Kanazawa Chronicles

By Alexia Lunaria

Chapter Twelve: Disturbing the Dead

Kazuto and his party entered the next room of the dungeon. Everyone was on alert. A single chest occupied the end of the room. Ryoutarou walked confidently over to open the chest but as soon as he touched it alarms went off and the door they had just walked through slammed shut on them.

"It's a trap!" Asuna exclaimed.

Kazuto's stomach dropped to the floor and he spun around as other doors opened allowing monsters to enter and overwhelm them. This is just like before! His group fought back, unable to do anything else, yet one by one they fell to the enemy's blades. Kazuto reached forward to Keiko and Rika, Sinon and Ryoutarou, then Andrew before they all went down. He blocked one attack aimed at Asuna before someone struck her from behind. Her body jolted and fell to the ground.

With tears in her eyes she glared at Kazuto, "I'll never forgive you."

Kazuto shot up in his bed, his leg stinging with the action. He was covered with sweat and looked around frantically on alert.

"Papa!" Yui exclaimed, coming over to him. "It's okay! The battle's over!"

Kazuto forced himself to calm down but his arms still shook with adrenaline. It was clear he was safe at home in his bed but he didn't remember how he got there. "What happened? Where is everyone?"

Yui sat down and handed him a glass of water from the nightstand. "Mama said you were badly injured by the water dungeon's boss. You were hit with poison and paralyze, not to mention almost drowning in Leviathan's Tidal Wave attack. She and Sinon healed you up as much as they could before they left."

Kazuto blinked. "Left? Left where?"

Yui shrank away before answering, "Before they left to go to the graveyard dungeon."

"They what!?"

Rika stuck close behind Andrew, her eyes jetting back and forth across the tombstones. Some were larger than others and the one they were looking for wasn't a grave so much as a family crypt. Sinon had followed her directions to the dungeon via the map Kazuto had given everyone but had been unable to find access inside.

"Is anyone else as freaked out about this as I am?" Rika whimpered.

"We haven't entered the crypt yet so there should be any monsters out here," Andrew replied, trying to calm his friend.

While they walked, it was Ryoutarou that swallowed hard and said, "I think I have to side with Rika on this one. Does it look like the dirt next to those tombstones was recently um… disturbed?"

"Don't say that Ryoutarou!" Rika shrieked.

Asuna paused and looked around with a frown. "Actually I think he's right."

Sinon didn't need anymore urging to take out her bow and knock an arrow. "I have a bad feeling about this."

The first noise to alert the party that something was amiss was the sound of fingernails against rock. Hands appeared from the piles of dirt first and groped around to use the nearby tombstones as leverage to free themselves from their prisons.

"Asuna…Can we go home now?" Rika whimpered.

But the party leader shook her head, preparing her rapier for battle. "It's not real. Remember that. They're just projections."

The bodies emerged one by one and upon seeing the party began to drudge toward them with jagged steps. Andrew's arm shot up to cover his nose. "Can the cor cubes recreate smell because I am getting some serious undead nastiness right now."

Asuna, needing to restore party moral, took the fight to the nearest zombie. She aimed for the head and stabbed with her rapier through the eye socket. Her blade easily ran through but something wasn't right. The sound, for one, was different than battles before. Second, was the resistance her blade felt when she struck through the back of the head.

The zombie jolted and a black liquid dripped ever so slowly down Asuna's pristine blade from its eye socket. That's never happened before. Her understanding of the cor cube technology didn't involve blood or liquids of any kind. But that means… She pulled her weapon free and leapt back to her party, flicking her wrist to free her weapon of the grim without looking. The realization that she had just stabbed an actual human turned her stomach and she threatened to fall apart right there. "We…we have to go."

"What?" Ryoutarou asked.

"We have to run! Now!" Asuna grabbed Sinon, throwing her back in the front as she got everyone up to a running pace. When they neared the large statue marking the crypt, they saw a door had been opened in the ground, revealing a staircase that went deeper inside. After everyone was underground, Asuna closed the door and Andrew wedged the door to prevent entry.

"How?" Rika asked with a shaky voice. "How is this even possible?"

Keiko held onto Pina tightly, also clearly shaken. "And if there are zombies out there…what is waiting for us in there?" she said as she pointed down a dark, barely illuminated corridor leading deeper into the crypt. "There might be hundreds of bodies in there."

Asuna tried to keep up her bravado but the image of the person whose remains she just defiled was still fresh in her mind. "Just remember we're here for Suguha. We can't stop now. If we can't stop…whatever those are then we'll just run passed them." Everyone nodded and proceeded with extreme caution.

