Ghost

Roko jumped off the roof and landed on top of a small shed. Climbing up the side of the building, he pulled himself up onto the house's roof and took a quick breather. The black smoke that he was investigating was now right behind him. All he had to do was get up and examine it. As he had grown closer to this mysterious smoke, Roko only became more suspicious with no signs of any fire and no sounds of any distress coming out from around it. Now that he was this close there was no scent of soot or sounds of any fire either, observations that only made Roko more cautious about his next move. Pulling himself over the arch of the roof, Roko carefully climbed down the roof, towards the column of smoke pouring up and peered over the edge.

The mysterious black smoke was coming out from a hole in the ground. There was no end to this hole from what Roko could see beyond the smoke. Only an endless void that exists only to spew out this strange smog. No zombies seemed to be nearby so Roko hooked his rope onto the roof and carefully dropped himself back onto the ground. Walking up to the billowing pillar, Roko peered into the smoke and the void, trying to discern anything from its construction.

"Scan."

No response.

"So it's not alive..." Roko mused, "Analyze."

Smoke

HP: N/A

MP: N/A

Attack: 0

Defense: 0

A dark smoke intertwined with the souls of the dead. Created by an unknown dark ritual, the souls interwoven with the black smoke spiral upwards before dissipating and reoccurring at the bottom of the well, caught in an endless cycle.

"Souls?" Roko said, surprised, "Of the dead?"

Roko reached out with his hand, hesitating a bit before he plunged his hand into the smoke.

The smoke stirred around his hand, its estranged movements revealing wisps of silver inside and the swirling winds seemed to take on a soft tortured screeching or screaming. Roko quickly withdrew his hand and the silver linings and noises stopped as the smoke closed back up.

Roko took a step back and pondered his next move. This smoke was definitely strange, though it didn't seem like it was dangerous or had anything to do with the zombies. Roko couldn't think of any way to dissipate it, though magic like that would probably be far beyond what him or any of his friends could do. Roko slipped his backpack off and found a handkerchief inside his backpack. Tying it around his nose and mouth, Roko walked up to the pillar of smoke once more. He took and deep breath...and plunged his head into the smoke.

Immediately his vision became clouded with dark gales and the wild winds became deafening screams of the dead. Roko's mind reeled from the terrifying sounds but pushed forward, kneeling down and pushing his face closer to the dark abyss from which the smoke was coming from. Squinting through the buffeting winds, Roko could make out something lying at the bottom of the hole. Trying to block some of the winds from his eyes, Roko glared through his fingers at the abyss. And in the darkness, Roko could make out a shriveled up, decayed body.

Roko recoiled in surprised and fear, pulling himself out of the maelstrom of souls, gasping and heavily perturbed. Leaning against a roof post, Roko tried to collect himself again. From what he could tell, this hole was actually a grave. A grave for the long dead body of...somebody, a woman. From what he could make out of the layered clothes she was wearing, this corpse used to be of royal or noble birth, though that hardly narrowed things down.

"Everything doing well over there?"

Roko looked up as Kaguya peered down from the roof at him.

"Well...some progress has been made, I suppose." Roko said as he removed the handkerchief from his face.

"Hmmm..." Kaguya let herself down by Roko's rope and walked up to the pillar of smoke, "So this was what we were seeing."

"How's the zombie problem?"

"Endless." Kaguya sighed, "I left Mikado to check up on you. Have to say, I was curious about this smoke as well."

"It's a well of souls." Roko explained, "There's a bunch of spirits mixed up in that smoke."

"Souls huh?" Kaguya reached out towards the smoke, "This is safe to touch right?"

"I touched it just fine." Roko shrugged.

Kaguya's hand went towards the smoke and Roko's mind turned back to the corpse. There had to be something he could mention about it. There had to be some reason why the corpse was used. I mean, in all likelihood, it was the source or catalyst for this well of souls but was that it? Was the body connect to somebody relevant? Someone...like…

"Kaguya wait!" Roko found the words coming out his mouth and his hand reaching out as dread took over him in a split second.

"Hm?" Kaguya turned around a split second too late as her hand touched the smoke.

A scream blasted out from the mixture of souls, a lone tortured scream as opposed to the myriad that Roko had heard all his times before. The smoke erupted outward like a giant flame as the silvery souls trapped within began to leak out from between the tumultuous gales. The silver wisps transformed the further out they escaped the smoke, taking the form of people as they moaned and yelled and cried. Once they were far enough out, they broke free of the cacophony and began to fly away at great speeds, spreading out and descending upon the homes of the village.

"W-What's going on?!" Kaguya cried over the screaming winds.

"I don't know!" Roko yelled back.

Around the corner, Roko could hear the moans of the zombies approaching.

"Get back up!" Roko cried, pulling Kaguya back towards the rope.

Together, they managed to get back on the roof and remove the rope in time before the zombies swarmed the area, preventing them from investigating any further. The two took a moment to steady themselves before Kaguya spoke up, "What happened?"

"I don't know." Roko answered honestly, "That didn't happen to me when I touched it. The only reason I can think of why this happened is because it's you."

