A Game of Cat and Cat Chapter 10: Guess What, it's Halloween, a Castlevania + Megami Tensei Crossover fanfic

First, I would like to thank Shinigami Yumi for helping me compose this idea.

I wanted to crosspost this as both a chapter of Cat and Cat and as a standalone oneshot, because it's self-contained within the SMT universe, but due to site rules, I can't have multiple copies of the same work. I had considered posting the oneshot and having the 'new chapter' be a redirect/plug for that, but I figured that would be annoying.

For unrelated reasons, this story is now being crosspost on Ao3. Other than minor edits, the only difference is that there's considerably less commentary. There's still going to be author's notes, but if you're tired of seeing my chatter, try that.

The summary that would have been posted: Who haunts the halls of Mikado Castle? Three friends discuss the local ghost story. Or, Nanashi's unorthodox approach to a mission yields interesting results. After all, what are myths but the deeds of yesteryear?

This chapter was partly inspired by the Castlevania AO3 fic In a Castle. That fic is about how the story of Lament of Innocence mutated over time. What I like about it is that the story didn't just degrade, it evolved. Julius tells a good vs. evil fantasy, Maria gives a fairy tale with emphasis on Sara and Leon's virtues, and Trevor's story is about how the Belmonts are no different from the creatures they hunt. Even Dracula, the sole surviving witness, forgot key details like Walter's name. They're all distinct, and each add or remove details, like how in Maria's tale Leon and Sara already had children but in all others they were newlyweds.

I want to do more stuff like this, but this time with the actual events of the game. Kazuya and co. visiting Roppongi, framed as a story a wasteland elder tells children. Some guy who was a ghost during the events of Nocturne has dreams about the Vortex World, and tells his classmate Yusuke, who draws the Demifiend. Hell, maybe even Elizabeth telling Minato the story of Forneus and Decarabia.

So a remaster of the Castlevania Advance games? Looks fine, but doesn't look like they're adding anything, so probably not getting it.

I keep thinking that Infernal Akira has a tail. I think it's because his stance looks vaguely digitigrade, and a tail would make some nice empty space.

My original idea for a Halloween special was the children of the cast doing stuff on Halloween, and it dealt with how these kids were raised knowing or not knowing about the supernatural. I will get to that one day, but there's a lot of groundwork that needs to get covered first (and not just because the only couples I introduced were Kazuya/Aoi and Mina/Soma).

By the way, SMT1 starts at some point in October, which we know because Stephen's first email mentions the date. It was released on October 30th, 1992 (almost Halloween), so happy anniversary. Persona 2 Innocent Sin also starts in either late October or early November; students in the intro mention the upcoming Culture Festival, which traditionally takes place on November 3rd.

SMT V looks like the anti-Nocturne, but it also seems like a cleaned-up version of Apocalypse. There's a heavy focus on divinity this time, too.

My guesses for SMT V:

Aogami is Nanashi from the future of the Massacre ending. Both he and the Nahobino have golden eyes, and the last time golden eyes were important was when Nanashi became a Creator God (Nuwa and her partner have golden eyes, too, but my guess still stands since she's a creator goddess). When I first saw Aogami in silhouette, before we even saw his face, I thought, "Yup, that's Akira." Aoi mostly means blue but can mean green, and since we don't see much blue on Aogami, I think his color is secretly green (plus, yellow eyes on blue clothes and hair makes green). Him killing YHVH also might explain why the Nahobino is divine but is at the same time considered blasphemous.

Apparently, Aogami is a fallen god, and he wants the hero to replace the current Creator God, but he's not forcing him into anything. So I think that Nanashi got ousted, possibly by the Goddess of Tokyo, and the whole Da'at/Tokyo situation is because of this. He wears the Prime Minister's face because he doesn't want to be recognized; either he's the God the trailers say is dead, or the God is YHVH and it's his fault. It would be amusing if the heroes realize that he's younger than them. He needs the Nahobino because as a god, he can't kill other gods alone anymore. He doesn't force the hero into doing anything because he remembers what it's like to be on the other end of the deal.

That also might be why the heroine wears blue and has psychic powers; she's the reincarnation of Goddess!Asahi. It's more likely to be a reference to the Virgin Mary, who traditionally wears blue.

My other guess is that Da'at is the result of the Demi-Fiend resetting the universe, and he'll show up at some point. That's why they remade Nocturne first; they needed an updated model (now that he's been released as DLC, I redact this statement, but I keep this guess for posterity). Incidentally, this is the plot of a story that I plan on releasing one day.

Now that he's DLC, I think he might appear at some point in 'normal' Tokyo.

My last guess is that if the Demi-Fiend does appear, he'll beat up the Prime Minister. In the Diamond Realm DLC, he makes a comment about how he'd kill anyone in his way, even the Prime Minister. I just thought it was weird that he felt the need to specify the Prime Minister of all things.

Also, Bethel. You probably know that the -el suffix means God, and that Beth is the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet (and a heroine of SMT2), but there's a story where all the letters ask God for a special place, and God chooses Beth as the letter to start 'In the Beginning'. In that same story, Aleph starts the Ten Commandments.

I think that Vasuki represents India explicitly in Shiva's stead to avoid another Krishna fiasco. Either that, or Shiva is dead or missing, and he's trying to cover it up.

I have two hopes for this game: the heroine isn't useless, and Law isn't terrible. The useless heroine thing is self-explanatory; please don't play her distress for cuteness. I'm not a fan of Law, but it's no longer novel to have evil angels. If they're going to be evil, give them a better reason than just 'God told us to kill everyone'.

I Will be Your Ghost Story

Night patrols, Stanley decided, were pointless. Oh, night guards were important; he'd been the kind of child who snuck away from field trips in search of more interesting fare, and so knew from experience that guards weren't there to stop you. Rather, they were there so that you would stop yourself. Station a few prentices around the front and back entrances, and a few of their seniors on top of the walls, and burglars would think twice about breaking in. Day patrols were important, too; someone had to snatch up the dumb tourist of the day before they became the dead tourist of the day. In the five weeks since his initiation rite, Stanley had seen no less than seven people climb the statues in Aquila Square Plaza, eight people wander into the demon reserves in Naraku, and that wasn't even counting all the rumors he'd heard from his seniors. Apparently, one particularly brave tourist had broken into the vaults, and nobody would have known if she hadn't taken pictures of herself holding Flynn's sword.

But night patrols? Anyone who could get past the night guard could probably either sneak or bash past a bunch of prentices who still weren't allowed to summon demons without adult supervision.

"Why are we even here?" Stanley said out loud during the eighteenth circuit along the promenade that night. He took another bite out of his bacon and egg sandwich. It was crunchy and tasty and more importantly, free. Stanley had at first worried that his meals would eat up his wages, but some of his senior Samurai had given him a guide on every discount afforded to them. The price cuts were quite generous, but the sandwich shop next to the bank was the only place that gave outright free food.

Matilda primly took another sip of hot ginger bubble tea. "It's all part of the training," she said. "We learn the layout of the castle at night, get used to being alone in the dark, and it's a bit more exercise."

"I heard it was because of the ghost," said Eleonora.

There was a pause.

"Mikado Castle is haunted, you know," Eleonora continued, not quite able to mask her enthusiasm.

"Really," said Stanley.

"You're not even curious?" said Eleonora, crunching on another chip from her bag of fish and chips. She had gone for the biggest price cut rather than the cheapest overall.

"What's so special about ghosts?" said Stanley.

"They're romantic," said Matilda, skewering another garlic pork gyoza. It seemed like Matilda had gone for whatever she wanted regardless of discounts.

"And what's so romantic about being murdered?" said Stanley.

"So you have heard of him!" said Eleonora.

"No, but every ghost story I've heard starts with someone getting murdered," said Stanley. He sighed. "What was it this time? Money? Jealous lover? Parent who wouldn't allow children to marry?"

"Suicides, accidents, childbirth, children wandering off," Matilda added.

"Every ghost story I can remember off the top of my head," Stanley admitted.

"No, this one… was executed," said Eleonora in a low, excited whisper.

"And I bet that it wasn't one of the literal thousands of people accused of heresy," said Matilda, waving a hand in the direction of the ancient execution grounds.

"Well, no, but—"

"What makes this one special?" said Matilda. "Why is their grudge so much more important than someone who was burned to death just for wanting more out of life than endless labor?"

"You'll never know unless you hear it," said Eleonora, smirking.

"…Fine," Matilda relented.

Eleonora took a deep breath.

"Many years ago, the twin cities of Tokyo and Mikado were at war," Eleonora intoned. "At the behest of their god, the Samurai of Mikado invaded Tokyo.

"During her voyage to Tokyo, one Samurai came across a lost orphan boy, whose parents had been killed in the war. Taking pity on the child, she took him by the hand and swore to raise him as her own. The boy had lovely green eyes that reminded the Samurai of the fields of her homeland.

"The Samurai and the boy spent many happy days together. In those days, the time in Tokyo flowed much more slowly than in Mikado, so the Samurai often left her son alone with friends for a few hours, while she spent a few weeks with her birth family. And before you ask, I did the math, and two hours in Tokyo was a little less than a week in Mikado before the timeline stabilized," she added in her normal voice.

"Alas, this peace was shattered when the Divine Powers pierced the Firmament. Now anyone with a flying demon could enter Mikado, and the Hunters could now counterattack through what is now called the Breach of Heaven and Earth."

Stanley shuddered. He could still remember the first time he saw the Breach. His parents hadn't realized how utterly terrified he was of heights, so they brought him along on vacation to Mikado, thinking that a seven-year-old wouldn't know that Mikado perched comfortably atop a crust rising thousands of feet in the air. One sleepless night later, his mother took him to the Breach (fenced off and crisscrossed with bridges) to show him that the Firmament was over a mile thick and could certainly hold his weight without cracking. It… somehow helped, but the memory of a hole stretching to hell still nauseated him in his nightmares.

"The Samurai were recalled to Mikado to deal with the threat, the boy's mother among them. As foreigners were not permitted in Mikado, she could not bring her son with her, and she abandoned him with a heavy heart.

"I've heard too many people complain that she was an idiot for choosing duty over family," Eleonora continued in her normal voice. "But this kid wasn't her only family. If high command found out that she deserted her post, her birth family would be questioned and possibly executed. No matter what choice she made, she'd have to leave some of her family behind."

"If she didn't show up, wouldn't they just assume that she died in battle?" asked Stanley.