"Papa you can't go! You aren't well enough yet!" Yui pleaded with the swordsman.

"They went in alone. I have to help them. Something bad might happen." Kazuto shrugged Yui off and made for the front door. His leg was still injured and it hurt to put full pressure down on it but he wouldn't remain behind. His dream…he'd die if it ever came to pass again. He looked down at his frightened daughter and kissed the top of her head. "How about I have an open call to you and you can use the glasses to help keep an eye on me?"

Knowing she wouldn't be able to convince him to stay it was as good of a compromise as any. "Okay but hang on…" Rushing back into the house she returned with his bluetooth. "The hands free approach is always safest."

"Haha, deal." Kazuto flexed his leg once he hit the porch and ran out of his barrier and down the street towards the graveyard. He didn't get far before he began detecting other presences. He stopped running and looked around suspiciously. "You guys can come out now. There's no use in hiding. I know you're out there."

Four individuals appeared from rooftops and alleyways to stand before Kazuto, blocking his forward progress. He didn't know them by name but he knew who they were. "Titan's Hand."

"It's Hand of Destiny now!" one of them corrected angrily. "And with you injured like that there's no way you'd ever make it to your sister so we came to put you out of your misery."

Kazuto took out his swords and glared at each of them. "You can try. Be my guest."

Of the enemies set against him there were two swordsmen, a duel ax wielder, and a mace wielder with a buckler. None had the advantage of range and Kazuto had already seen them fight once before. They came at him from all sides and though he dodged some those he blocked hit with force far stronger than their bodies should have been able to inflict. The person with the buckler slammed him in the left side, forcing his weight onto his bad leg. His leg collapsed and he rolled away, favoring it slightly.

One of the swordsman sneered. "We're not who we once were! We're better than before and more importantly we're better than you."

Kazuto grit his teeth against the pain. "But your abilities aren't truly yours, aren't they? You guys have been outfitted with Shinji's tech."

"So what? So have you."

It's not the same, though. Sakura was right. I'm not at a level where I can fight them right now. So the question now is how to get away, Kazuto thought.

"Papa!" Yui's voice called out from his earpiece. "Use Sonic Leap and combine it with lightning. You should have a high enough probability to inflict Paralyze."

"Got it." Kazuto powered up his sword and dashed forward off his good leg. He flew through the middle of his enemy and out the other side. Behind him a shock wave blasted out, shattering the windows of nearby buildings. The four guild members cried out and fell to their knees when the paralysis took affect. "Thanks Yui. Seems like that did the trick!" His enemy handled for the moment, he continued on towards the graveyard.

When Kazuto came within view of the cemetery he saw several figures walking around and slowed his run to assess the situation. He refrained from taking out his swords when nothing aggroed upon his approach. The grounds had several holes and the stench that filled the air made Kazuto gag. "What the heck happened here?"

His voice triggered their attack algorithm and several turned towards him. Wishing to avoid battle as much as possible he rushed forward towards the crypt. A zombie stepped into his path and he skidded to a halt. His leg protested the movement and he fell to the floor. Looking up expecting an attack Kazuto was unprepared when he looked up into those eyes.

Seeing her here, now, in this form sent his mind into a spin. "I-it can't be…" She had short black hair and one of her eyes was completely white. Her hair was missing in small patches and her skin was a mixture of deathly gray and gangrene. "S-S-Sachi…?"

Upon hearing the name the zombie shied back and ran away, disappearing into the graveyard dungeon. Kazuto was slow to get up but his head still couldn't get a hold of what he had seen. The other undead closed in on him, moving much slower than Sachi had, and Kazuto slashed his swords out in a circle around him trying to make space and push through them.

His sword cut through six zombies and the upper halves of the bodies fell to the floor in a pile of slime and goo. The legs were quick to follow and Kazuto backflipped out of the circle of devastation. "They're not projections… how are they not projections…?" His stomach finally won him over and he vomited whatever was in his stomach all over the floor. "How…?"

"Papa, the nanomachines! Shinji must have dug up the remains then used nanomachines placed on the bodies to reanimate them," Yui explained.

Kazuto shook his head in disbelief. "But Sachi…how is she here?"

"I don't know, Papa, but she ran into the graveyard dungeon using a secondary entrance! It's located in the crypt to the right of the main one."

Certain he would be unable to fight anymore of the zombies coming his way Kazuto followed Yui's directions and entered the graveyard dungeon…

Asuna and party came into the next room and were immediately slammed to the floor by an unknown force. Looking up she saw three robed figures chanting with staffs. It was the magical spell Gravity. Their faces looked a lot like the rest of the undead they had been fighting for the last hour. "Undead priests, two o'clock! Sinon, can you get any silence arrows into the air?"

