Storming Impact

Roko woke up in a soft bed. It wasn't his bed in the inn and the sun was already starting to set for the day. Pushing himself up, Roko could still hear the screams of the dead rattling around in his head but he pushed them aside. He pushed off the bed and into a staggering stand. His body wasn't that tired surprisingly but his mind felt exhausted. His breath was still a bit labored and walking gave him a slight dizzy spell that made Roko sit back down on the bed. As he did, he realized his hand was still holding onto something. Something he had snatched from the corpse's arms before he blacked out. Holding it in front of him, Roko could see it was some sort of wooden cross. With some resistance, Roko managed to get his stiff fingers to open up and release the object. Turning it over in his hands, Roko could see it was a small grave marker, made up of two simple strips of woods tied together and one name scrawled over one piece.

"Tsukimi Fujisogi." Roko muttered, the unfamiliar name still conjuring a feeling of familiarity with it.

Roko sighed and got up and walked out of the room.

Walking down the stairs, he recognized the family that was fixing their house as the Uragami family. They greeted him with as much energy as they could muster and offered to get anything for him but Roko just refused and left the home. Walking around the house, Roko found Kaguya standing over the grave, her arms crossed. The well of souls that had been bursting out of it earlier that day now gone. Walking up behind her, Roko noticed the corpse still lying in the hole, exactly as decayed as Roko had seen in the darkness.

"You sure you're okay enough to get up right now?" Kaguya asked, not even turning around to face Roko.

"As well as I'll ever be." Roko said as he stood next to Kaguya who kept her gaze in a thoughtful downward gaze at the dead body. A few seconds of silence pass before Kaguya spoke up,

"This was my mother."

"I thought so." Roko sighed as he looked again at the grave marker he had taken.

"Did you?"

"The ghosts were only summoned after making contact with you and of the ghosts summoned to torment you, your mother was mysteriously absent."

"You know everything don't you?"

"Knowing everything doesn't mean you can do something about it." Roko sighed as he walked over to the head of the grave and placed the marker over it.

"...I asked the Uragamis. They had no idea my mother was buried here. They didn't even know there was a body here at all."

"We can't rule out the possibility that it was simply moved here."

"Given that she was holding the marker, I would assume that's the case too." Kaguya said, her voice calm and level but with hints of sadness and depression mixed with a bitter hate, "I never knew what happened to the bodies of my family. I assumed they were buried somewhere. I never asked where. That marker is much too simple for them."

"...Your mother's name was Tsukimi Fujisogi?"

"I guess. I always called my mom mother. I never really learned her name before she died."

"Then you're Kaguya Fujisogi?"

"...I haven't used that name in a while." Kaguya closed her eyes, "I stopped using my family name when my family died. For a long time, I've just been...'Kaguya'."

"...You still have Mikado."

A slight smile, or perhaps smirk came to Kaguya's lips, "I suppose. Speaking of, Mikado's been busy killing every single remaining zombie all day. He would still be at it if Takeko didn't come in with the rest of Shizuka's army to clean up the mess."

"That's a lot of dead bodies to burn."

"We couldn't possibly identify every single one of them too so they're just getting burned. Far from the village too, as troublesome as it is to transport them."

The conversation fell to silence. Kaguya continued to stare down at her mother, the memories of her torment must still be lingering in her mind. Roko thought to leave but a wiser part of him knew not to leave her alone, at least for now. Though there wasn't much he could say to comfort her. He couldn't imagine reliving the deaths of her entire family again. Not in the way they must have died.

"This is unforgivable." Kaguya spoke up, as if reading Roko's mind as her grip on her arms tightened, "I cannot forgive them for spoiling my family's rest like this. For stirring the dead in such a manner to torment the living."

"Given that your mother was at the center of all this and that this all activated on you interacting with it, I imagine this was meant to be an attack on you." Roko nodded, "That narrows things down somewhat."

"An attack on me huh?" Kaguya scoffed, "I've made plenty of enemies so the field's still rather big."

"...I imagine whatever spell they used to conjure the ghosts was tied inherently to the catalyst. It activated when someone of relation touched it and I imagine it summoned ghosts of those closely related to them. But that was a lot of ghosts for someone who's a noble."

"Mother always kept a close eye and ear with the common folk." Kaguya smiled, "She would often take me down to the village with her. I don't know exactly how much of what she promised the common folk was genuine but having the commoner's support was what made my family powerful."

"What happened to cause a rebellion?"

"...I don't know. I was much too young to understand things like that."

"..."

"Speaking of rebellions, I've got a list of names to investigate in relation to the Moon Tide rebels. I'll be gone for tomorrow to speak to them."

"You don't have to if you're not up to it."

"No, this is the perfect time to speak to them. They too must have been affected by this ghost incident. They're vulnerable now. Now's the best time to leverage with them."

"You're pretty vulnerable right now too."

"That doesn't matter if I can leverage that to create a sense of commonality." Kaguya brushed her hair off to the side as she turned around, "Let's go. There's a lot to prepare for tomorrow."