"That's why I said if they found out she deserted, not if she tried at all," said Eleonora.

"So what you're saying is that she loved her birth family more than him, so she dumped him in the middle of a war zone," said Matilda.

Eleonora shook her head. "Apparently, she left him with friends."

"Sounds like some kid started crying in the middle of the story a hundred years back, so the storyteller appended that little detail," said Matilda. "So what? The kid died?"

Eleonora shook her head. "The child refused to believe that he would never see his mother again. So he followed her to the Sky Tower, which was in those days the only other path to Mikado."

"I'm sorry, how old was this kid?" said Stanley.

Eleonora shrugged. "I don't know. You know how when you're a kid, you assume that everyone in a story is older than you?"

Matilda pointed down. "Naraku and the Sky Tower have been demon reserves for how long?"

Eleonora shrugged. "I've heard several explanations, and none of them makes sense. In one version, he's helped by an angel, which only brings up more questions about the second half of the story. In another, he tags along with a group of Hunters, but that also… never mind, almost all of them don't fit with the second half of the story. I'll tell you the others later. The most consistent explanation is that he's just very good at sneaking. Either way, he made it through without a scratch."

"Again, demons and Hunters have been trying to enter Mikado for decades, and this kid just walks right in," said Stanley. "Forgive me if this breaks my suspension of disbelief."

"I said the most consistent explanation, not the best."

"Perhaps Naraku was left temporarily undermanned while the Samurai scrambled to fix the Breach," said Matilda. "I believe that would explain why no Samurai caught the boy, but that still begs the question of how he passed by demons undetected."

"Anyways," Eleonora cleared her throat. "The boy emerged from Naraku with nary a scratch, but his mother had long since left for the Breach. Moreover, he was now trapped in Mikado Castle, the best-defended fort in the land.

"But the boy was clever, and he knew full well that defenses falter from within. While entrance and egress were well-guarded, the space between was not. For… um… damn, I can't say this in fancy," said Eleonora. "Basically, everyone knows the perimeter of the castle is impenetrable, so nobody really tries to defend the inside because they assume that the outside guards would have caught any miscreants. So all the kid had to do was steal some clothes, and nobody looked at him twice. He ended up robbing every kitchen in the city, along with the Monastery."

"Yeah, yeah, don't have to tell me twice," Stanley muttered, clicking his flashlight on and glancing at the bushes on the far end of the courtyard. To his absolute lack of surprise, there was no one there.

"At this point, there's usually a comic relief/satire bit where he runs around the city causing mayhem, but it's just not the same without the puppets," said Eleonora. "I mean, what's a con without the Tall Gentleman?"

"Tall Gentleman?" Stanley repeated.

Matilda and Eleonora looked at each other. "Right, you grew up in Tokyo," said Eleonora. "Guess you never really had the Peddler's Puppets."

"Never heard of them," said Stanley.

"They're a set of puppets used in traditional Mikado puppet plays, each representing a stock character," said Matilda. "Before the castes were repealed, peddlers were some of the only itinerant Casualries, so most villages depended on them for news and stories. They used the puppets for both news and story, which often led to some interesting combinations." She twirled her chopstick absently. "The puppets represent social rank and appearance, not personality or role. For example, I've seen the Long-Haired Peasant as a greedy farmer, the guy who gets eaten in Secrets of Tennozu, and even as Flynn. The Tall Gentleman is usually either the dandy who gets tricked by the picaresque hero, or the dastardly con man who tricks the hard-working peasants. King Aquila gets his own special puppet, though, since he appears in so many stories."

Eleonora coughed. "So anyways, depending on whatever institution pissed off the storyteller most recently, the kid robs and humiliates them, usually by peeing on them. Then he goes to their refectory, but he doesn't recognize any of the food since all they had to eat in Tokyo was demon meat. Depending on how preachy the storyteller feels that day, you either get a bit about how he marvels at how people in Mikado take such bounty for granted, or he eats a candle by mistake and throws up. In every version, though, he goes into the Monastery for a map, and ends up stealing King Aquila's Gauntlet."

Eleonora cleared her throat, and recited with a dignified air, "With food and map in hand, the boy set out to the Breach, but he was stopped by a guard at the castle gates. At first, he mistook him for a servant boy shirking his duties, but after he boxed his ears and dragged him into the light, he saw that this was no resident of Mikado.

"He was too pale to be a Casualry, and too emaciated to be a Luxuror. And although the guard at first thought he was one of the exiled folk, those who hid from the government in forest and cave, he cursed and spat at him with a Tokyo accent. He arrested him on the spot.

"The boy was put on trial. While nobody wanted to put a child to death, the fact was that for the first time in over a millennium, one of the Unclean Ones had trespassed upon Mikado. What did he want? What if he was a spy?

"The judge worried about the state of their defenses; if a child could worm his way into the heart of Mikado, who else had snuck into their land? Worse, what precedent would this set? Would he spare the child, and grant mercy to an Unclean One? Or would he brandish the sword of justice and slay the kingdom's enemies, at the cost of a child's life?"

"Again, all those kids who were killed in the purges," said Matilda.

"After much deliberating, the judge declared that if the boy confessed exactly how and why he came to Mikado, he would be granted mercy," Eleonora continued, ignoring Matilda. "Not only would the boy be spared, but the ruling would be spread far and wide so that other refugees from Tokyo would confess and be granted clemency; that way, the holes in security would be patched posthaste.

"The only problem was that the boy would not confess. Oh, he knew that his plea would be granted fruit; after all, his only crimes were filial devotion and youthful recklessness. But the boy realized that by adopting him, his mother had broken the law. His testimony might save him, but it would surely damn her. So throughout the trial, he refused to speak or cry.

"Unable to speak his defense, boy was sentenced to death. It is said that he remained silent even on the executioner's block, taking comfort only in the sight of the sky that he had been denied his whole life. In a single stroke, the executioner drove her spear through his heart, and the life fled his beautiful green eyes.

"However, the people of Tokyo in those days were a hardy, stubborn folk. Life underneath the cold earth was suffering, and only those who spat in Death's eye survived. Such bright, hot spirits burned long after death, and this boy was no exception.

"On the dawn of the first day after the execution, a guard had fallen from the battlements. This was tragic, but not surprising, as she had been a little too fond of wine than was proper for a Samurai of her station. Before she succumbed to her injuries, she muttered something about green."

Despite the warm breeze, Stanley shivered.

"On the dawn of the second day, the hospital was in an uproar. Every single patient was dead. The castle doctors investigated and found that every single one had either succumbed to their injuries or overdosed on their respective medications."

"What, all of them?" said Stanley. "What about people who weren't injured or on meds?"

"Like?" said Eleonora.

"I don't know, pregnant women, people with hangovers, or people who just need rest and fluids?"

"And what about people without life-threatening injuries?" said Matilda. "I gashed my leg open before, and I didn't come close to dying from it."

"Infection," said Stanley.

"In one night?"

Eleonora shrugged. "Maybe everyone who didn't have life-threatening injuries was sent to sleep it off in the barracks to save space? Anyways, the point is that it looked like either neglect or incompetence, and the night nurses were fired. Anyways…" Eleonora continued in her storytelling voice.

"On the dawn of the third day, two Samurai were found in the castle hallways with their own swords plunged in their backs. They had died in the heat of passion, as evidenced by the clothes strewn around their feet. The only witness to the crime was a night maid, who in her madness gibbered about a green light.

"On the dawn of the fourth day—"

"I'm starting to sense a pattern here," interrupted Matilda, arms crossed. "This started out interesting, but now it's just a morality play against carelessness. Don't get drunk on duty, don't neglect your support, don't have sex on duty… what's next, don't eat on duty?"

"That's number five," said Eleonora, slightly deflated. "Number four is splitting up to pee alone. That got two people killed; one died while peeing, and his partner was killed when he got scared and went to look for him. That's why we have to go to the bathroom in groups, and why there's always four or more people to a team."

"Henry and Ezekiel sure are taking a while," mused Stanley.

"Given that the nearest bathroom is located inside of a 24-hour doughnut shop, I'm not surprised," said Matilda. "How many of these lessons are there, then?"

"Seven in total," said Eleonora. "On the fifth night—that is, the night before the sixth day—a senior Samurai declared that he alone was sufficient to deal with the ghost."

"He died?" said Stanley.

"Yup," said Eleonora. "By then, they realized that the dead boy was behind all this, so on the sixth day they went to the morgue. In one version, they dust the ground with flour, and in another, they dunk his feet in paint, but either way, they find his footprints on the seventh day.

"Anyways, that night, everyone was super paranoid and nobody had gotten much sleep. So everyone was tired, and some fell asleep on duty. They got stabbed in the back, and the ghost discovered a little something called 'arson'. Whatever the sleeping Samurai were protecting got torched.

"Then the Samurai went to the morgue, saw the footprints, which confirmed that the kid did it. So they took the body at dawn, rode until dusk, and buried it in an abandoned well.

"But even though they took care of the body, the boy's ghost remained in the castle. Even without a body, he remains ever-vigilant, and with the little power left, sabotages—"

"He's the anthropomorphic personification of carelessness, and he'll never go away," interrupted Matilda. "The only way to 'exorcise' him is to follow those rules and always be careful even in a boring job."

"Yeah, when you put it like that, it sounds like the whole second half was tacked on," said Stanley.

"But was it scary?" said Eleonora expectantly.

Matilda shrugged. "The government executing a child for no reason, that's scary. But a ghost that can be thwarted just by not being stupid? That's not scary at all."

"Oh," said Eleonora, deflated.

"But it was a fascinating insight into the zeitgeist of the early Tokyo-Mikado interface," said Matilda. "Lots of ghost stories I've heard tend to gloss over why this particular death was special enough to create a ghost. I suppose that when the story was first told, the fact that the boy was from Tokyo was sufficient reason for him to become a vengeful ghost, and they later tacked on the 'defiant spirit' part to appear more… magnanimous." She twirled her chopstick. "But still, if we used to think that everyone in Tokyo knew dark magic, that begs the question of why none of the Black Samurai's acolytes became ghosts. At least we know they had dark powers."

"The Black Samurai's devotees all turned into demons when they were alive, so the Samurai killed them on sight rather than carting them to Mikado Castle," said Eleonora. "If any of them got caught, they'd probably try to escape. Any prisoner executed in the castle was either innocent or at worst an accomplice, so no, they wouldn't have known necromancy."