Sinon grunted and rolled onto her stomach. "No but thankfully I don't have to get them into the air!" She took out an arrow and holding her bow against the floor she fired one arrow three times in the same fashion. It flew along the stone floor and embedded itself in the priests' feet. Their spell ended and the group was released.

Ryoutarou and Andrew worked quickly and rushed forward, using weapon skills to injure the bones enough that they wouldn't be a threat.

"Good work everyone!" Asuna avoided looking at the remains which still twitched on the ground. Damn that Shinji for making defilers of all of us! She saw the room had other remains lying in graves carved into the stone walls. These were simply too far decomposed to be reanimated.

"Hey, Asuna, you better come see this." Rika brought her attention over to a stone pedestal that had engravings for a spell carved into the top of it. "Does this say what I think it says? Some of the kanji are different but…"

Asuna, who had taken several languages as well as varied dialects of Japanese, sped read through the spell and her heart leapt into her throat. "Yeah, which means we're running out of time. The full moon is tonight. Come on, let's go!" She led them through the doorway on the opposite side into a larger room signifying a much harder fighter.

"Sub boss room?" Ryoutarou questioned.

The various scattered bones along the floor rattled and came together like some decrepit puzzle and before long a two story tall Bone Dragon roared to initiate his battle. Asuna blanched at the sight. "Yep, Ryoutarou, I think that's a safe assumption."

Kazuto walked through the corridors looking around for any of the others. "Yui, how far behind was I from the group?"

"Thirty minutes from the time you left the house, however Hand of Destiny delayed you a further fifteen minutes so…"

"I got it. So it'll be a while before I catch up." He tried to move quickly but he didn't see any footsteps showing someone passing before him so it was possible his entrance was a completely different path than what the others were using.

"Papa, I've been thinking about it," Yui's voice said to him. "There are two options regarding Sachi's identity. It could be that he simply reanimated the bodies here to make it seem that Sachi's actual body was brought back to life when in fact it's simply another cor cube."

Kazuto swallowed hard. "And option two?"

"Based on his actions thus far, it is not a great leap to assume that Shinji used his hack into government databases – like he admitted back on day one – to learn of Sachi's final resting place and…"

"And bring her into Kanazawa, forcing me to confront her." His stomach threatened to express all over the crypt floor but he kept moving. "Even with the nanomachines moving her body he can't access her mind and memories, her spirit has long departed from this world." His eyes caught Sachi crossing the corridor far ahead of him. It was only a few seconds and Kazuto wondered if he was certain of what he saw. Still his legs ran forward and when he got to the point where he saw her he turned right and followed her down another hallway into a large room.

There the door slammed behind him and he was locked inside with his past. Sachi stood with her back to him until she heard him approach then she turned around and looked at him.

"You could have warned us before we went in," someone accused him. Kazuto turned around and saw Ducker of the Moonlit Black Cats glaring at him. "If you had I never would have gone inside to open the chest!"

"D-Ducker…you can't be…" Kazuto shook his head. The youth's form was just as he remembered, not green or gray from being undead.

"You lied to all of us!" Ducker shouted.

Suddenly the others were there too: Sasamaru, Tetsuo, and Keita.

Tetsuo grit his teeth and pointed at the traitor in their mist. "You were strong enough to save us all but you got tired of us. You wanted us to die!"

"No, that's not…!"

Sasamaru crossed his arms and shook his head. "We never should have trusted you!"

Keita's look was the darkest of them all. "You betrayed us all."

Kazuto looked over at Sachi expecting her to accuse him as well but she merely brought forth her spear. The other four members of the Moonlit Black Cats struck their weapons rhythmically against the ground as Sachi came forth to stand before Kazuto.

"Atone for your sins," her voice came out distorted and Kazuto could see her neck vibrate with the manipulation.

Still her voice sent shockwaves through his body and he found himself unable to move. I…I can't give up now…I'm here for a reason, aren't I?…Just can't remember what that reason is…

Sachi pulled back her spear and thrust it forward as Kazuto closed his eyes and accepted his fate.

A loud clang was heard as Asuna batted aside the spear and kicked the zombie away from Kazuto.

"No, don't!" Kazuto reached forward as Sachi retreated out a secret passageway that opened up where she disappeared. His friends quickly dispatched of the other threats and as one the Moonlit Black Cats shattered as their cor cubes were destroyed.

