Okage Densetsu - Lookit the Fancy Japanese
Chapter 7 - A Mess of Royal Porportions
"...Uh, excuse us, what was it... Mister Kis-"
"Doctor Kisling." He spun around to face the group, examining them all thorougly. "By the look on your faces and suggestive judgement I'd say in a successful fashion you were about to ask me to relocate my being to another latitude."
"...Uhm, well, not like that..." Ari blinked. Why did this man have to use such words? "But... okay, yes."
"Hmm. You people interest me greatly. The one to the left is constantly drooling: what function does this serve, and how long can she do it? The little one hanging off your arm: How heavy is she? How long will your arm hold up from that weight? How long will she hang off? Then lastly, the one on the right: What ARE her seemingly perfect measurements?"
"...Hey!" Rosalyn frowned, but had a splash of red across her cheeks.
"And what in the good heaven's name is THAT thing?" Kisling's finger suddenly shot out, pointing at Stan, "It looks like a shadow and has no thickness, yet it seems to have a devilishly keen smile splashed on it's 2-d face."
"That's because I am MORE than a shadow! Hahaha! I am the Great Evil King Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV!"
"Brilliant, it can speak." Kisling looked rather excited by all of this, "I am a doctor of ghost research! I do believe that thing is of the undead. There must be something attracting it to your paticular party, and-" Kisling glanced at Ari, then looked at Rosalyn- "I believe that this woman here, with the divine figure, is attracting them with terrible bad luck and good looks!"
"What? Hey, that THING was attached to his shadow before I ca-"
"But you came to him, did you not?"
"...No... he... approached me... and..."
"Case in point! That means that I, Guten Kisling, famous doctor of ghost study, will stalk- er, follow you along to further my research! What makes you a ghost magnet? What kind of ghosts come? Can I have your number?"
"Cut it out, you freak!" Rosalyn stomped her foot down, "You're scaring me!"
"Right!" He suddenly merged into the group like he was always there, "Alrighty. Let's continue."
"Ugh..." Ari shook his head as he began walking, trying his best to keep Rin entertained by holding his arm up. After the first bridge, however, he had to move her to his shoulders, which she found just as amusing. He began commenting, mentally, that he felt like a father, which was probably a bad thing. It didn't help that the people behind him were such freaks, either: he felt that it couldn't get any worse, only better. He kept thoughts boiling in his mind until they got to the beach before the bridge that led to Rashelo itself, straight out onto the lake. But before he could even attempt to get on...
"A circus!" Rin grinned, pointing off to the west- indeed, there was a tent and everything, but nothing much happening there.
"I don't think they're open..."
"I wanna go see! Let's go see! Come on, let's go see!"
"Alright. Will you guys wait here?" Ari rolled his eyes, looking at everyone.
"No way we're letting you out of our sight," Rosalyn spoke matter-of-factly, "We'll all come."
"Indeed, I can't look away for one minute! I might miss a paranormal encounter!"
"Nobody cares what I think..." Corona did her usual lethargic drooling.
"Alright then. We're only going to SEE, Rin, I highly doubt anybody's there, though."
They all walked over and found, indeed, there wasn't a show in order since the Ringmaster was missing (Big surprise, thought Ari) and they were basically just waiting for him to come. However, this didn't make Rin content, so she clamored to see some of the preformers. Stepping in to one of the actor's tents, Rosalyn, Rin, and Ari stared in utmost horror at the figure before them.
"Hey guys!" It was the Sewer Evil King in his smaller form, "How's it hanging?"
"Hey! If you're plotting something evil I'll kill you on the spot! Sabotaging a circus, a source of pure-"
"Woah, calm down, parasol girl. I'm not evil anymore."
"Really?" Ari blinked, "Do you remember WHY you were evil in the first place?"
"...Not... really. I just felt like I should take over the world, and that the secret was in the back of the sewer. But after you whipped it out of me, I don't care in the least about taking over. In fact, I just got a job here at the circus! The pay is cheap, but hey, at least I've got something to do!"
"Well..." Rosalyn shifted uneasily, "...If I hear you do anything evil, I'll be the first on the scene, blade at the ready."
