that alone, Roko could guess as to who this old man was.

"Are you Hase the janitor?" Roko asked, "The retired military general?"

"I ain't retired yet, you youngin'!" Hase cried as he waved his broom at Roko, "I've still got plenty of spark left in me!"

"I can see that." Roko gulped, "Are you cleaning the dungeon?"

"Of course I am!"

"But it doesn't seem like this dungeon's seen anybody in years."

"That doesn't mean you can just ignore it! You never know when a dungeon will need to be used again and you don't want this place to be all dusty when that happens!"

"I figure that would just be the prisoner's problem."

"We're not monsters you dolt!" Hase hit Roko over the head with the handle of the broom, "We have a proud history to maintain!"

"More a tumultuous history from what I hear." Roko grumbled as he rubbed his head.

"What would a stranger like you know?" Hase snorted, "...What's that book you got there?"

"This?" Roko said as he held up the journal, "This is an old investigation journal. Written by Miyako Kirito. Do you know him?"

"Know him?" Hase scoffed, "I fought alongside the man. That was ages ago though. Great shame to hear that he died chasing after that court assassin. Never did find out who or what killed him."

"Hmm..." Roko mused over Hase's words, "You don't know how he died?"

"Oh we know how he died." Hase frowned, "Internal blood loss. Just like the rest of that assassin's victim."

"I thought you said you didn't know who or what killed him."

"And we sure don't!" Hase snapped, "Yeah, his death falls in line with the assassin's M.O, but we still don't know who this assassin is! Some people don't even think they exist!"

"Some people don't believe the assassin exist?" Roko blinked, "Why?"

"Well for one, some nobles don't want to admit to being targeted by some shadeless assassin. Doesn't look good for the public. But even if we take all these deaths by internal bleeding at face value and assume the very likely conclusion that there's someone behind this, no one can figure out how they're making these kills. How do you cause internal bleeding in someone without cutting the skin? There's no magic that can do something as twisted as that."

"Hm." Roko nodded, "That does seem difficult to answer, though there's still room to assume some sort of assassin is at work."

"And the entire court was worked up trying to find em." Hase growled, "They say there's no assassin to the public but everyone knows better. They just can't figure it out."

"Was Kirito close to figuring it out?"

"That's the assumption." Hase nodded, "Got too close and ended up dead because of it. It was a tough loss and scared the nobles real good."

"Do you have any idea who it could be?" Roko asked.

"Who, me?" Hase said, "Nope. No. No sirree, I ain't got a clue."

"...I'm retracing the journal's steps right now." Roko explained, "I could use your help."

"Why? Trying to find the killer after all these years?" Hase scoffed, "Sounds like a good way to get yourself killed."

"Not essentially." Roko shrugged, "I'm more investigating the zombie outbreak. Kirito's corpse was reanimated recently so my hope is by retracing his steps, I can discover where he was resurrected."

"Wouldn't the best place to start with that is his grave?"

"You know where his grave is?"

"Course I do! He's buried with every other soldier in the Higure Graveyard. Got a nice tomb too!"

"...Do you know where that is?"

"Well, I could tell ya but the entire graveyard's probably buried under a few feet of snow thanks to two nights ago. Should be another snowy night tonight as well so it'll only get worse."

"That doesn't matter. I have to go check it out."

Hase scratched his chin as he studied Roko curiously, "...It's to the west of Shizuka Castle. There normally is a path leading there but with all the snow, that's not an option."

"Is there nobody to take care of the graveyards?"

"There used to be. Haven't gotten anybody new to do it since there's a staff shortage. Takes a lot of training for a relatively unimportant section so nobody's eager to see the position filled."

"Well maybe with the zombie outbreaks, they should."

"Yeah. I guess they should."

Hase began sweeping the floors, clearly uninterested in continuing any conversations. Roko politely bowed slightly before putting the journal back in his pocket and making his leave.

Roko retired to the inn afterwards. It was getting late and the snow was starting to come down when he returned to his room. He asked the inn's staff about getting some hot chocolate and tiramisu but they could only provide hot chocolate. With only half of his usual treat, Roko dove into the journal, reading as much of what he could in the waning day. There wasn't enough time to find reference material for the stuff he didn't know about so he just jotted them down in hopes of simply asking someone if it ever came up. However, as the night began to grow old, Roko could feel his mind beginning to skip and slow down. It wasn't that he was any more tired than normal or that he couldn't connect with his material. His brain just refused to cooperate like it normally did. Roko dreaded to imagine that the missing tiramisu was the cause of all this as he well hoped his body wasn't fickle enough to refuse working on that alone. But it could just be his body being used to the specific habit and not working when it isn't given exactly that.