Roko returned to the inn with Kaguya and Mikado but by the time he woke up the next morning, they were already gone. After the ghost incident a deep depression hung over the village, a pervasive quiet infecting everyone with a mindful introversion. No one dared to look others in the eyes for long, or rather, look at anything besides the ground. Even the kids seemed to feel the atmosphere and were more quiet than normal. It was like everyone was mourning...except for one bubbly exception.

"Hidey-ho!" Takeko grinned as she greeted Roko at the doorway of the inn, "Kaguya asked me to help you out in case you needed anything! So you need anything?"

"Takeko." Roko blinked, surprised by the sudden jolt of energy, "Do you not have anything better to do?"

"Well there are still bodies to burn I suppose but that's not really work for me." Takeko shrugged, "Hopefully the people can cheer up sometime soon. Like a funeral wake in here."

"Nothing fazes you does it?"

"Could say the same for you." Takeko smiled, "I hear you were at the center of everything yesterday. Wasn't that traumatizing?"

"There was nothing the ghosts could do to me." Roko sighed, "Nobody important in my life is dead. On either side."

"That right?"

"If anybody needs help, it's Kaguya." Roko said, "She was hit pretty hard by those ghosts. And instead of recovering, she's going after some rebels."

"Kaguya's always been strong like that." Takeko chuckled, "Ever since she lost her family all those years ago."

"An event she was forced to relive recently." Roko scowled, "Nobody even knows why that rebellion even happened."

"I could tell you."

Roko turned to Takeko, surprised, "You can?!"

"Yeah. Just promise not to tell Kaguya."

"Are you sure it's fine to tell me? I'm not part of this country."

"It's because you're not related that I can tell you." Takeko replied, "It's a pretty ugly truth if you want to hear about it."

"...Knowing might help me with my mission."

"That right? Well it's a simple matter really." Takeko shrugged, "The people of Fuyuki wanted power."

"The citizens wanted power?" Roko frowned.

"The Fujisogi family were the de facto leaders, sure, but even they couldn't do anything without the help of the others in power. Kaguya's mother did well to keep relations with the people but that also made people anxious for change. All the Katsuragi family had to do was promise immediate change. Expand the borders, lower some taxes, appoint some new people in charge. Throw in some money, some contracts and some bad words and you'll get the people stirring. From what I hear, they were drafting a whole new system of government that would give more power to the people or something. Heaven knows if any of these promises were any more genuine that Kaguya's mother but it was enough to get a rebellion under way in less than a week. The coup was a complete surprise and careful planning was made to distract those who wanted to capture Kaguya's family with those who wanted them dead, leading to the slaughter of not just her family but those in loyal support of her."

"The fact that they went so far to make sure her family was dead means they had some sort of agenda of their own." Roko frowned, "That or they feared Kaguya's family would change the minds of the minds of the people back to their side."

"Highly likely." Takeko nodded, "But that's the story. The rebellion was carried out by the citizenry, lead by the Katsuragi. No military soldiers joined the rebellion. I assume that would cause plans of their rebellion to leak. The suddenness of this upheaval was what made it successful."

"So Kaguya's family was betrayed by the people." Roko mused.

"Ironic isn't it?" Takeko scoffed, "The same people who conspired to kill her family then turned around to try and give Kaguya another life after they orphaned her. Do you see why I don't want Kaguya to know?"

"...Yeah. I think so."

"Well that's all in the past now." Takeko sighed, "Nothing we can do about it now. Anything I can actually help you with though? That's what I'm here for."

"...I don't want to put you in any danger." Roko replied, "But maybe you could still help me."

Roko pulled out Kirito's journal and handed it over to Takeko, "Can you skim this journal and tell me if you see anything significant?"

"What the hell's this?" Takeko blinked as she took the journal and flipped through the pages, "Some kind of record?"

"It's the record of Kirito's investigation into the murders behind the nobles. The ones where they died mysteriously of internal bleeding."

"I remember this." Takeko nodded, "Scared everybody even when they refused to believe it."

"This journal might have something to do with my current mission." Roko explained, "I think solving this mystery will get me closer to what I'm after."

"What kind of mission requires you to solve an ages old murder mystery?" Takeko asked as she continued to flip through the pages, "Sounds interesting. Want to tell me abo-"

Takeko stopped as she opened to a certain page. Her eyes widened and she fell silent as she read the passage.

"Something wrong?" Roko asked.

"This...this is about my parents." Takeko said softly.

"What?!" Roko cried.

"Here." Takeko returned the book with the page opened, "This has my parent's names on it."

Sure enough, the names of victims named Hagoromo were detailed on it. Details were consistent with the murderer's M.O.

"I was always told they were mutually killed with their rivals in an assassination attempt." Takeko bit her thumb, "They were actually murdered?"

"...I'll look into this." Roko stated.

"Eh? Are you sure? I don't actually know if this is relevant."

"It could be relevant." Roko nodded, "It's as worth checking out as any other."

"...Alright." Takeko gulped, "Be safe out there."

"Same for you." Roko replied as she shifted his backpack up on his shoulders, "Come find me if any undead start attacking again."