"…Good point," conceded Matilda.

"What I want to know is how it took them so long to figure out that the boy was behind all those deaths," said Stanley.

Eleonora shrugged. "In some versions I've heard, it was as early as the… third day? Let's see… drinking, hospital malpractice, sex, bathroom, eating, arrogance, and sleep. Yeah, the third day was the first one that didn't look like an accident, so that's when they checked if his body was moving, which was confirmed on the fourth day. Then they thought they could put his spirit to rest by giving him a proper funeral, so they buried him, but he dug himself out. On the fifth day, they buried him in a nice coffin, but he still got out. On the sixth day they got a monk to give the last rites, and on the seventh day they just said screw it and dumped him down a well."

"And what happened to the Samurai who adopted him?" asked Stanley. "Couldn't she have appeased his spirit? I mean, I get that nobody knew to fetch her, but you'd think she would have found out eventually. Unless she died."

"Of course she survived," said Matilda. "Otherwise, how would we know that the kid was her son?"

Eleonora shrugged. "I know she survived the Breach, and that as soon as she found out her son was dead, she swore to never let this happen again. She became a diplomat and worked to ease relations between the two cities, or so the story goes. But I don't know if she tried to appease him."

"Maybe he just didn't act out when she was around?" suggested Stanley.

"I used to babysit brats like that," muttered Matilda. "Does this story have a name, or is it just the ghost of Mikado Castle? I want to take a look at the other versions."

"I thought you didn't like ghost stories," said Stanley.

Eleonora shook her head. "No, she loves them. But the thing is, she loves them so much that she's developed taste."

"They're all the same," Matilda muttered. "Ghost stories are the anxieties of death given form; why are they all about accidents, moping, or murder?"

"Oh yeah, didn't you say that there's more than one version of how the kid climbed Naraku?" asked Stanley. "I guess that the angel story doesn't work out because the angel could have vouched for him and his mother, and the Hunter one wouldn't work because he couldn't have raised enough money to hire a Hunter."

"Actually, the Hunter one says that they were going to Mikado anyway to spy, and they were planning on using him as a decoy," said Eleonora. "But that brought up the question of why he killed the Samurai instead of the Hunters."

"Huh," said Stanley. "What else did he try?"

"There's one where he disguised himself as a Samurai prentice who lost his Gauntlet and asked a real Samurai to take him through the Terminal," said Eleonora. "He's something around twelve or thirteen in this version, and he gets around the age limit by picking an older Samurai who can't gauge the ages of children properly. But that doesn't explain why they didn't just reject this pale, skinny kid with a Tokyo accent on sight. Then there was the cardboard box—"

Matilda stopped walking, and both Eleonora and Stanley bumped into her. "You planned this, didn't you?"

Eleonora blinked. "What?"

Matilda pointed to the base of the Unity statue. "You sent Henry and Ezekiel to set this up, while you get us all riled up from the story."

"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" asked Stanley.

"Come here; you'll see it better from this angle. Just around the corner, see it?"

Stanley moved to where Matilda was standing, and gasped. Two green pinpricks glowed faintly in the dark.

"Mattie, I—"

"Oh, no, I'm not mad," said Matilda. "But if you thought I would fall for—"

Fsst!

Matilda let out an unladylike bark as a stream of cold water puddled down her shirt.

"Ha!" Henry shouted from the bushes, water pistol in hand. Ezekiel was next to him, clutching a box of doughnuts.

"…That was the prank," said Eleonora, breathing harder. "I… I don't know what that is."

For a long, tense second, the five prentices stared at the two lights, confusion overriding fear.

Matilda drew her sword. "Lili, Stanley, approach with me. Henry, Kiel, you're backup." Stanley often wondered how she got 'Lili' from 'Eleonora'.

"What's going on?" asked Henry.

"Ghost. We think," said Matilda. "Hama at the ready. Do not leave my side."

As the three of them approached the statue, the pinpricks of light widened into two glowing eyes set into a shimmering shadow, like emeralds resting on black velvet.

Eleonora stepped forward. Stanley was uncomfortably aware that the ghost didn't even reach her shoulders. "Greetings," she said loudly and clearly.

Hold out your hand.

Eleonora flinched, but obeyed. The ghost dropped something into Eleonora's waiting palm.

Eleonora looked down at it. "Um… thank you?"

The ghost's mouth wasn't visible, but its eyes narrowed in amusement before slowly dimming.

"Hama!" Matilda called, and a beam of light shot out of her Gauntlet, but it was too late. The ghost had faded away. She rounded on Eleonora. "What did I tell you, Lili?" she snarled. "Don't break ranks."

"Mattie, I—"

"What if it attacked?" said Matilda, waving a hand at where the ghost was. "It's an ancient spirit from the war. It could have killed you where you stood!"

"Come on, it worked out fine!" said Eleonora. "I'm alive, and I have this… thing."

"Yes, but it could have—"

"But it didn't," said Eleonora firmly. "Drop it, Mattie."

There was silence.

"…I'm sorry," said Matilda, staring at the ground. "I… I don't know what came over me. It… if I lost you, I don't know how I could live with myself."

Eleonora pulled Matilda into a hug. "It's fine," she said. "Friends for life, right?"

"Friends for life."

Henry cleared his throat. "Sorry to break this touching display of friendship, but what did it give you?"

"It's a… drill bit?" said Eleonora. "Screwdriver? Syringe?"

"Let me see," said Stanley. "It's a firing pin. Weren't you paying attention during gun stripping?"

"Oh," said Eleonora. "So that's why I couldn't find any screws that fit."

"So we have a ghost that finds lost items?" said Ezekiel. "That's nice of him."

It wasn't.

The next few days passed uneventfully. Drills, class, training, sleep, and meals blurred into one.

Thursdays was weapon maintenance day for the prentices. Under the watchful eye of the slightly more senior samurai, they would disassemble, clean, and reassemble their weapons, as well as run the weekly scans on their Gauntlets. For the greenhorns, it was a time of silent focus.

"Remember how I couldn't see you yesterday? Yeah, so I was in Ginza, and what do I see but a pack of harpies…" Rather than teaching them, journeyman Samurai Rebecca had looped a video on the projector so that she could gossip on her Gauntlet. "And then this pompous dastard jumps in and steals my kill! Like, how rude is that? And then she went on and on about how it's not a game and—"

"Rebecca?" said Eleonora.

Rebecca shot her a nasty look. "That's Dame Rebecca to you," she said haughtily.

"Dame Rebecca, then," said Eleonora. "Could you go over how to take this apart? I can't really see from the video's angle."

Dame Rebecca sneered at her. "Alright, watch closely," she said, placing her gun on the table. "First, you take this cloth…"

Stanley watched earnestly. For all her bluster, Rebecca was genuinely skilled with a gun. It was always annoying when obnoxious people were better at you, but that didn't mean that he couldn't learn from—

Rebecca froze. She looked at the gun, then at her Gauntlet, then back at the gun. She fingered a spot in the back, then turned pale. "Class is dismissed," she said, breathing hard. Then she sprinted out the door.

"What was that all about?" asked Matilda.

Eleonora shrugged. "I don't know, she was showing me how to—"

"The firing pin is missing," said Stanley suddenly. He turned to Eleonora. "Do you still have the thing from the other night?"

"Yeah," said Eleonora, digging it out of her pocket. "I never had the chance to—"

"I need to check something." Stanley picked up the pin. After some thought, he put it down and changed to a new pair of gloves. "Let's see if it fits her gun… of course it does." Stanley removed the pin and put it in his pocket.

The five prentices sat in complete silence as they realized exactly what the ghost had done. Outside, Rebecca was throwing up in some historical rose bush.

"Rebecca cleans her guns here," said Matilda. "And everyone knows we don't like her." She drew her sword. "Swear on the blood of King Aquila. We take this to our graves."

(Three Hundred and Fifty-Seven Years Ago)

Merciful God in the shining heavens, the Unclean Ones sent a child?

Everyone in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado had heard the tales of King Aquila driving back the Unclean Ones. Stella had many a fond childhood memory of the wandering peddlers, who retold the stories on the winter feast days with the most elaborate puppets that were ever set to cleansing fire mid-show. Hulking brutes would emerge from clefts of stone, almost indistinguishable from the demons they enslaved. Twisted, shadowy figures lurking in caves, all teeth, tentacles, and hunger, ready to ensnare the unwary traveler. Needle-furred creatures, more beast than man, crawling on all fours and pouncing on little children.

By description alone, the Unclean One would have been a perfect fit for the Tall Gentleman puppet. He was a spindly, pale thing, like those slender mushrooms that grew in bunches under mossy logs, complete with patches of skin that glowed green in the dark.

But rather than the blank face traditionally left unpainted and unsculpted, this one had a face that might have belonged to a lad back home, had that lad shaved his head, dunked his face in flour, and caught a slash of green paint on the cheek.

No, not a child, Stella steeled herself. It's wearing the face of a child.

Surely, no real child would have such an expression before his impending death?

Most people would have assumed it unnatural for a child to not weep in the face of death, but Stella knew better. She had seen dozens of children on the execution post, even slain a few. True, plenty had cried, but just as many had spat curses or glared defiantly at the executioner or crowd (none were bound or gagged, for it was cruel to deny a prisoner the world in their last moments). Others were silent with shock and denial, and still more had begged for their lives. Most had taken full advantage of the one mercy granted to children, and embraced their condemned parents as the spear struck them both.

It was unusual, but not at all surprising, that the Unclean One hadn't cried. But Stella had expected something in its face. Anger. Resentment. Disbelief. Despair. Delusion. Forced joy. Even serenity; a few of the Black Samurai's most vile heretics accepted their deaths with a peace the angels would envy.

Not boredom.

The Unclean One scarcely blinked as the herald declared his crimes. His calloused fingers tapped the post in a manner eerily reminiscent of a student sucking on a quill during noonday classes, waiting for the sun to pass through the measuring gates. Had his hands and feet not been bound, Stella was sure that he'd be scratching himself.

"You don't enjoy this," the Unclean One whispered in a voice as flat as his expression.

Stella did not move. Seductive whispers could start in the most innocuous of forms; a viper could take a single act of kindness as an invitation to strike.

"I'll remember that."

Brother Mathias raised his hand, and the crowd fell silent. "Any last words?"

The Unclean One yawned theatrically.

Brother Mathias nodded. "Then I commend your soul to God."

He raised his hand, the signal for Stella to strike.