Asuna looked at Kazuto with a mixture of confusion and anger. "What do you think you're doing!? You weren't even trying to fight!" When he didn't reply she hauled him to his feet by his collar.

"Asuna!" Rika exclaimed, unsure if she needed to intervene.

Asuna glared at Kazuto but he wouldn't even meet her eyes. "We came here because we were worried about you. We came trying to save Suguha for you! If you're not going to fight then you'll just slow us down. Go home."

Asuna released him and spun away while Sinon and Rika moved forward.

"Let me take a look at that leg," Sinon offered quietly. "My magic should have replenished enough by now."

Rika bit her lower lip. "Please forgive Asuna. We just defeated the sub boss and we found out an ancient spell is going to be cast by some necromancers when the full moon is at its highest. But the spell…" She waited until Kazuto finally looked up at her. "It requires a sacrifice."

When Sinon was finished with her healing spell Kazuto got to his feet and stared into Asuna's back. He saw her sigh heavily and turn back towards him. "They're going to kill Suguha, Kazuto, if we don't stop them."

Kazuto blinked and focused at the problem at hand. That's right. My sister is here… He put a hand on her shoulder gently. "I'm sorry. You're right. I didn't have my head in the game."

"Just who were those guys, Kazuto?" Andrew asked.

Kazuto shook his head. "Nobody. Let's just go." He then nodded to Asuna. "You got them here. After you, Leader."

Asuna accepted the decision and started down the corridor Sachi opened. Kazuto brought up the rear and thought about what he would do. I'm going to have to deal with her eventually and if it comes down to Sachi or my sister, I'll always choose my sister.

"Papa, are you okay?" Yui asked him.

He'd forgotten about Yui. "Yeah I'm okay. Sinon healed me up and I regrouped with the others."

"Okay, be careful, Papa."

Kazuto provided back up while the others fought skeleton knights, undead mages, and more zombies. The group did what they could to handle the creatures and left the zombies to deal with later. All too soon they cleared the smaller rooms and came upon the boss room. The large cavern was decorated with candles and tabards of a magic sect long ago lost. A body lay on the table in the center of the room and at its base a purple magic circle was carved into the floor.

"Suguha!" Asuna exclaimed.

The girl remained unmoving and in front of her Sachi stepped forward. She raised her hands and began chanting in a foreign tongue. The magic circle lit up and when she was done Sachi raised an ornate dagger above her head and walked up to the sacrificial table.

"Stop her!" Asuna ordered. The group rushed in intending to save Suguha which is when things changed. Sachi's form rose into the air and around her a secondary form materialized. Asuna skidded to a halt. "What's going on!?"

With a large red robe, billowing sleeves, and a hood that hid the face from view, Kazuto instantly recognized the boss from his many nightmares but it was Ryoutarou that said it,

"The Hollow Avatar?" he said in disbelief. "The boss for the 100th floor of Aincrad?" He turned to his friend, "Kazuto, was this part of Journea?"

"No, Shinji got these specs directly from his father's data no doubt."

Andrew's face was dotted with sweat. "The Skull Reaper was hard enough…can we really defeat this guy?"

Kazuto felt the same fear Andrew did. This boss was what started everything in Aincrad, the day everyone found out they couldn't log out. This was the form their nightmares took for two years, their goal to defeat in order to be freed from their digital prison. "We have to. If we don't Suguha will be sacrificed."

"Papa!" Yui cautioned. "The boss' cor cube…it's being projected from inside…It's inside Sachi or rather I think it's the top piece of her chest armor, located right below her throat."

Asuna spun around, "Sachi? From the Moonlit Black Cats?" Kazuto nodded numbly. "It…It's just a cor cube, right? Like the others?"

Kazuto looked up at the boss and narrowed his eyes. "I don't think so."

Her eyes welled up and she reached a hand towards him. "Kazuto…I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It doesn't matter. I won't choose my guilt over my sister. I may end up in hell for what I did that day and what I'm about to do but my sister shouldn't have to pay that price." Kazuto took out his swords and got into his fighting stance. "Let's go everyone!"

Following his lead the group began their attacks, trying to figure out Hollow Avatar's attack pattern. When the boss spun around wind blades attacked the group in a painful AOE and the wounds bled profusely, more than they should have. Kazuto had several cuts and he began to slide in his own blood trail.

"Papa! He inflicted the status effect Bleeding with his attacks! And it's stacked three times! Dispel should stop the wounds from gushing!" Yui exclaimed.