"Yeah, okay. But you won't be hearing much about me anymore, I suppose. The fame was fun while it lasted. You guys take care now!"
"Yeah..." Ari led everyone out, then blinked. "What in the hell?"
"Aigh! And he DARED call himself an Evil King! This DISGUSTS ME! Evil is everlasting!" Stan was clearly pissed about yet another trivial topic, and almost everyone ignored him except Kisling who wrote the words frantically down in a book, "I'm glad we beat the shit out of him! We should do it again!"
"No thanks, Stan. We've got another Evil King to bother with, remember?" Ari headed off for Rashelo, "You'll have to make a plan for us to act on, remember?"
"Oh, right. Onwards! Bwahahah!"
At Rashelo, just as Rosalyn had said, there were several people from wide and far who wished to meet the Princess. The town, made entirely of docks (you see, the entire town was on the lake itself, the platforms all anchored to the lakebed. There was a huge, crooked tower far off in the deepest part of the lake, which nobody knew much about, but it sure made for something to look at) was packed with people anxiously trying to get a glimpse of the royal girl. Setting Rin down, Ari gazed over the town in awe- he'd never been this far away from home before, and he hadn't seen so many people in one place.
"Wow..."
"Alright, I believe we can get to her this way! Everyone follow!" Rosalyn headed off, leading the party around, off to a brick platform (the only in the entire town) which the mayor's office was on, no doubt where the Princess could be found first. She didn't notice Ari didn't follow, however, completely set on just finding the royal one.
"That's it!"
"!" Ari jumped at Stan's sudden outburst, who forced them into another 'secret conversation huddle'. "What?"
"These pathetic people seem to be obsessed with this 'Princess'. I have the power to brainwash people- if we take over her soul, she can command them to follow us! Haha! What a perfect plan!"
"Indeed, sir!"
Ari jumped again at James's random appearance.
"It's a perfectly evil plan! And because I am so loyal, I have already discovered, for you, that she is headed for the tower! You'll have to follow along, Master, but oh! Take care! I couldn't have anything happen to you, your Majesty!"
"Don't worry, James, I can still kick SOME ass even if I don't have all my powers..."
"You could wear yourself out! Let Ari here do the work. That IS what a slave is for, master!"
"Right! Ari, I want you to take James's example! He's dedicated, loyal, and-"
"Oh! That's right! I've got to run! See you, Master! James, right behind you from afar, one-hundred and two percent!" He suddenly bolted.
"...Right... he'll be back later. Anyhow! Let us find this princess!"
Catching up to the rest of the group (which involved winding around and through crowds, much to Ari's annoyance) he found a good spot to stand and immediately noticed the Princess. She had long blonde hair, her bangs being so thick they could've been woven into rope. A brown, metal tiara graced her head - her dress, though not the most gorgeous thing, was red and white, the bell-like skirt having criss-crossing belts across it that were rather unusual but fun to look at. (Though the author comments this made her hard as hell to draw accurately.) Her skin was like fine china, a pale color in contrast to the things around her. Her eyes were big, a firey-red color, but Ari noticed they lacked a certain shine. She was speaking with the mayor, a butler close behind the girl, who had a hawk's eye locked on the girl. Instantly, for some reason, Ari no longer trusted that man...
All was well until the entire crowd shifted to the center-dock, which had the town's memo board and was the site of discussions during the day. The Princess was saying to everyone that she would be back without a problem, you see, and of course the entire population agreed with her. That is, until something dramatic happened right about now.
There was a sudden splash as a huge, round, fish-creature lunged itself out of the water and made quite a noise when it landed on the wood planking. Everyone gasped as it suddenly boomed out, "Haha! Foolish humans!"
"Ugh! Another imposter!" Stan suddenly popped up, shaking a fist, "Who are you to burst in and speak like that, you fraud?"
"Fraud? I am none other than the Evil Aqua King! Hahaha! I'll be taking over the world, you see, and to start it off-" he suddenly snatched up the Princess in a wet fin- "I'll be taking HER with me!"
"...Beloune?" The princess hung limply as everyone was panicking, not in the least bit frightened, it seemed, but as relaxed as she could be.
"Yes your majesty?" He also acted oddly calm, staring at the two figures.