When the Black Samurai first appeared, the Monastery disposed of heretical materials in the kitchen's firepit, until some cunning blasphemers realized that the monks and Samurai were too pious to read the Literature, and started lacing books with firework powder. After extensive damage to the brickwork, proper burning pits were constructed outside the castle walls. These pits hadn't been used since the angels returned; nobody dared occupy unholy ground, and destroying them was more trouble than it was worth, so the Samurai simply roped them off.

As an affront to God, the Unclean One's belongings were deemed just as blasphemous as any Literature the Black Samurai could produce, and so would be burned (the Unclean One itself was hanging in a gibbet and would follow as soon as the flesh fell from the bones). And as always, it was the executioner's job to clean up their messes.

"You'd think we could just shove them in the kitchen like before," said Stella. A family of opossums had made their home in the remains of the pits, and it was the devil's own job persuading them to leave (Leon had to summon Barbatos, the devil that granted its summoner the power to speak to animals).

"At least one of the prisoner's possessions require special care," Burroughs chimed in from Stella's Gauntlet. "I saw a Smartphone in the bag, and those can't be burned."

"Are they fireproof, or is it merely inadvisable to burn them?" asked Stella.

"They're inflammable," clarified Burroughs. "If you try to burn one, it will catch on fire, but it will emit poisonous gases. You should bury Smartphones."

"Duly noted," said Stella. "How's the fire, Leon?" she called to the third member of their party. Technically, Leon was a Crusader and was above manual labor, but he was Mathias's old friend and Stella's teammate before her injury kept her grounded, and he helped out whenever he was on furlough.

Leon didn't respond.

"Leon? Leon!"

Leon jerked his head up. "Yes?"

"How's the fire?"

Leon poked the flame. "It's fire. What else do you need?"

"Are you all right?" asked Brother Mathias.

"Y-yes, of course," said Leon.

Mathias sighed. "Get it out, Lili. If you don't, it'll weigh on you forever."

Leon climbed out of the pit.

"I thought he was just a runaway servant," said Leon, eyes cast downwards. "And it's my fault he's dead."

"No, it's not," said Mathias firmly. "The faults lies with his superiors for sending him on this mission. You merely thwarted their plans." When Leon didn't seem convinced, he added, "If you hadn't stopped him, someone else would have."

"I suppose," said Leon unsteadily.

Stella took Leon's hand into hers and looked him in the eye. "Execution is a cleansing rite," she said with a certainty that she did not feel. "Whatever his sins were, they are forgiven now. He is in heaven."

The words did not seem to help, but care from a friend did. Leon's shoulders unclenched.

Mathias cleared his throat. "If there are no more objections, let us proceed. A small book with no title, which Dame Sara sealed with twine for safety," he called.

"Here," said Stella, and she tipped it in the fire.

Mathias checked it off the list. In theory, this was supposed to prevent the executioner from stealing the late prisoner's possessions, but he and Stella had been working together for so long that it was lip service. "A Tokyo Gauntlet, known to them as a Smartphone."

"You heard Burroughs, this has to be buried," said Stella.

"A bundle of rags," said Mathias.

"Got it, Mattie," said Leon.

"…Why the hell does he have King Aquila's Gauntlet?" said Mathias. For the first time in millennia, its screen was flashing. Stella tapped it, and the light faded.

All three of them stared at the sacred object, then at each other. "Let's keep this a secret," said Leon.

"Agreed," said Mathias, slipping it into his bag.

"This is above my pay grade," said Stella.

Mathias cleared his throat. "A metal pole, presumable used for self-defense?"

"Right here," said Leon.

"A mockery of the Samurai uniform, which he was wearing when he entered the country," said Mathias.

"Of course," said Leon. Prior to the execution, Stella had asked Leon to change the prisoner's clothes, lest the ill-informed see the execution post or gibbet and think that the Samurai killed one of their own. The prisoner instead wore flimsy relic garments that Leon bummed off of S the blacksmith, who often complained about the poor quality of relics that Samurai brought her.

"One white crinkly bag, contents unknown."

Leon held up a bag emblazoned with a large yellow circle with the facsimile of a smiling face, with the slogan 'Have a Nice Day' written underneath in the Mystic Script. "This one?"

Mathias nodded. "I suppose the arresting officer feared the contents. Open it."

"But—"

"If it contains explosive powers, I would rather be forewarned."

Leon struggled to untie the knot. He resorted to cutting open the bag, and out spilled—

"Apples," said Stella, mouth suddenly dry.

"Bread, too," said Leon. He picked up a roll and sniffed it. "Stolen from the refectory, no less. Poor kid probably never had enough to eat."

"And now he never will," said Mathias quietly.

The three of them sat together in uncomfortable silence.

"Let's… let's see what else is here," said Mathias. "Eight red balls of incense."

"The Peris in Naraku carry those," said Leon. "They smell good when burned, but the aroma can be overwhelming, so just one at a time. What's next?"

"Why am I even here?"

Stella took another sip of beer, elbows on the battlements, gazing at the stars above. The Samurai had been stretched thin ever since their jurisdiction expanded to Tokyo, so it was just her guarding the roof tonight. She wasn't even allowed to summon her demons, since Samurai weren't allowed to reveal their contracts in front of the common folk.

"I mean, who does this stop?" Stella said to herself. "If someone seriously wants to break in here, are they going to see me and think twice? What's the point?"

No one responded.

Stella twirled her sheathed sword. "Well, at least there's the stars," she said to herself. "Moon's almost full. Autumn's coming, and that means pie in the refectory." She took a deep breath, and the crisp scent of falling leaves met her nostrils. "Might as well enjoy a night like this."

Some owls hooted in the distance.

"I'm here to relieve you from duty," said a voice from behind her.

"Just when I was starting to enjoy this," she muttered. She turned around. "Seriously, why do we even—"

"Shibaboo."

The Binding spell seized her nerves mid-turn, locking up every muscle except her mouth. "Who the—"

"I told you I'd remember, didn't I?"

Stella's eyes widened. "You?!"

"Dying's not so bad," said the boy she'd executed earlier that morning, a wan smile on his face. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Just think of it as leaving early before the rush."

Before Stella could process what he had said, he unbuckled her Gauntlet and gave her a hard shove, and there was nothing but the screaming wind and the streaking stars, and the cold green glow of death's eyes—

Stella hadn't died on impact. She'd lived just long enough for the other night guard to hear the crash, search desperately for her body, and listen to her last words before the rest of her brains leaked out of her skull.

Mathias sobbed uncontrollably in Leon's arms, hot, thick tears streaking down his face and Leon's pristine white uniform. Their friendship was well-known, so the investigators had done them the courtesy of whispering when they called her a drunk.

"I have borne witness to this tragedy too many times," said the coroner, Doctor Elizabeth, drinking hot tea to stave off the early morning mist. "Give the injured some drink to ease the pain, and they never stop."

"A leaden bullet embedded in her knee, though," said the interrogator, Dame Sara. "I would not deny her drink in that state."

"Ignore them, Mattie," whispered Leon. He was crying too.

"Why remove her Gauntlet?" said Dr. Elizabeth.

"To hide that she was drinking on duty," said Sara. She looked down at her notes. "Last thing she said, 'green eyes.' What could that mean?"

"The boy she executed had green eyes," said Dr. Elizabeth.

Sara sighed. "It's the kids that weigh on you. Most of them don't know what they're doing, but once they've been corrupted, you can't let them live."

Dr. Elizabeth shuddered. "Still, prisoner dies, executioner follows. An ill omen."

Sara coughed. "Who's going to replace her?"

"I suppose Sir Lawrence can come out of retirement," said Dr. Elizabeth.

Sara sighed. "And here I thought that we could get a start on Isabeau today. Robert had better have that pulley fixed."

"We shouldn't have killed him," said Dr. Elizabeth.

Sara said nothing. Elizabeth had always been squeamish around executions. Oh, she could handle dead bodies, demons, and murder, but she could never attend an execution without throwing up.

"This is not merely cowardice," Dr. Elizabeth clarified. "We could have held him hostage, and Isabeau would have told us everything."

Sara shook her head. "I doubt it. She didn't seem terribly concerned when I mentioned his arrest."

"Truly?" said Dr. Elizabeth. "I had taken him to be her bastard son."

Sara shook her head. "Time flows more slowly in the land of the Unclean Ones. Though Isabeau had been ordained as a Samurai over a decade before, she has not yet broken her twentieth year."

"Oh," said Dr. Elizabeth. She crossed her arms and tilted her head. "Then who is he to her?"

"Only she knows now," said Sara. "Not that that's stopped the lads from guessing. Ethan put five hundred that his rich parents bribed her to take him to the surface, but Stefan says he's a distraction for the real spies—"

"Chief, chief!"

Everyone turned to look at the newcomer. "Forget the accident, there's an emergency!"

The investigators ran, leaving Mathias and Leon alone with Stella's cooling body.

Sister Iris's day began at dawn. She said her morning prayers, broke her fast with bread and water, and cleansed her hands thoroughly with goat-fat soap and hot water before entering the sickbay.

Sir Andrew, who had suffered severe burns, was dead. Sister Iris made a note of this, and continued to Ser Ignatius's bed (pneumonia). Also dead. Tragic, but a nurse couldn't let sorrow get in their way on duty—

Dame Fecundity (broken leg) was dead as well.

Iris dropped her notebook, and rushed to Sir Richard's side. No pulse. Dame Judi, no pulse. Ser Terry, no pulse. Brother Martin, no pulse. Dame Janet, Sister Enid, Sir Roy—

Everyone in the sickbay was dead.

A nurse had to be in control of their emotions at all times. Therefore, Iris found it entirely appropriate to bang on Doctor Elizabeth's door and scream.

And yet, life still went on. As emotionally draining as the morning was, there were only a few hundred Samurai, and if everyone who had suffered a recent tragedy had taken the day off, the remainder could barely staff a small restaurant. A small restaurant that microwaved all its food and dunked all the dishes into a soup of hot, soapy water instead of washing them.

"You don't have to keep me company, you know," said Leon. His patrol route that day didn't take him through any dangerous areas; Stella had always thought these were a waste of time, but Leon thought it was a way to assure the common folk that they were watching over them.

"I need you to keep me company, Lili," said Mathias, still shaking.

Leon nodded, and they said nothing more.

They stopped at the second-outermost gate, to look at the corpse in the gibbet. Crows had already started eating the body. Leon hung his head in shame, but Mathias put his hand on his back. "Look well, Leon, for this is Stella's final work."

