DarkEyedDemon: Yep, it's me again. I've decided to make a series of one-shots. I think I'm going to put them all in one story just as different chapters, but I'm not sure. Each one-shot will be about one of the flip cards from Champions and Betrayers of Kamigawa. Showing how the person ascends from worthless little thing that you would find in the discard pile more often than naught to a creature that can cause problems for everyone and their brother!
Night's Caress
Slick-Claw had never been a very lucky rat. Being a nezumi, he was born in the Takenuma Swamp, but that wasn't his real problem. The problem was his lack of strength, size, and good luck. When he was still young he had gotten himself lost in the deeper parts of the swamp. He walked in the same direction for days, expecting it to lead him back home, but he was actually walking farther and farther away. He never went back to his home and stumbled across a run-down tavern in the darker reaches of the swamp. The owner of the place gave him a job and that is where he's been ever since.
"Slick-Claw! There's a nice mess for you to clean up at the end of the bar!" the human bar-tender shouted. The timid little nezumi scuttled over to where a customer had spilled his drink…at least that's what he hoped had happened. He started wiping at the mess furiously, his rat nose basically impervious to the awful smell. As he cleaned, his sensitive ears picked up a conversation between two customers.
"Did you hear?" one of the men said. "Another two bodies went missing from that ol' graveyard the other night."
"That's five this week!" the other exclaimed. "What would anyone want with a bunch of corpses?" Slick-Claw snickered. Little did they know, there were plenty of things people wanted corpses for. He should know; he was the one who was taking them. It wasn't only the corpses that interested people, but sometimes the things they bore. He remembered coming across what looked like an ordinary trinket to him until he was caught by one of the swamp ogres. It was about to use Slick-Claw in its blood magic rituals when it noticed the amulet he had found. Not only had the object bought Slick-Claw his freedom, but he also came back with a large sack of food that night. He spent many nights defiling grave after grave, and when one graveyard ran out, he moved to another. He had nearly cleared this last one that he was going to be visiting tonight once his work was done.
He finished wiping up the mess beneath the bar and went back to the store-room to finish bringing out the large sacks of rice that supplied the only food the bar had to offer. He hauled bags in and out of the back room until sunset and he was allowed to go to the small room provided for him on the upper floor of the tavern. Once he was sure the streets of the small town were empty, he pulled from a loose floorboard a small knife and a big brown sack. Putting his weapon at his side, he opened the one window of his room and climbed out, scurrying down the wall of the tavern as if there were invisible hand and foot holds. He dropped noiselessly to the ground and dashed between shadows towards the graveyard he needed to get to. Upon reaching his destination, he jumped over the short wooden gate and moved towards the only grave that hadn't been dug up. He set his claws into the dirt and scooped out the soil furiously, digging as faster than anyone with a shovel. Within minutes he had reached the make-shift coffin underground.
Taking his knife, he slid the thin blade up and down the edge of the coffin's door until he heard the sound of splintering wood. He pulled the lid open with ease and stared in at the grizzly sight below him.
The corpse stared up with empty eye-sockets, its mouth open wide in the twisted grin of death. Upon lower inspection of the body, Slick-Claw noticed a large hole in the man's stomach, surrounded by strange symbols carved into his skin.
"Must be another kami," he said to no one in particular. Kami attacks had become almost a daily event, and the victims of such attacks were always left in the strangest of ways. Every body that the nezumi had unearthed from this site had been in a similar state, with a large hole and strange markings. It didn't really matter to him as he pulled the corpse from its resting place and threw it up to the ground above him. He started searching through the coffin for anything of value when both his ears and nose twitched, catching the sound and smell of someone entering the graveyard. It couldn't have been mourners; there was no regret in the Takenuma.
Slick-Claw hastily threw his back against the side of the grave, trying to make himself as flat and undetectable as possible. The sound of three approaching humans echoed through the rat's ears and he held his breath.
"Well well," one of them said. "Looks like we found out who's been raiding the bone-yards every night."