Kazuto turned to his healers. "Dispel! Quickly!" Sinon, Keiko, and Asuna jumped to comply and Kazuto shook his head to stop from being dizzy. His wounds stopped bleeding but he still felt the effects of the blood loss. "We can't afford to get hit with that attack again! We end this now!" He looked to Keiko. "Have Pina cast Quick on me!"

"O-Okay!" Keiko looked to her dragon familiar. "Pina! Quick!"

Pina let out a screech and Kazuto was wrapped in a yellow light.

Kazuto readied his weapons and dashed forward, charging through the Hollow Avatar's form until he broke through to the inside. Darkness surrounded him as the cor cube only projected solidarity around them. Kazuto replaced his swords to his back and approached his target carefully. Sachi was there, her form illuminated by the cor cube setting against her chest. She still had her dagger in her hand and looked at him evenly.

"You must atone for your crimes," she raised her dagger and Kazuto closed his eyes as the weapon came down.

At the last moment Kazuto opened his eyes and deftly caught her wrist as it came down. "Yes, I will atone and I'll start by freeing you. You were targeted because of me and that I will have to answer for." He turned the dagger around in her grasp and stabbed the cor cube shattering it. He could think of only one solution that would free Sachi's body. Without removing his sword he cast the sword skill, "Lightning Fall."

Lightning exploded between them and Kazuto cried out in pain while the nanomachines within the reanimated corpse were effectively electrified. Sachi collapsed into his arms and he fell from the air onto the hard stone floor.

"Kazuto!" Asuna rushed forward along with everyone else. Kazuto grunted and slowly sat up, Sachi still in his arms. "Is she…?"

"I destroyed the nanomachines using electricity. Normally such a method wouldn't work as effectively but I knew that being a corpse the depth of implantation couldn't be as thorough as it had been with us. Shinji, or those working for him, would have only been able to plant them in shallow points, like her skin." Kazuto picked her up and laid her in one of the wall crevices that were still empty. "I pray your spirit is able to rest peacefully now."

Someone moaned and brought the party's attention back to the sacrificial table. "W-where am I?" It was Suguha.

Kazuto came over to her and smiled weakly. "Hey, Suguha."

Her eyes went wide and she wrapped him in a hug. "Big brother!"

"Do you remember anything about your capture?" he asked her.

Suguha shook her head. "Not much I'm afraid. I remember heading to Kendo class one morning but I guess I never got there. I was distracted because it was the day your invention was supposed to launch and I wasn't able to make the party. We were supposed to have a tournament that night and grandfather wouldn't let me out of it to see you. I was so upset…" She dug into her pocket and pulled out a cor cube. "When I woke up next I was in a cage and this woman was glaring at me, said something about using me against you but I'm sorry I didn't understand what she was talking about. She said this was for you."

Kazuto took the cor cube from his sister and hit the power button. It spun and lifted into the air, projecting a giant word above the group.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Shinji's voice projected ominously from all over. "Congratulations Kazuto! You've officially completed all of seven ground dungeons more than half of the obstacles set against you. As a reward, I'll give you a special skill needed to complete the remaining six. No need to thank me."

At the end of the message an ultrasonic signal went out, barely perceivable with the normal human hearing range. Kazuto felt his back twitch and move before the pain began. He fell to the ground, along with everyone else, as nanomachines and cor cubes moved just beneath his skin, activated by the signal. Nanomachines latched onto his shoulder and back muscles while tiny cor cubes broke through the skin along his spine at the height of the pain. They projected something new and Kazuto arched his back as the new addition demanded freedom.

The pain ended as he collapsed to the ground, in too much shock to immediately look around. When he did open his eyes he saw their new transformation and looked partly behind him to see if the same were true for him. Sure enough, large black angel-shaped wings spread out to either side of him. They responded to the new brain signals Kazuto sent and moved up and down at his command.

Asuna pushed off the floor to sit on her knees. Behind her white wings opened and closed as she tested their maneuverability. Rika had pink wings, Ryoutarou red, gray for Andrew, light blue for Keiko, green for Suguha, and blue for Sinon. Asuna looked at Kazuto with disbelief. "Is this seriously happening right now?"

Kazuto got to his feet and tried flapping with his wings but the recently opened wounds in his back didn't allow for excess motion and he was forced to stop. "If this is how we get to those dungeons in the sky then it's worth a shot but not now. We need to regroup at the house and inform Suguha of everything that's going on."

It took a bit but Kazuto was able to retract his wings, signaling the cor cubes to stop projecting them with his mind. A lot's happened and I still haven't wrapped my head around most of it. Then there's integrating Suguha into this mess. Uh, I'm tired already…