Leon looked sad at first, but then cocked his head. "Was he smiling before?"

"I think the bird ate his lips," said Mathias.

"No, it's not a toothy smile," said Leon. He scanned the streets for a path, and removed his heavy armor. "Hold these."

Clad only in his undergarments, Leon adroitly hopped onto a low stone fence, vaulted to the roof of a single-storey house, then onto a second, third storey, until he was running atop the chimneys at full speed. Mathias followed slowly, wincing whenever Leon dislodged a brick or put his foot through thatch, but Leon always quickly recovered from his slips.

At last, he came to the edge of the rooftops, where a hundred-foot gap between house and castle wall was mandated to prevent siege. Leon paused for a moment, then descended with grace that a cat would envy.

"I suppose I was mistaken," said Leon, putting his clothes back on.

Mathias laughed. "Never change, Leon."

"…And then I swept the floors, folded the sheets, and left for the night," said Sister Iris.

"Did you watch them take their medicine?" asked Sara. Dr. Elizabeth was busy doing autopsies in the back of the room. She was far from finished, but everyone so far had died of overdose.

"Always, from mouth to swallow," said Sister Iris. "It is not uncommon for patients to pour their medicine out the window when we're not looking."

"And the night nurse doesn't give medicine?"

Iris nodded. "I mean to say that she does. Some medicine is more effective when taken at night. But we already have a system to prevent double-dosage."

She opened her drawer and took out a set of wooden stamps, one the size of a page, and the rest the size of her thumbnail. She brushed the largest stamp with black ink and stamped a page in the logbook, printing a crude floorplan. "The door and the windows are striped rectangles, and the beds are unfilled rectangles, so we can stamp them," explained Iris. "We use color-coded stamps. I use the blue X if the patient should not be given medicine and the pink circle if they should, and she uses the green triangle if she gave them medicine and the red square if she didn't."

Sara flipped through the logbook. The last page looked approximately like the preceding ones, and the date was neatly written in the corner in consistent handwriting. There were far too many blue X's for it to have been an accident.

"You are certain that this log is accurate?" asked Sara.

"Within human error, yes," said Sister Iris.

Sara nodded, and turned to her assistant. "Lionel, go get the night nurse."

Lionel coughed. "Pardon me, Ma'am, but I've already taken the initiative of asking for her."

"And?"

"No one's seen her since yesterday."

Sara turned to Iris. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Sister Tera?" said Sister Iris. "Let's see… I normally see her right at the beginning of my shift, but she wasn't there."

"And you didn't report this?" asked Sara incredulously.

"She sometimes leaves early if her day was particularly exciting," said Iris. "We just had an execution, so I wouldn't be surprised if she left an hour or two in God's hands."

Sara wrote something down in her notebook. "Well, Sister Iris, you're still a suspect, but you're not under arrest. You may go, but you may not leave the city without an escort."

"I… you don't think Tera did it, do you?"

Sara fiddled with her quill, and chose her next words very carefully. "Although I do not personally believe her to be the type of person to kill her charges in cold blood, the facts suggest that she had. That does not mean that she did, and it very well mean that she had been—"

The door slammed open, and a nun burst in. "Sister Tera is dead!" she screamed.

Sara gulped. "Damnation." She pointed to Sister Iris. "I'm sorry, but since there are no other suspects, you are under arrest."

Leon was on patrol again that night. This was unusual, but Leon knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep that night, and his temporary insomnia could relieve another of duty.

Speaking of relieving, Sir Richter and Dame Annette had been in the midst of a tryst atop the west tower for the past fifteen minutes. Leon did not report them; they had both scarcely survived the attack on the Tsukiji Hongw—the Tsukiji Kongan—the base of the Ring of Gaea/Divine Powers, and if they wished to express their relief in a safe place, who was he to complain? Besides, the assault on the Reactor was tomorrow, and who knew what dread forces Lucifer may bring?

His route took him past the south gate, where he forced himself to look at the corpse—

The gibbet was empty.

Leon blinked. "Agilao!" He shot a fireball at the space next to the gibbet, confirming his suspicions.

For a moment, there was nothing but the wind. Then Leon laughed. "Of course. There was never any curse at all. He was a demon all along!"

"Negative, Master," said Burroughs. "He was human."

"Are you certain?" asked Leon.

"I'm positive."

"Oh. I suppose I was… incorrect… wait."

Leon looked back at Naraku, then at the gibbet. Then he cursed loudly.

"First there was Black Samurai's Acolytes, and then the Red Pills. And now simply killing the people of Tokyo transforms them into demons?!"

He fell to his knees. "Can this war ever be won? Or will my descendants be forced to fight forevermore?!"

"I'll send a message to the other Burroughs," said Burroughs.

Leon nodded. "Good." He drew his sword and held it aloft. "On this day, I swear that, I, Leon, Samurai of the Eastern Kingd—!"

"Shut it, Leon!" Dame Annette shouted from the tower.

"Yeah!" Sir Richter yelled. "Some of us are trying to—gkk!"

Leon didn't need Burroughs's confirmation to know that Sir Richter had been stabbed in the back. He looked back at the tower. A small black shadow, silhouetted against the starry night sky, dove from the highest ledge. A small black shadow with pinpricks of glowing green for eyes.

Leon began to remove his metal armor in favor of leather. "I'm going to pursue."

The green-eyed devil was fast, but Leon was faster. He scrambled up the wall like a cockroach on cocaine, caught sight of the devil approaching Aquila Square Plaza, and moved to intercept.

Just before the devil reached the gates, Leon dropped from above. "Think you can escape from me?" growled Leon, drawing his sword.

The devil's response was to point a glowing green arm at an open window. "Maragidyne." A burst of white-hot flame shot out of his hand. It hit the far wall and scattered, spreading and lighting whatever it touched…

Leon recoiled in horror.

Arson. One of the vilest crimes in Mikado, equitable with treason, heresy, and counterfeiting. Oh, the castle itself would survive; its stone walls had survived fires, floods, and during a particularly strange year a glowing rain that induced nausea in anyone that drank it. But there's a lot that can catch fire in a castle: furniture, books, carpets, tapestries and other insulators, people…

The green-eyed devil turned to look back at Leon, a serene smile on its face. "Can you still afford to capture me?" Then it turned tail and fled into Naraku.

Leon looked around for a bucket. The horse trough wouldn't be full at this hour, and he doubted even his ability to lift and throw it, but the well would waste valuable time and—

Then he remembered that he was a Samurai. "Come, Sedna!"

The drenched goddess appeared in a flash. Leon pointed to the window. "Put out the fires. I'll be right back."

The devil had been busy. Naraku was littered with fresh angel corpses, piled into heaps and topped with smoking red incense. Leon was confused at first, until he saw Naraku's native demons trying to chew the head off a Cherub and a couple of Thrones frantically burning the body of a Dominion before a Gogmagog could engulf it. Even angels fear desecration, Leon mused.

Without breaking stride, Leon summoned Jeanne D'Arc and Kresnik. The journey through Naraku was unpleasant, but straightforward. After all, even if there were many places to hide in Naraku, there was only one exit…

The Hall of the Minotaur loomed before him. Beyond was Purgatorium, a dead end for every non-Samurai.

Leon slammed the door open. "I know you're here!" shouted Leon. "Show yourself, cur!"

A shadow detached itself from the Minotaur's skeletal remains, its glowing green eyes regarding Leon lazily. "Just one?" it said. "I'm almost insulted. Almost, of c—"

Leon's slash lopped off the demon's head. He blinked and stared down at the corpse. "That… that was too easy."

"What should we do now?" asked Jeanne D'Arc.

"Um…" Leon tapped his chin. Long-forgotten knowledge bubbled to the forefront of his brain, knowledge that he never learned in any Mikado classroom. "I… I suppose we drive a wooden stake through his heart, acquire some lemons, fill his mouth with garlic, bury the body face-down next to a river in a coffin full of poppy seeds, and tear off his ea—"

The air whistled. Leon spun around and parried an axe blow, and in the same motion batted down at an oni's head. "Did you really think I would fall for such a lowly trick?"

Thunk.

"Yup," said the boy, removing the dagger from Leon's spine. He grinned at Leon's demons. "Who's next?"

Every torch in the plaza had been extinguished. That was the first sign that something had gone wrong. The second sign was the crowd gathered around the smithy, and S the blacksmith yelling incoherently.

"What is going on?" Mathias demanded. He normally slept late, but he woke up early to see off Leon.

S turned to him. "There's a demon loose in my smithy, and she won't let me light my forge!" She glared at the Samurai. "Come on, own up!"

"I just got here!" protested Sir Robert.

"Don't look at me, I'm just here for a new sword," said Dame Stephanie. "Maybe it's the traitor's demon?"

Sara shook her head. "I confiscated Isabeau's Gauntlet prior to her arrest. She had no demons active."

Mathias pointed to two Samurai at random. "You two, come with me," he said, and strode into the smithy.

A scaly, one-eyed demon was squatting on the sandy floor, blowing cold air into the forge while a pair of apprentices surreptitiously tried to light a candle.

"What are you doing?" Mathias snapped. The demon flinched. Mathias had that effect on demons; it was largely considered a pity that the Gauntlet did not choose him.

"Leon told me to put out the fires," said the demon. She gestured to the forge. "I put out the torches, forge, carpet, bookshelves, tap—"

Mathias held up his hands. "Carpet?"

The demon nodded. "Everything was on fire. He said he'd be right back."

"Back? Back from where?"

"Back from Naraku."

A chill seized Mathias's spine, a chill that had nothing to do with the demon's icy aura. "How long ago was this?"

"Twenty-seven torches, eighteen feet of carpet, nine bookshelves, and a tapestry ago," said Sedna.

Mathias fell to his knees. "No… not you too…"

"Did something happen to Leon?" asked the demon.

Something inside Mathias's head snapped. He picked up a weapon at random. "How much for this sword?" he asked the apprentice blacksmith.

"Um…"

Mathias slammed a bag of Macca on the counter. "If that's not enough, send the tab to the Monastery. I'm taking it." He glared at Sedna. "You're coming too."

Sedna held her head high. "You are not my summoner."

"I don't care. Get over here."

He strode out of the smithy with Sedna in tow, leaving several shocked faces behind.