Akatsuki 24

The Hagorumo heads are dead now. All that's left is their young daughter. They spun some sort of story about an assassination attempt that went wrong but that might not be far from the truth. Two bodies were found. Hanamura was found dead in her bed, much like all the others. Internal bleeding. No signs of outside injury. A surefire sign that our assassin, if there is one, has definitely been here. The husband was an interesting case. Slumped over his chair at his desk, it was clear he was working late with documents left half done on his table. Once again, there seemed like there was no sign of struggle at first. Not even the papers on his desk were disturbed. However, there were strange details around Daichi's death. He had tea prepared, a normally mundane detail for someone working late but the type of tea left in the teapot was one of exceptional quality. Something he would normally reserve for important guests. There was one cup left with some tea on the tray but that alone is suspicious. Why would he have his tea on a tray when it was only him taking a cup? It was clear that someone was in the room with him. Someone important enough to warrant bringing out premium tea for. But without any solid proof, another tea cup or another empty chair, this is only pointless speculation. The assassin has been good at covering their tracks but they're slipping up. Or perhaps they're getting cocky. The day they come into the light is close. I can feel it.

So said the passage. Roko said he would investigate it but in reality, there wasn't much he could investigate. There was no way to examine the scene of the crime anymore so the only thing he could investigate was their dead bodies. And that was assuming they haven't been subsumed by the necromancer already. He didn't even know where they were buried. The only place he could go to was the Higure Graveyard...which was probably still buried in snow.

Roko tapped his head against the stone wall of a building.

"Am I going to need to grab a shovel?" Roko moaned quietly.

…

"Is there anybody who can help me dig?" Roko leaned against the wall as he thought aloud, "...Well, I don't want to force anybody to help me. But if we're talking about cleaning anyway-"

"You're in the dungeon again?" Roko smirked.

"Ya got a problem with that?" Hase frowned as he swept the dungeon floor, "Now what do you want, kid? Got more you want to ask about Kirito?"

"Well we weren't able to find his body."

"Ain't that obvious? We had to burn the damn thing."

"Well it does mean the necromancer's using their genuine bodies and not copying their visage."

"Ain't that obvious?"

"But that also means they need to get their hands on the body. So there's limitations."

"That's good news I suppose."

"Which comes around to why I'm here today."

"I knew it."

"I'm looking for the Hagorumo's bodies."

"Investigating little miss Takeko now?" Hase raised an eyebrow, "She can be a bit scary if you get on her wrong side but only if she's got dirt on ya."

"I'm investigating her parent's death for her. Apparently they might have been assassinated."

"That right? I think I remember something like that." Hase rubbed his chin, "So you want to know where they're buried?"

"Yeah."

"...That's...a secret."

"Why? Were they really important?"

"Hmmm, not exactly. The thing is Kirito started taking the bodies of those he claimed were assassinated to do investigations on them. Only a few of them were ever returned. Hagorumo was never returned though we were assured they were buried peacefully."

"The hell is that? He went that far and never found the killer?"

"Who's to say he didn't? Kirito wasn't the only one investigating a killer but he was, without a doubt, the closest to finding them, if they even existed."

"That right?" Roko sighed, "So you don't know then?"

"Oh, I know."

"The hell, old man?! If you knew you should have just told me!"

"Patience young man." Hase smirked, "I told you it was a secret didn't I?"

"So you're not going to tell me?"

"Oh, I'll tell you." Hase said as he picked up the dustpan he was using and moved to another part of the room, "But I need to make sure you understand just how dedicated my old friend was to finding this killer. This is something he risked his life on and lost his life to. Something he risked his reputation on by taking these bodies. Can you meet that conviction with the same kind of resolve?"

"Whenever or not I can, I won't know until I see it."

"Couldn't even pretend like you got the guts?"

"I'm very careful about the promises I make."

"Kids these days and their fear of commitments." Hase grumbled.

Despite Roko's unclear answer, Hase told him the location of Kirito's home. The old knight normally didn't have any use for his old home as he was given a room of honor in the castle. But when his investigations began to really pick up, he remodeled his home to better preform autopsies.

"Though you wouldn't know just walking in there." Hase had said, "If you want his lab, you'll have to go down a secret hatch in the floor."

Roko walked up to Kirito's old home. It stood in the farther ends of the village and despite being perfectly functional, this home didn't seem to have seen a new tenant in years. Perhaps because of its previous tenant's fame. Maybe because a select few knew of his research and made sure it was left alone. Whatever the reason, Roko stepped through the door and into the dusty, musky home. Walking through the simple home, he could see age old weapons lying on top of displays with pictures of much younger men posing proudly alongside awards and medals. The house had windows, but all sides were pretty much blocked off by other buildings so the lighting was rather poor. As Roko walked into the deeper parts of the home, he kept one hand on his sword, eyes jumping from shadow to shadow. There was no telling if the necromancer got here before him or not and if there were any traps set for him. As it stood, there was nothing any of Roko's senses could pick up in the house with him. Following Hase's instruction, he pushed aside a drawer and pulled open the hidden hatch on the floor. Taking one last look around him to make sure no one was following him, Roko entered the hidden lab.