Roko shook his head. These kind of off train thoughts were exactly what was distracting him. Roko sighed and closed the journal, having only completed reading approximately a third of it. Outside his window, the snow fell heavily, barely leaving a scene to see around it's wild winds. Glancing at the clock, Roko realized he had been working until almost 2 in the morning. Polishing off what remained of his hot chocolate, Roko hurried himself to bed.

Roko woke up slightly late in the morning of the next day. The snow was still falling though more gently. Coming down to the inn's dining area for breakfast, Roko couldn't find Kaguya or Mikado. When Roko asked the proprietor, he said that they didn't return for the night. If it was any of the other princesses, Roko would be worried but with Kaguya, he was confident she was fine. So instead, he asked how he could traverse the snow on foot more easily.

Roko stepped out onto the fresh snow with snowshoes under his arms. The snow around town was already being shoveled away so there was no reason to use them immediately. Dressing more warmly, Roko set a hood over his head and began walking towards the castle. The path towards Shizuka Castle was once again blocked by snow so Roko set the snowshoes under his boots and began the climb up. Around halfway up the path, Roko saw Kaguya and Mikado walking down the path as well, equipped with their own snowshoes.

"Roko!" Kaguya smiled as they ran into each other, "I see we both had the same idea, though in opposite directions. Sorry, I got so caught up in talking with Take that I ended up spending the night at the castle. Were you coming to check up on us?"

"No, I was heading to the graveyard." Roko replied, "I figured you two would be fine and probably had better things to do."

"The Higure Graveyard then?" Kaguya mused, "That certainly would be where sir Kirito's body would have been buried but even that's buried under all the snow now. Do you really think there'll be a clue?"

"From what I heard, he's entombed."

"That certainly makes things easier, though we'd still need to shovel the snow out of the doorway. Let's grab some shovels from Shizuka Castle before we get there."

Following Kaguya back to the castle, they quickly grabbed two shovels before Kaguya began to lead them towards the cemetery. The snow piled high upon the uncleared snow from two nights ago, almost brushing the group's heads up against the lower branches of the trees. There was a clear path laid out between the trees though one might be hard pressed to find it under all this snow. But Kaguya lead them confidently and before long, Roko could see a large, snowed in clearing. Tips of tombstones and grave markers poked out from the depths of the snow along with the tips of a very ineffective buried fence around them. The graveyard was definitely not a fancy one with its lack of precaution against snow but perhaps that was because there was no gravekeeper. The grave markers were not particularly fancy either, with only a few stone headstones. The majority of the ones that Roko could see were made of wood with simple names and dates written on them. A rather inglorious way of honoring soldiers.

"The tomb is in the back." Kaguya said as she looked across the field of buried headstones at the carved stone structure, "That's where the greatest heroes in Hatsuyuki are laid to rest."

"That's at least a good foot of snow blocking the door." Roko noted, Let's get to digging then."

"I'll do some light gravekeeping while you work." Kaguya said as she walked over to a grave covered in snow and began to brush off some of the snow left on top of its gravestone.

Roko and Mikado walked up to the grave with their shovels and began to dig out the entrance. They worked silently which Roko would normally prefer but as this was probably the first time he's been left alone with Mikado, he felt compelled to start some sort of small talk.

"Must be nice." Roko said absentmindedly, "Not having to do hard work like this because you're a princess."

Roko regretted saying the first thing that came to his mind. It definitely sounded like a complaint which was not how Roko wanted to come across, nor did he want to sound bitter about the obvious class differences especially to her personal retainer. But Mikado just laughed gently as he replied,

"Lady Kaguya is no stranger to hard labor. She's well acquainted with inelegant drudgery like this, as hard as it may seem to believe. It's just that she has an image of a princess to maintain now. And that is the most important thing to her right now."

Roko turned around to look at Mikado who continued to work without pause. It certainly was curious to hear that Kaguya has seen earthly work, though Roko could not picture Kaguya working a shovel like this. More intriguing was the idea that being a princess was so important to Kaguya. It certainly wasn't surprising, the position of being a princess was no doubt important to any of the girls enrolled in Memoria Auspice. And it certainly explains Kaguya's distant, regal disposition. But Mikado's words dripped of a history that suggested a different picture. Possibilities flooded Roko's mind and questions jammed together trying to leave his lips but Roko refrained from questioning any further. At the end of the day, it wasn't any of Roko's business.