Commander Hope had started the briefing, so Mathias could sneak past him and proceed to Naraku's gates. He forced his way through the gates and was halfway down the staircase when someone stopped him.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!" shouted Dame Sara.

"My friend is down there. Don't get in my w—"

Sara kicked him in the head, and Mathias crumpled to the ground. "Don't be an idiot." She pointed down the tunnel. "Past there is five stratums of demons who'd love a bite of some tender, delicious, juicy monk. Something got the angels riled up, so they're too busy killing demons to protect you. And do you even know how to use that sword?"

Mathias sat up and said nothing.

"I thought not," said Dame Sara. "Look, I get that you're upset. But would your friend want you to get yourself killed trying to save them?"

"I…"

Dame Sara patted him on the shoulder. "I can go look for your friend. What do they look like?"

"It's Leon," said Mathias. "Are you not leaving for Tokyo?"

Sara shook her head. "If every Samurai marched for Tokyo, Mikado would be defenseless. Without a reserve force, even a single Hunter could have all of Mikado at their mercy." She slapped Mathias on the back. "So sit tight, and I'll bring Leon back." She jumped down the rest of the spiral stairs, and pointed back at Mathias. "And don't let me catch you in here again!"

Dr. Elizabeth found Brother Mathias in the tower in front of the gibbet. "And what are you doing here?"

Mathias growled. "Waiting. Watching. It's Stella's legacy. What are you here for?"

"Blaming it for everything that went wrong since it came here."

"Lovely day for it, too."

They sat together in silence. Crows bobbed around the corpse.

"Leon said that the corpse was smiling," said Mathias at last. "I suppose it is now."

"I suppose that the lips would decompo—"

"I said that, too," said Mathias. "He said it was a lip smile, not a tooth smile."

Dr. Elizabeth snorted, although nothing was particularly funny. "Yes, I can see that the lips are still… wait."

Dr. Elizabeth leaned forwards. "This corpse has been outdoors, for several warm days, in a gibbet. How is it still intact?"

"How long does it take for a body to decompose?" asked Mathias.

"With crows, not long," said Dr. Elizabeth. She stood up. "I need a closer look. Help me fetch the gibbet."

The two of them struggled to operate the pulley system, but after some effort managed to drag the gibbet back onto the wall. Dr. Elizabeth spread the body on the ground and started to remove its clothes. They recoiled at the stench but moved from head to foot without difficulty.

Dr. Elizabeth unsheathed her knife and cut the body in strategic places. "No sign of decay," she said. "That's… not impossible, but certainly not likely."

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" asked Mathias.

"I've never seen it, but I've heard of it," said Dr. Elizabeth. She proceeded to look at his hands. "Fingers haven't shriveled. No smell or bloat, but it might just be too early." She looked back at Mathias. "This is strange, but still not—"

"The boots are clean," said Mathias suddenly.

"…Judging by your tone, I can infer that this is an incredibly potent piece of evidence, but I fail to—"

"We didn't wash him this time," said Mathias quickly. "Usually, the prisoner is given a cleansing bath before the execution, but this time we didn't want to sully our bathtub. So we slew him on the platform without cleaning him."

Dr. Elizabeth nodded. "And those boots were as filthy as these clothes?"

Mathias nodded. "He walked through Naraku."

"It's almost as if—"

"He was walking about, and didn't want to leave footprints?"

"Yes, exact…"

That was not Mathias's voice.

The corpse's eyes suddenly opened. "Aw, I wanted to play a bit longer," it said, the hole in its heart knitting itself together with an eerie green glow. Dr. Elizabeth yelped and stabbed him, but it grinned at her. "You guys already tried that, remember?" it said, pulling the knife out of its body. It looked down at its chest. "Looks like you cut me up good. Time to return the favor." It advanced on Dr. Elizabeth—

A javelin sailed past them, piercing the Unclean One's chest and pinning it to the stone floor.

Someone put a hand on Mathias's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Mathias," said Sara, tears streaking her stony face. "Leon is dead."

"The tall blonde in leather?" called the Unclean One. "Yeah, that was me. One stab to the back, and bam! Dead." It laughed.

Mathias choked. "…Lili's dead?"

"I'm sorry," said Sara.

"Of course, it wouldn't have been so easy if he hadn't—"

"Hamaon." Light burst from Sara's Gauntlet, scorching the Unclean One's bare body. It flinched.

"Is that all you—"

"Hamaon. Hamaon. Hamaon." The corpse twitched with every cast, but did not fall. Sara looked back at Mathias and Dr. Elizabeth. "Light magic doesn't hurt humans. Go ahead, take your revenge."

Dr. Elizabeth was quick to snatch up her knife and slice its tendons. Mathias drew the sword he bought and swung it hard at the Unclean One's foot, gashing it open and revealing bone. "That was for Leon," he growled. He swung again, breaking bone. "That—that was for Stella!"

"Which one was she, the nun or the executioner?"

"Hamaon."

"You killed Sister Tera, too?!" cried Dr. Elizabeth, slitting his wrist.

"Well yeah, of course I did," said the Unclean One. "Couldn't have poisoned the lot of them with her there, could I?" He laughed again. "You made it too easy; keeping the extra meds right there in the side tables?"

"You… monster…"

"I'm only what you make me."

Dr. Elizabeth screamed and plunged the knife into his lung, dragging it down in a long, jagged cut.

"Hamaon."

"Then there was that couple on the roof," the corpse mocked. "You want to know what I did to them? Stabbed them both through the back with their own sw—"

Mathias slit its throat before it could spill any more blasphemy. Blood bubbled out of the wound, dribbling all over the stone floor.

"You think… this is the end?" it gurgled. "The body's just… just a… tool. The grudge… lingers… in… the castle."

"Hamaon."

With a final blow, the corpse twitched, and relaxed. The green glow in its eyes faded to a cloudy brown.

The three of them stared at the shattered cadaver, breathing hard. None of them dared drop their weapons.

"What do we do now?" asked Dr. Elizabeth.

"Burn the body," said Mathias. "Nothing comes back from that. The burning pit is still clear."

Sara shook her head. "You saw how it healed. Who what blasphemous magics sustain its false life?"

"Then what do you propose?"

Sara stood up. "Tie it up. Grab some horses. We return it from whence it came."

It didn't take long for them to reach the Breach. To prevent the devil from reviving on the way there, Mathias had tied its ankles together and dragged it behind his horse, smashing it against every rock, tree and stump he could find. It was a waste of time, but it was bitterly satisfying.

The Breach itself, however, was in no state to be approached. Much like a glass window pierced by a thrown knife (Leon had been energetic even as a child), the Breach wasn't a clean hole. Rather, the initial hole was surrounded by a spiderweb of cracks, the massive slabs of rock staying put with… um… friction? Magic? Mathias had no idea. The point was that for a good five-mile radius, no one was sure if or when the ground would suddenly give way, so anyone without wings was encouraged to stay away (the farmers who owned the land had been compensated and had settled elsewhere).

Even if the earth had been safe, they couldn't approach anyways because of all the angels. Angels had been stationed at the Breach almost immediately after its creation, to defend against any demons flying up from Tokyo. Since then, the bulk of the angel forces had been moved there in preparation for the invasion, as the only entry point that didn't require a single-file march. Mathias had warned the Samurai against accompanying the angels, since the Unclean Ones would certainly be camping on rooftops with machine guns; the angels wouldn't mind if they were gunned down as long as most of them made it through, but humans were a little bit pickier about that. The Samurai were to enter Tokyo via the isolated Tennozu, Toyosu, and Minami Sunamachi Terminals, to avoid being shot by Hunters immediately upon entry.

As the trio approached, a Power pointed its spear at them. "State your business."

Angels had never liked Mathias, but they loved Sara. She stepped forward. "We are here to dispose of the body of an Unclean One." She pointed to the corpse, which was not moving. "Burial would pollute our land."

"And why do you not burn it?" asked the Power.

"We would prefer to save our wood and coal for forging weapons and armor," said Sara. "Would you please return this corpse to Tokyo?"

The Power nodded, and lifted the corpse by its neck like a cat. It flew off until it was but a speck, and Mathias could barely make out a smaller speck dropping into the abyss.

"Dame Isabeau invited a monster to our lands," growled Sara. "She will be punished."

"I suppose he is their problem now," said Mathias.

Dr. Elizabeth burst into laughter. Neither of them chastised her; both knew too well that laughing was a common reaction to stress. "Who takes the pot now?"

"Dame Olivia," said Sara. "She guessed that he was a devil in disguise." She clicked on her Gauntlet. "Leon sent a message just before he died. The Unclean Ones linger as demons after death."

"May I see?" asked Mathias.

"Of course."

Silence reigned once more as Mathias read the last words of his best friend.

"Is this the end?" asked Mathias quietly.

Sara nodded. "Confession is the queen of proofs. The Unclean One spoke in the presence of three citizens of good standing. Sister Iris will go free."

"Stella and Leon are avenged," said Dr. Elizabeth.

"That may be true, but what of the grudge?" asked Mathias. "It said it was tied to the castle, not the body." Something about that stirred a strange emotion that he could not identify.

Dr. Elizabeth took his hand into hers. "Worry about that later. For now, we're alive."

Mathias looked out at the horizon and cried. Sara and Elizabeth joined him.

The pool of blood, bone, and guts that had been the green-eyed devil twitched. Then a bright green light illuminated the gore, and out popped a sickly-looking teenage boy.

"Really, kid?" Dagda said from his phone.

"Hey, it's either this or Purgatorium," said Nanashi, cracking his neck. He ruffled the right side of his head, and found that his hair had grown back. "Besides, I've always wanted to see what falling from a skyscraper felt like." He whistled. "I should try that again someday."

"And what would you have done if they'd burned or buried you?"

Nanashi shrugged. "Then I would have had to dig myself out. Wouldn't have been hard for you, would it? They just saved us both a bit of bother."

Dagda just grunted.

"Looks like they got us out a bit early, too." Nanashi stretched. In the distance, some Gaea monks engaged a pack of angels in combat. "Well, time to report for duty."

(Kasumigaseki, 5/8 Moon. Three hours before Nanashi's execution)

"Are you kidding me? This is a terrible idea."

Everyone turned to stare at Nanashi.

"Are you disobeying orders?" said Skins, raising an eyebrow.

"No, what I'm saying is that sending half a dozen of your most capable Hunters to what amounts to a glorified recon mission might be a bad idea," said Nanashi. "If we just want intel, send Isabeau." He paused. "Hang on, you've been working for Flynn for how long, and you think you can just waltz in there?"