"Me?!"

"This entire thing was a trap meant for you." Roko explained, "There's a corpse at the bottom of the smoke. Rotted, probably a noble. They're being used as a fuel source for all this. Do you have any idea who they could be?"

"In this country?" Kaguya scoffed, "It could be anybody. If you're a noble, you have no end of enemies here."

Before Roko could question any further, Mikado arrived on the roof with them, jumping from the neighboring house and rushing over.

"Lady Kaguya." Mikado frowned, "What's going on?"

Before either of them could answer, screams erupted across the entire village. Not like the tortured screams of the dead, but alive, human screams of horror and despair. Kaguya sprung up immediately and picked up the hooked rope that Roko had been using. Walking up to the front face of the house, she hooked the rope onto the roof and jumped off, swinging her body back towards the home and crashing through a window.

"Is your princess always this reckless?!" Roko cried as he got up and ran after Kaguya.

"Would it surprise you if I said yes?" Mikado sighed as he followed Roko.

The two of them entered the house through the same window, following the screams of the people inside before locating them along with Kaguya on the first floor of the house.

The occupants of the home were screaming, in horror and sadness as the ghost of somebody hovered over them, his hands on the shoulders of the parents. Kaguya had grabbed a chair and was trying to swat the ghost away but to no avail.

"Kaguya!"

Roko made to run towards her before Mikado suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

"I'll handle the front." Mikado nodded before he ran towards the front of the house. Zombies had begun to crowd in front of the home, drawn in by the screams of the family, having busted through windows and starting to claw and pound at the door. None of them had managed to get through for now and Mikado was starting to dispatch the ones trying to pull themselves through the windows.

"Kaguya." Roko ran up behind Kaguya as she stopped to take breath, tired from her fruitless efforts of trying to hit a ghost with a chair.

"I can't..." Kaguya gasped, "I can't get rid of them."

"Don't suppose we can use some salt?" Roko shrugged.

"I wish." Kaguya stood back as the family continued to be tormented by the ghost, "Exorcism isn't really a thing in Fuyuki."

"...Scan."

Roko tried his spell on the ghost but it failed to activate. It was only a slight hope that it would work but Roko expected as such.

"Analyze."

Kenta Uragami

HP: 0%

MP: 0%

Attack: 0

Defense: 0

The spirit of a dead man. Its touch seems to induce feelings of sadness and horror in its victims though it appears to only work with those of significant enough history with them. Getting caught forces the victim's memories of that person to replay constantly in their head, with the negative emotions felt upon their deaths taking over their mind.

"Well that helped explain things but it didn't really help resolve things." Roko sighed.

"What did you find out?" Kaguya asked.

"Just how they work." Roko shook his head, "No idea how to get rid of them."

"No other details at all?"

"Not much other than his name, Kenta Uragami."

"Uragami?" Kaguya began thinking to herself.

"Something important about that name?" Roko asked.

"...This is the Uragami family. He's their grandpa."

"Wait." Roko turned to look at the people being tortured by the ghost, "You're saying this is his family?"

"Yeah."

"Why would his ghost be tormenting his family?"

"I wouldn't know." Kaguya shook her head, "I wouldn't even know about his relationship if they weren't crying out 'grandpa' and 'father' right now. Does your spell not tell you anything?"

"Not about the person's history, no. Mostly just stuff about its operations or constitution."

"…" Kaguya thought about it for a moment before she tried approaching the ghost again, this time without the chair, "Kenta! Can you hear me? This is your family. You're hurting your family."

The ghost just moaned, its face shifting from the visage of an old man to a young man, its expression remaining tortured and sad, just like his family.

"Kenta!"

"You think you can reason with it?" Roko asked.

"I can't think of anything else." Kaguya bit her lip, "There has to be some way to dispel this ghost."

"Well, Kenta might not be wanting to do this either. This magic doesn't exactly respect the dead's wishes."

"Then what do we do?" Kaguya growled.

Roko himself was stumped on what to do, sharing in Kaguya's frustration. He mulled over the situation though there was no easy solution he could think of. Magic of this level would require expertise of some specialist. Zadkiel, Edea, maybe even Lavinia would be more suited to this situation. Then again, this was magic of a kind that even Zadkiel was concerned about. And yet missions around this foreign magic was being given to him. That's when Roko realized that he was supposed to be the specialist.

Roko raised his eyes up as he grew more frustrated at every fact of his situation. And as he did so, he saw a trio of ghosts passing through the ceiling of the house, drifting down and surrounding a pensive princess.

"Kaguya!"

Roko's cry startled Kaguya out of her thoughts and she realized she was surrounded by ghosts. Kaguya stumbled back but her eyes became transfixed on the specters.

"...Brother? Sister? Father?" Kaguya squeaked, shocked into stillness as one of the ghosts reached out to her.

"Kaguya get away!" Roko ran towards her but it was too late as the ghost grabbed her arm.

Immediately, Kaguya doubled over she resisted the urge to scream, her eyes becoming more and more frayed.