"Yeah," another croaked. "And it looks like it was a big rat!" Two powerful hands reached into the grave and roughly grabbed the fur on Slick-Claw's shoulders, hauling him up and tossing him away from the hole. When Slick-Claw had scrambled back to his feet, he was facing the two men he had been eavesdropping on in the tavern before, plus a new person. The three men each held their own short swords, and they were grinning at the nezumi menacingly. Slick-Claw had never been a very lucky rat.
Hastily drawing his dagger with shaky claws, Slick-Claw took aim and let his weapon fly through the air. He smiled with satisfaction as it imbedded itself in one of the men's legs, causing him to drop his sword and fall to the ground. Unfortunately, Slick-Claw realized his mistake too late. He now faced two armed men without a weapon.
"There's a high price on your head, rat," one of them spoke harshly. "Everyone wants to know who's been taking these corpses, especially the grave diggers." Slick-Claw searched frantically for a way to escape, but it was too late now. While he had been distracted by throwing his knife, the other man had made it behind him, getting between him and the exit of the graveyard. Slick-Claw closed his eyes and waited for the end to come, but nothing happened. When he reopened his eyes, a beam of black light was shooting up out of the grave he had just emptied. In the center of the column rose a twisted figure, and when the light faded Slick-Claw recognized it immediately as an oni. The creature had the standard third eye and curved horns of an oni, and looked a lot like the many corpses Slick-Claw had exhumed but with a large, bestial mouth. All three of the demon's eyes settled on the nezumi who went rigid with fear. It opened its mouth wide and shot out a wave of what looked like sharp talons, but the razor-sharp missiles did not pierce rat flesh. Instead, the claws shredded the three men, who died before even getting the chance to scream. The oni once again looked at Slick-Claw and to it in a voice like the cries of a thousand dieing men.
"You have freed me from my prison, have you not?" When Slick-Claw only looked confused, the demon elaborated. "I am Kashukyo, the oni lord of unlife. I was imprisoned in this graveyard and held here by the seals engraved on every corpse within this site."
"The markings!" Slick-Claw exclaimed, realization dawning on him.
"Yes, and for freeing me, I shall bestow upon you the ability that I rule over." The demon's third eye flashed and a strange sensation washed over Slick-Claw. The feeling remained as the demon opened its mouth and unleashed another wave of flying claws. The nezumi's jaw dropped in horror. It was too late to run away, and he screamed in his mind for someone, anyone to pull him out of the way of the projectiles. Suddenly, an unknown yet familiar pair of hands grabbed Slick-Claw and hauled him out of the path of claws that imbedded themselves in the ground where he once stood. He stared at the cluster of talons dumbly before looking up to see who had saved him. It was one of the men that had been killed by the demon, and by the looks of him he still should've been dead.
Slick-Claw looked to the other men but they were still on the ground. Coming up with an idea, he pointed his hands at both of them and willed them to get up and kneel down in front of him. A green light shot from his claws to each corpse, making them stand then kneel just as Slick-Claw had wanted them to. The nezumi was awe-struck. He could raise the dead! His awe shortly turned to suspicion as he remembered that most oni didn't give something without a catch. He turned towards the demon, expecting the task or toll that was surely to be asked of him.
"I have given you this power, and I expect you to use it to bring all to glorious unlife. Go now, my servant. Go and spread the living dead across the world, Nighteyes the Desecrator!" The demon disappeared like mist and Slick-Claw, no; Nighteyes was left alone except for his new minions. The nezumi looked from his claws that had resurrected the dead, to his new minions.
Breathing deeply, he put his hands back down at his sides and stared sternly at the three ghouls. "Well, you heard him! We have work to do!" The zombies nodded and stood as Nighteyes ushered them out of the graveyard. He would have to leave this town. All the graveyards were empty and he needed bodies that were already dead before he started killing some of his own. Slick-Claw had never been a very lucky rat. Nighteyes was one of the luckiest in the world.
DED: There it is, part one of my flip-card series! Please review!