Isabeau sighed. "Be as it may, I am rather forgettable. Did you not ask my name when we met?"

"True," said Asahi, then she paused. "Hey… but that still doesn't explain why the Samurai don't know who you are!"

"While I do not doubt that my fellow Samurai are aware of my existence, I believe that few know that I am allied with Flynn," said Isabeau. "After all, they have not yet revoked access to our terminal."

"Yeah, Flynn's mostly famous because of all the stuff he did alone," said Hallelujah. "He won the Hunter Tournament without killing anyone, single-handedly saved his team in the Red vs. White Royale, solved that weird case with all the fusions in Ikebukuro…Why are you looking at me like that, Asahi?"

Asahi stared. "I thought you didn't like Flynn. How do you know so much about him?"

"Guess you're a better spy than I thought," said Nanashi, smirking.

Hallelujah flinched at the jab. "I—I'm a clerk, not a spy," he said haughtily. "I read, condensed, and compiled reports. You think Tayama had time to listen to everyone who filed a complaint about Flynn in the past two months? All five hundred thirty-seven of them?"

"Five hundred thirty-seven complaints, or people with complaints?" asked Asahi.

"People," clarified Hallelujah. "The Terminal Guardian was the worst. No, I don't care what you were wearing or how the hell you managed to wrangle Mara, just—"

"My absence was deliberate," interrupted Isabeau. "We split up to complete more quests as quickly as possible. I performed the more discreet quests, to prevent word from reaching Mikado. I feared for my family's safety were my betrayal to be discovered."

"Smart," said Toki. "I never would have expected that from you."

"We have stuff on you, too," said Hallelujah. "You have good table manners on paper but you put off eating by cutting up your food in tiny pieces, that sword of yours come from the Secret Shop in Ginza but you had to borrow the Black Card from Flynn, your favorite manga is Rose of Versailles but you'll also go for Princess Knight in a pinch, and you've been developing an interest in Cardcaptor Sakura, mostly the parts where Yukito and Touya—"

"Anyways, my point stands," said Nanashi. "If it's just recon, send Isabeau. If you need more than one person for insurance, Nozomi is not only over eighteen, but a professional photographer. Toki isn't, but she's stealthy." He glared at Fujiwara. "What do you really want?"

Fujiwara, to his credit, just sighed. "This is a dry run for if we need to storm Mikado. Under normal circumstances, I would send a stealth team. But we don't yet know if the dummy Gauntlets work, and with an uncertain chance of mechanical failure, I'd rather go with a group that has a higher chance of survival in the event of discovery rather than the group with a lower chance of discovery."

"Fair enough," said Nanashi. "But what if you could send someone with a hundred percent chance of survival?"

"We're not sending Subzero Nodon, he's too busy with—"

Nanashi stabbed himself in the heart.

Nanashi awoke, as usual, right at the ticket gates to the Land of the Dead.

"What are you playing at, kid?" Dagda demanded coldly.

Nanashi shrugged with a smug grin. "You spill first," he said lightly.

"Do you really think that withholding information from the one keeping you alive is a good idea?"

Nanashi shrugged again. "I don't see any other Godslayer candidates. Why don't you wait for some gullible brat who's just as strong as I am to die in battle?"

There was a tense pause.

Finally, Dagda found the crack in his armor. "You killed yourself to prove a point. If I keep you too long, your argument is ruined."

"All right," said Nanashi. It was fine; he'd already made Dagda sweat a little. He took a deep breath, not that he needed to anymore. "Those bastards in Mikado think they can walk on us?!" he shouted. "They want to kill us all, and for what? Because we exist? Because their god told them to do it? What have we ever done to them?

"We starve and grieve in the dark, while they pass judgement with fat bellies in their ivory tower. They could do nothing, they could just leave us alone, and yet they think it's their moral duty to put us all out of our misery.

"Well, I'm not going to wait for them to strike first." Nanashi's face contorted into a vicious smirk. "When I'm done with them, they'll never try to fight Tokyo again."

Dagda grunted his displeasure. "Kid, as much as I encourage you to throw your life away, taking on an entire army now is beyond even you."

"Oh, no, I'm not stupid enough to do that," said Nanashi. He grinned and tapped his chest. "What's scarier, an obvious foe with a lot of firepower, or one you can't see?"

"Go on," said Dagda.

"Up there in Mikado, they think we live in this strange, tainted land of curses and monsters," said Nanashi. "Their worst fear isn't that we'll rise up and kill them all, it's that we'll pollute their pristine little paradise." He leaned closer. "What better way to blight their lovely kingdom than with the death curse of an Unclean One?"

"…Three days," said Dagda.

Nanashi tilted his head. "Three days counting today, three days counting tomorrow, three days including nigh—"

"You will return to Tokyo by the evening of the day after tomorrow," Dagda clarified. He held out his hand. "Let's go, kid."

"…it does so count!" said Asahi. "It's her title, not her name!"

"Yeah, but the title is part of her name," said Toki.

"That just means that she's Uzume from heaven, not—"

Nanashi's cooling body began to glow green, and the hole in his heart knitted itself together. He sat up. "What's going on?" said Nanashi.

"We got bored, so we're playing Shiritori," said Hallelujah. He was petting Chiro, who was batting at Navarre. "Toki said Oumitsunu, and Asahi said Ame-no-Uzume, and now they're arguing over whether Ame-no-Uzume starts with a u or an a."

"And gramps over there?"

Fujiwara stared at them, mouth still agape.

"He just can't believe that we stopped caring whenever you die," said Hallelujah. "So what, you're going to Mikado alone?"

"Not quite," said Nanashi. "Okay, so I'm going to need a haircut, some junk weapons, any radio transmitter, a broken smartphone, preferably one with a swollen battery…"

The End

This version of Nanashi isn't my 'main' Nanashi, so if you see a personality shift when Nanashi shows up in my main stories, that's why. This chapter's Nanashi was conceived as one who made all the Massacre choices but still went for Bonds. Not because of friendship, but purely to spite Dagda (even though Chaos offered a way out, he hated Lucifer even more). He's vindictive, selfish, manipulative, and a lot of fun to write, but I only let him out for oneshots and cameos because most of my plans depend on people liking him rather than just tolerating him. This Nanashi still gets the statue and is remembered as a saint because nobody wants to be the one to admit that Tokyo's Champion was a terrible person.

It's been a while, but I think the very first glimmer of an idea was when I first played through Apocalypse, and I got to the Mikado mission. I had thought that instead of escaping through the Terminal, they should have jumped through the giant hole over Ginza. While I think it was better foreshadowed, I admit that it would have been a terrible idea… unless Nanashi did it alone. The image I had in my head was of Nanashi fleeing across the countryside, chased by hundreds of Samurai, then smirking at them and jumping down the hole. He splatters, but walks it off.

Then I replayed SMT4. After Lilith is executed, there's a brief panic because she comes back to life and ominously leaves a message to the guard before returning to Tokyo. So I decided to mix the two events into a psychological warfare campaign. I envisioned Nanashi appearing outside of windows, eyes aglow, scaring maids and cackling ominously. After they scream and run, he breaks in and steals whatever important information is in the room.

Some clarifications:

Shiritori is a Japanese word game where you take the last letter (well, kana character) of the previous word and use it to start a new word. For example, Ame-no-Uzume, Enki, Ippon-Datara, Andromeda, etc.

The ghost in the first half of the story wasn't really Nanashi. It was a demon spawned from the legend he created.

Despite also being dead, Navarre did not accompany Nanashi to Mikado. The others tried to push him to go, but Nanashi stopped them, ostensibly because angels can see ghosts, but actually because Navarre would try to stop him if he knew his real plans.

The five prentice Samurai in the first half are the reincarnations of the major characters in the second half. They're not pure OCs; they're reincarnations of Castlevania characters.

Eleonora and Leon are the reincarnations of Leon Belmont.

Matilda and Mathias are the reincarnations of Mathias Cronqvist, the man who would become Dracula.

Ezekiel and Elizabeth are the reincarnations of Elizabeth Cronqvist, Mathias's first wife. She's a doctor as a reference to Dracula's second wife Lisa, who was a doctor and is commonly believed to be Elizabeth's reincarnation.

Henry and Sara are the reincarnations of Sara Trantoul, Leon's fiancé. It's a bit of a stretch between Henry and Sara; Sara means princess and Henry means house ruler. In hindsight, maybe Sara and Sam would have fit?

I know it's weird for Sara to be the interrogator, compared to Leon the Samurai, Mathias the monk, and Elizabeth/Lisa the doctor, unless you interpret her appearances in later games… creatively. Originally, Sara was the nun/nurse who found the dead bodies, and the interrogator was an unnamed bit character. I decided early on that Sara, Elizabeth, and Mathias would be the ones to drop Nanashi down the Breach, but no good cop would let a witness leave the city, and even if Mathias had the authority to bypass this, he'd have no reason to bring this random nun along. The story only clicked after I made Sara the interrogator and gave her more scenes. If I had to rewrite this story, Sara would be the blacksmith; I decided this long before I returned to Mikado and discovered that the new blacksmith is a woman named S.

Stanley and Stella are actually OCs, though. In my other works, whenever I needed Leon or Soma to mention an old Crusader buddy, I threw in the name Stanley. I could have also named Stanley's female counterpart Stacey, but it sounded too modern for the second half, and I liked the two girls and one guy dynamic of the first half.

Also, Dame Rebecca, the arrogant journeyman Samurai, isn't related to Gaston, despite her insistence that she should be called Dame. If Gaston reincarnated as a woman, I would name her Bellatrix, for reasons you can probably guess. I would have gone with Isabel if we didn't have an Isabeau already.

If you're wondering why Sara mentions that Mathias would taste delicious when she prevents him from entering Naraku, that's a holdover from when a different character stopped him: a guard named Heather, the reincarnation of Heat from Digital Devil Saga. I ended up cutting her when I made Sara the interrogator, but I liked the line too much to drop it.

Continuity and other stuff that I'm overthinking:

Since only Nanashi and Isabeau go to Mikado, we're missing two important developments: Hallelujah never reveals his demon form, and Gaston doesn't defect from the Samurai. I think Gaston would have defected eventually (probably at the Reactor), but I don't think that Hallelujah would have revealed his demon side otherwise. Hallelujah only transformed when the party would absolutely die without him, and they're never quite that desperate again (on Bonds, at least; he'd definitely fight back against Massacre!Nanashi). Since his willingness to trust the party with his demon half also feeds into his willingness to take over the Ashura-Kai, he might not try to become the boss, which also brings up the question of whether the Ashura-Kai would survive without him or Lucifer, which is when I just stop speculating. Let's just say that things work out for our cinnamon roll.