With the tomb entrance cleared, the group removed the snowshoes from their feet and stepped into the gloomy building. There was no light inside though there were torches around the chamber that Mikado lit one by one. As light returned to the hollow tomb, Roko could see various stone covers set into the wall. On each cover were the names and dates of the person entombed inside. Walking around the walls, Roko looked over each cover for the name of Miyako Kirito.

"Over here." Roko called as he found the grave.

Kaguya and Mikado joined him in front of the chamber and together, they nervously opened the cover and slid out the coffin holding the old war veteran. With one last anxious nod to each other, Roko removed the coffin's lid and discovered...no body inside.

"He's not here." Roko said as he worked through his thoughts, "So that means...the zombie must be the real body."

"Unless they stole the body and are copying it, then it would seem so." Kaguya nodded, "That rules out the possibility of some advanced mimicry magic or homunculus. Is it actual necromancy?"

"If it was just a copy, then this journal wouldn't be on its body." Roko said as he pulled out the journal from his pocket, "Though whenever it was left there intentionally or not is still up in the air."

"Hmmm…" Kaguya pondered the situation with a sly smile, "Whenever or not there is any manipulation going on will depend on what we find here."

"Coffin's empty." Mikado said, "I can't imagine we can find anything incriminating left here."

"Perhaps not in the coffin but maybe around the room." Roko nodded, "They should have at least come here themselves to disturb the body. The body clearly didn't get up and got out on its own."

"That's true." Kaguya nodded, "Nobody's been here in years so any possible left over evidence should be pretty incriminating."

The three nodded and split off to go over the tomb with a fine tooth comb. Mikado went to work opening and checking every other coffin left in the tomb, Kaguya went to work examining Kirito's coffin for minute details and Roko knelt down to scour the floor very closely for anything. Ripped cloth, boot tracks, even any hair that might have dropped. Well...he found one of those things. Roko picked up a piece of hair off the ground. It was covered in the smallest layer of dust which meant it couldn't have been one of theirs. It was a long strand of hair, akin to Kaguya's hair in length, so whoever this hair belonged to had long hair, possibly a woman. Brushing off the dust and dirt from on the hair, Roko tried to identify what color the strand was but in the dim light, all he could determine was that it was not blonde.

"What do you got there?" Kaguya asked, noticing Roko's struggle.

"I found a piece of hair." Roko explained as he stood up, "In all likelihood, it belongs to the culprit."

"Let me see." Kaguya walked over and held out her hand.

Roko placed the strand over her hand and after some difficulty finding the length of the hair, Kaguya held it up against the light of a torch and squinted, trying to determine any more details from it.

"It's white." Kaguya reported.

"Are you sure?" Roko raised an eyebrow.

"About 75% sure." Kaguya nodded, "We can always get it examined in greater detail later. I can have someone from Memoria Auspice preform a DNA test on it to determine who it belongs to."

"Can we use the school's resources like that?"

"There isn't any sort of equipment here in Fuyuki to do a DNA test. I'm sure Madam Zadkiel wouldn't mind doing one small test for me."

"If this becomes an otherworldly case, I could have the test done on my request in an official capacity." Roko said.

"You think this has to do with the monsters you've seen in your travels?" Kaguya asked.

"There's only one experience to draw from but when I was in Aporia, the priest had a grimoire that demonstrated unnatural power. After getting their body drastically remodeled by this foreign power, his hair turned white."

"Interesting." Kaguya nodded, "It's either that or an old person's but given the health of this strand, I doubt that."

"Regardless, if we can just get this DNA tested, we'd have a very strong lead on the culprit." Mikado nodded, "I suggest we do that as soon as possible."

"Indeed." Kaguya took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the strand of hair, "We can always come back later if we missed anything. Hopefully the culprit hasn't caught wind of our investigations."

Roko, Kaguya and Mikado walked out of the tomb, faced with the almost comical amount of snow they had to climb out of. Everyone prepared to put on their snowshoes again until Roko heard the sound of snow being disturbed.

"Hang on." Roko frowned as he glanced over the edge of the snow.

Nothing seemed to stand out until suddenly a rotting hand burst out of the snow and began to pull itself out of the grave. More rotting body parts suddenly burst out of the snow and began rising as they stared dead ahead at Roko and the group.

"I think the culprit's onto us." Roko scowled.