"A...a...aaaa..." Kaguya took deep breaths trying to calm herself but her eyes began to well up with tears as her breaths began to grow shorter and faster.

Then the other two ghosts reached down and grabbed onto her as well. And Kaguya well and truly broke, releasing a scream of sheer terror and trauma that overpowered every other noise in the room. A multitude of emotions flashed across her face, terror, horror, despair, anguish, grief, sorrow. Kaguya collapsed to the ground, curled up into a writhing ball as her memories took over her.

"Lady Kaguya!"

"Stay back!" Roko roared, stopping Mikado in his tracks, "These ghosts works on memories. If you touch them, you'll relive your memories of their deaths!"

Mikado nodded but was clearly only barely restraining himself from rushing in to try and help his princess. Roko ran up to Kaguya instead and tried pulling her away from the ghosts. As expected, the ghosts only followed her, keeping their grips on her as Kaguya became a whimpering mess.

"Come on. This is your family, remember?!" Roko cried as he tried to grab onto the ghosts, "This is your daughter, your sister!"

Nothing Roko could say or do would remove the specters but as he fumbled closer to the ghosts, he could hear some whispered words,

"Join us...Kaguya...sister...join us. Why do you get to be alive?"

Roko stumbled back, shocked by the dead's words.

"No...no no, nonono..." Kaguya muttered to her self between tears and ragged breaths as the ghosts swirled around her, continuing their whispers into her ears.

Roko stood there, unable to think of his next step.

"What...what do we do?" Mikado asked, his voice in deep pain just watching Kaguya.

Roko stood there for a moment...then turned around and began to run up the stairs. Barging through the room they trespassed into, Roko jumped from the edge of the broken window and grabbed onto the rope leading to the roof again. Despite never having climbed a rope even in school, Roko managed to pull himself onto the roof once again, scrambling up the side of the roof to stand in front of the maelstrom of souls. Zombies surrounded the hole, leaving no room to drop down safely any more. Roko stood there in front of the screaming winds, taking deep breaths to steady himself for what he would have to do next. From behind him, he could hear someone climbing up onto the roof as well.

"What are you going to do?" Mikado asked.

"...Don't follow me." Roko replied as he took a few steps back...and jumped into the storm of souls.

The screams, mixed with the sounds of wind was louder than ever before, screeching past his ears and rattling his skull. Roko had never went into one of those sky diving chambers before but that was how he imagined he was floating in the middle of all this mayhem. Inside the storm however, he could only feel like he was continuously falling into the silver lined void. There was no end to the darkness, he couldn't even see the corpse he had spotted before. There was no longer any sign of the outside world either. For all Roko knew he was stuck in this endless windy void. His only choice now was to move forward. Having never sky dived before, Roko had no idea how to "move forward". Normally gravity would do all the work but if that was the case, Roko should have smashed into the ground already. Instead, he was just floating in the void, either falling endlessly or held suspended by the powerful winds. Either way, Roko tried straightening out his body and angling it directly against the wind, as his limited understanding of aerodynamics told him. But with no actual environment around him, Roko couldn't tell how effective this was. With no corpse any closer to his sight, Roko tried swimming through the winds, again with no results.

"Come on." Roko scowled, "I know you're there. I know you're at the center of everything."

The void remained unchanged.

"I know you don't want to do this...I know you're being used. But right now, Kaguya is suffering. Hundreds of people are suffering. I...won't stand around and let this happen!"

In the distance, Roko could swear he saw some sort of shape in the darkness.

"Analyze!"

The information appeared in his head but everything was too chaotic for him to read it right now. More importantly, the lock on that analyze provided remained and Roko used it to keep himself on track and measure how far away from the target. Roko struggled to push himself further down, the winds growing more and more powerful the closer he came. Still, Roko pulled himself closer and closer, the sharp gales now starting to leave small cuts over his clothes and face. As Roko neared the target, he could see that it was indeed the same corpse he had seen earlier. The deceased was laying on its side, curled up with fancy tattered clothes. Strings of long hair were still left on its scalp and some flesh remained dried and sunken over its skull. It was a morbid reminder of everyone's eventual fate that would make anybody recoil in fear and disgust. But Roko pushed forward, reaching out with his hand towards the corpse.

He wasn't sure what to do. His original plan was to destroy the corpse completely and hope that did the trick but with this headwind, he would be lucky to even touch the corpse. So whatever he did he would have to do quickly and make it count. The closer he came to the winds however, the more dense the darkness became and the more his vision became blocked by the gales. Roko squinted his eyes as his hand stretched to its limit, inches away from the cadaver and straining to get another inch closer against the strongest winds yet. The storm has forced Roko's eyes nearly closed but Roko continued to glance over what he could see of the body for anything he could do to stop the torrent of winds. He looked over the body desperately, but his body was starting to give in, his eyes trying to close completely. On the verge of losing consciousness, Roko could swear he saw something and his fingers touched something. With the last of his strength, Roko reached out and grabbed it before his mind blacked out and his body was flung back up by the tempest.