I think the Mikado mission was a bad idea for the reasons Nanashi gave, but I love Hallelujah's reveal. The game really goes out of its way to show you how you're trapped; you're arrested in front of a final boss and all of the Samurai, all avenues of escape are cut off, and even though you can hold your own against Azrael, once he brings in his flunkies your efforts are futile. Try attacking him, and the army swarms you, and if you try to take them down, he attacks you. These are your only options, and they do nothing. There's no way out, but then the 'useless' party member, the one who can't fight, buff, or even heal, begs you to trust him, and absolutely obliterates the army. Depending on your level, you might just be barely surviving while he True Bufudynes Azrael to death, and I think that's what happened on my first playthrough.

Canonically, the Reactor War is the day after the Mikado Infiltration mission. I delayed the invasion by a day because a) it wouldn't look like a curse if Nanashi did everything in one night, b) the Samurai had to be present during the day to notice and discuss the night's events, c) Merkabah's death changes Mikado's social landscape so much that it would overshadow anything Nanashi did, and d) Nanashi would get court-marshalled again if he didn't show up at the Reactor, which might screw up the rest of the plot even more.

My handwave is that since it takes approximately fifteen days for a new moon to become full, not eight, Apocalypse has seven extra days. I haven't figured out the timeline, but let's say there's an extra day between almost every plot day, and those are when Nanashi does sidequests. If one plot day must immediately follow the other (i.e., your hearing starts the day after you get outed as the one who unsealed Krishna), there's no extra day, and if there are more days than gaps, the days double up somewhere. In-universe, Merkabah and Lucifer didn't storm the Reactor right away because their armies needed time to rest and recover. Plus, they had to solve a whole bunch of logistical issues, like from where the Samurai can enter Tokyo without getting spawnkilled by campers (I resisted the urge to make Mathias call it that).

I admit I neglected the angels. They were the real reason you couldn't escape, not the Samurai, and yet Nanashi only has problems with Samurai. This was because I wanted to avoid the stereotype of Mikado citizens as medieval idiots mindlessly dependent on angels, so the five heroes do their jobs without needing help from angels. Besides, if only the angels saw Nanashi, there would be no one to pass on the ghost story.

My excuse for why the angels didn't take over Samurai patrol routes despite the latter being short-staffed is that angels are dumb. Well, not exactly dumb, but I think of generic angels (including Principality, Virtue, etc.) as soulless automata. Like computers, they do exactly what they're told. Angels make poor guards and scouts because their programmer is lazy and calibrating suspicion is difficult.

Let's say that someone tries to sneak with the cardboard box trick: you sit under a big cardboard box and move when the guard isn't looking. A human would notice that the box moved several feet since they last saw it and conclude that someone's inside. If we took an AI and told it to attack under those exact circumstances, you'd run into problems: it would attack if an empty box was pushed by the wind, and it also wouldn't attack if you only moved when the AI was looking. If we patch those bugs, it might not react to anything on a windy day, and it might attack if an ally moved the box in front of them, so you'd have to patch those, too. By the time you iron out all the bugs and can make the AI perform better than your average human, you'd have people crawling through vents instead, and you'd have to start all over.

In other words, perfection is impossible, so you have to choose between bugs that kill allies by accident and bugs that spare enemies. Remember the angel who let four clearly underage 'Samurai' into Mikado, stopping only to comment on Asahi's makeup? If it attacked everyone who looked under eighteen, then there'd be a lot of prentices dead for the crimes of being short and baby-faced. So it's safest for the angels do the bare minimum of tests (scanning the Gauntlets, which the party could only bypass with Stephen's help), with the Samurai helping in exceptional cases.

My excuse for why the angels don't hunt down Nanashi en masse like in the games is that they think he's dead, so they no longer need to kill this person who looks exactly like him. Without any standing orders to kill/capture him, he'll be safe as long as he doesn't do anything suspicious, which is by angel standards 'not committing a crime in front of them'.

I had considered that in the ghost story, Nanashi and Isabeau would have been remembered as star-crossed lovers instead of mother and son, but I wanted to emphasize how young Nanashi looks due to malnutrition. I think he looks twelve to modern eyes, but he could pass for an old-looking ten.

If you're wondering why Sara and Elizabeth say that it's been over a decade since Isabeau became a Samurai, that's because I think that more than seven years passed in Mikado since the start of SMT4 and the start of SMT4A, and here are my calculations.

First, even though Navarre is 25 at the start of the SMT4A, that's just the baseline. If Flynn waited until the last second to escort Navarre to Mikado, then he would have gone on to at minimum kill Yuriko, break into the Reactor, have adventures in Blasted and Infernal Tokyo, and come back and do all the Neutral sidequests. Five days in Tokyo is over a year in Mikado, and I highly doubt that Flynn could have done all that in less than five days. Also, the party's adventures up until then took seven years/34 days, and they did a whole lot more stuff in that time, so Flynn's misadventures couldn't have taken longer than that.

Plus, Navarre needed time to recover from his fear of demons, since he died outside the underground districts.

The other limiting factor is Gaston and Navarre's relationship. Navarre is clearly shocked when Gaston shows up as a Samurai, and I get the impression that he never stopped seeing him as his adorable baby brother, so he was probably tiny when they last saw each other. From what we see when they can finally talk to each other, they don't seem to reminisce the same way Nanashi does with Asahi in the relic descriptions (i.e., Nanashi got in trouble for drawing on Asahi's face). Navarre clearly loves Gaston, but Gaston doesn't reciprocate at first and feels shame rather than sadness at his brother's dishonor. What I get from this is that Navarre and Gaston were close when Gaston was young, but they last saw each other when Gaston was still at an impressionable age, and he spent years being told how his brother was a disappointment and failure until he believed it.

I'd say that ten to thirteen years passed between the start of SMT4 and SMT4A, giving Flynn and Navarre 15-30 days. Gaston would have been five to eight when Navarre became a Samurai, and twelve to fifteen when Flynn escorted him to Tokyo, but they hadn't seen each other in years by then. Maybe they were separated as soon as Navarre was dishonorably discharged?

Opossums aren't native to Japan, but when I thought of small animals nesting in abandoned buildings, I immediately thought of opossums. Angels brought opossums to Mikado as part of the whole Garden of Eden thing, and this is absolutely canon. Would I lie to you?

I only discovered this after I wrote the bit about Isabeau abandoning Nanashi, but a Casualry somehow adopted a child from Tokyo. Specifically, if you talk to him in Apocalypse, he says he adopted a child from Tokyo, but I think he's also the guy from SMT4 who reported his own son for attending a Sabbath, and adopted another child. Given that Mikado was originally populated by children, the angels probably approve.

Nanashi being damaged by Sara's Hamaon spells is a mistake. Humans are immune to light damage by default, but I remembered this tidbit in the context of your human partners and Kazuya being immune. So I misinterpreted this as your default armor nullifying light magic, but it turns out that Nanashi is immune to light damage unless he specifically equips armor that makes him weak to light. I could have fixed this, but I liked how Sara could whale on him without hurting her allies. Maybe those rags the Samurai dressed him were cursed? Or all those times he flinched was either because he's faking or because there's a bright light shining in his dark-adjusted eyes? He is letting them kill him, after all. That's probably why it takes the trio so long to do what Leon did in one blow; only the civilians are doing damage.

And now, just for fun…

OMAKE

"Hiya, I'm here for the Red Incense Ball request," said Nanashi, dropping a bag on the counter.

The Ginza bartender nodded. "Let's see here… they're squished."

"Yeah, I fell on them on my way back," said Nanashi.

"And soaked."

"That was kind of unavoidable."

"Is this blood?"

"Let's just say that my exit strategy was a little messy."

"Is this your blood?"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

The bartender sighed. "Whatever. If the point is to lure demons out of hiding, maybe they'll smell tasty when burned."

"Cool. Can I get paid now?"

OMAKE #2: Navarre

(I only came up with this story after I finished the first half, and I couldn't figure out a way to put it in without ruining the flow.)

"I looked up the Ghost of Mikado Castle," Matilda said the next morning.

"And?" said Stanley, wiping his eyes.

"It turns out there's more than one ghost."

Stanley sighed. "And how murder-happy is this one?"

"Surprisingly, not very," said Matilda. "It says that he was a Samurai who spoke out against the angels taking over the country, so he was banished to Tokyo in disgrace. He drowned himself in despair, but he came back as a Funayurei and haunted his family."

"Fun times," said Stanley. "Who died?"

"No one. He just flooded the house with salt water until his brother got sick of it and gave him a proper funeral. Apparently, the ghost attended it, even though they couldn't recover his body, and they never heard from him again."

"Huh. That's anticlimactic."

"The database also theorizes that this story was based on the many un… uninhabited isn't the right word, but I'm using it anyways—the many uninhabited graves that dot Mikado's landscape. They were mostly used for Samurai who died in the line of duty, because their bodies were usually eaten by demons."

"Cenotaphs," said Eleonora.

"What?" said Matilda.

"A grave or memorial without a body is a cenotaph."

Matilda whistled. "And how do you know that?"

"Video games."

"Of course."

And finally…

Epilogue

Life was good now. YHVH was dead, Tokyo and Mikado were at peace, and the whole world was recovering. And somehow, Nanashi got himself invited to Mikado. Even gave him his own room in the castle; only the best for the Champion, after all.

Maybe it was because his head was no longer shaved, maybe it was the lack of tattoos, but those Samurai from before didn't recognize him. All the better.

He looked out the window. Then at the hallway. Nobody around. Even the ghosts were gone; although Dagda had fully restored him to life, he'd been dead for so long that the chill of the underworld never quite left him.

Perfect.

"Gremlin, on my mark," he said, handing it his sword. Although it was light blue, it could glow green on command. Nanashi had decided against recruiting Navarre into his scheme, even though the green poltergeist fit his needs exactly.

Nanashi threw himself on the soft, fluffy bed, lamenting its sacrifice. But it would be suspicious if he spared it.

"Now."

The gremlin thrust the sword into Nanashi's back, careful to avoid any vital organs, and Nanashi let out a bloodcurdling scream.