"...Send a rescue party."
"BAHAHA! See you later, losers! We'll be at the Aqua Ruins! MUAHAHA!" Suddenly he jumped back into the water, the Aqua King gone as soon as he came, leaving the entire town in a state of panic and shock.
"Well, that was unexpected." Rosalyn coughed, slowly walking up to Beloune. "Excuse me?"
"Yes?"
"Well, she requested a search party, and I believe," Rosalyn waved an arm at the makeshift party, Ari at the lead, "We would be glad to be that very party."
"Yes, yes, if you would! I would go myself, but, oh... I feel faint..."
"Have no fear! The heroine Rosalyn is here!" With a huge grin, she turned to everyone, "Let's grab a boat and go beat that thing senseless!"
"Alright! More subject matter to research!"
"Yay! Me 'n Sampson are comin' too!"
"Are we switching classrooms now?"
"We have an Evil King to purge, Slave!"
"...And no matter what I'll say, nobody will hear it." Ari sighed, then followed along with the energetic party for the docks closest to the ruins, where boats could be found. "You'd think I'd have a little more say in my own life..."
"Yeah right, Slave! Though it is a funny joke! Hahaha!"
"...Right..."
"We'll have to split the party up- the boat can only take three of us." Rosalyn explained, standing before a boat, "Ari, you're the leader of this party. Who comes with?"
"How about... Me, you, Rosalyn, and..." Ari gazed at the three remaining options, each of which probably had really good points, but all he could think of was 'how did we get all these freaks again?' "Well... er..."
"Oh, let me," Kisling spoke up, "This is a perfect chance for me to learn more about the paranormal!"
"Alright, you're in. Corona, will you watch- er, Rin, will you watch Corona for us?"
"Yeah, of course! Me 'n Corona will be right here, don't worry, kay? Sampson too!"
"Great. Well, let's get this over with..."
The three boarded the boat and headed out onto the lake to the huge tower. It, when getting closer, proved to be a giant clock tower- Kisling explained it was left over from the 'Pre-Age' period, which nobody knew a thing about. Ari couldn't help but wonder why something so obvious wouldn't have a history, and it almost hurt to think about it. They finally got to the damn thing and had to go through a hole straight in through the broken clock face, but oddly, the inside wasn't full of gears: it was just a brick building on the inside.
"Wait a minute... this doesn't make any sense. A clock tower would need gears to work."
"Maybe it never worked in the first place." Kisling pondered it a moment, "Perhaps it was just made to represent a clock."
"What a waste of time... come on, guys, we have to save Her Majesty!"
Stan suddenly appeared, cutting in to Rosalyn's zeal, "What is it with you and saving this woman? The important part here is furthering MY conquest, you twit!"
"A twit! Me? HAH! You... the only thing that keeps you from being 1-D is that stupid, yellow child-colored face! Your personality is so flat and colorless that it's become a black hole and sucks any intelligence around it into an abyss!"
This seemed to hit the Evil King hard, who was clearly pissed off (so much so that ARI began to feel angry) to the point beyond words. He thought hard of a comeback, but only could come up with: "Shut up, you hag!"
"Stop arguing, people!" Kisling stepped in between the two, "We've got a mission! It may not be the same mission, but the actions are the same."
"...Right." Rosalyn huffed, heading off into the building, "Stupid 1-D King."
By now Stan had disappeared, and Ari stopped feeling so angry, and was glad since the influence didn't help anything. Following along, he readied his blade in case of anything anybody could throw at him. A few occasional ghosts appeared, but they were quickly cut down to size by Rosalyn and Ari, Kisling recording all he could before hitting the spirits across the head with his research books. All was relatively successful- they finally reached the Aqua Evil King, who was of course in the deepest room.
"Stupid fools! You came expecting to defeat me, huh?"
"Well of course! We never let evil reign!"
"That is the pathetic, fraudish evil," Stan added, "We like to take those kinds apart bit by bit."
"Indeed, so if you don't surrender we will have to kill you in a painful fashion," Kisling readied his books for both fighting AND recording, "We're not afraid to dissect you while you still live."
"Yeah, right! Take your best shot, humans! You won't get far! Bwahahaha!"
