Wow I'm late several days. I'm trying to make up for it today, hopefully finishing this three-part arc in well, today.
Don't ask why I don't just put it as one big story instead of three small parts.
Just a disclaimer before you read this story arc.
I'm not religious, and thus in this arc, my knowledge of religion and similar things will be severely limited and most likely incorrect by most standards. I'll also be making things up, so there's that too.
I was also unsure whether to put the story in Japan or America/Europe (places with a more established zombie culture), but I left it sort of undefined. In Japan, to my knowledge, the vast majority of bodies are cremated, and cemeteries aren't quite like the ones in western culture. However, Heaven/Hell (which will be brought up eventually) are… not quite Japanese cultural beliefs.
Necromancer Kisaragi (1)
"Let the dead live once more, free, alive, reigning in their life.
Let the dead rise to see again, strong, agile, and able of mind.
Let the dead emerge one last time, to serve a greater cause.
May the dead who wish to live once more return, to the whims of life.
May the dead return, and follow my every command."
With that, Shintaro Kisaragi channeled his inner magics, his divine talent for necromancy into the gravestone, using it as a catalyst to control the corpse. It was perfect, sublime, amazing even. Or so Shintaro hoped it would be.
After all, there were no guarantees on one's first awakening. Shintaro had read all this on The Online Guide to Necromancy: How to Start Your own Zombie Legion!, the summoning rites, the rituals, the sacrifices, everything. It was all for the dream.
That dream, was of course, to start his own zombie legion to take over the world.
But of course, every world conqueror has to begin somewhere. Whether it be their first zombie, or their first servant, every necromancer has to start with the basics.
This was why Shintaro Kisaragi, an unknown nobody, was kneeling in a cemetery, chanting in the rain without an umbrella. This was what Shintaro wanted. It was what he desired.
Then it began. From the gravestone's depths came the deceased's cremated ashes, and they trickled out of the engraved rock like sand in an hourglass. Untouched by the rain and wind, the ashes gathered before Shintaro.
Shintaro chanted once more.
"Let the dead live once more, free, alive, reigning in their life.
Let the dead rise to see again, strong, agile, and able of mind.
Let the dead emerge one last time, to serve a greater cause.
May the dead who wish to live once more return, to the whims of life.
May the dead return, and follow my every command."
The ashes flopped and tangled together, but nothing really happened. Shintaro watched in horror as his dreams of world domination at the peak of a zombie legion shattered into millions of tiny pieces.
Could The Online Guide to Necromancy: How to Start Your own Zombie Legion! have been wrong? Was it all a hoax, a trick, a mere novelty for those so inclined? Shintaro had been so hopeful, he had been so faithful in this online resource about black magics, that the mere idea that the guide might've been fake never hit him.
How had Shintaro been so gullible? How had he been tricked like a newborn babe?
One last try wouldn't hurt. One final attempt, before giving up on that childish dream of world domination. Who did that anymore anyways? It was such an old concept, taking over the world, and there was a reason why it remained only a concept: it was impossible.
And so, with a heavy heart, Shintaro repeated his memorized chant, the one he'd practiced again and again, the one that had been engraved into his beliefs and future wishes. If this failed, Shintaro could let go of his foolish passions. Shintaro would go back to baking bread. Eugh.
"Let the dead live once more, free, alive, reigning in their life.
Let the dead rise to see again, strong, agile, and able of mind.
Let the dead emerge one last time, to serve a greater cause.
May the dead who wish to live once more return, to the whims of life.
May the dead return, and follow my every command."
Nothing happened.
Just.
Nothing.
Not one of the preserved ashes, though undisturbed by the surrounding elements, moved. None of the prescribed actions, the carefully documented aftermaths, none of it came to be. There was no dust devil as the soul claimed a body from the surrounding life that had taken its body's nutrients. There wasn't a single one of the listed phenomenon that came about.
Shintaro sighed, and turned his back to the gravestone. It was pointless, just another old childhood fantasy broken at the hands of reality.
Then Shintaro heard it.
The winds acted up, tons of tiny specs of dirt flew through the air, combining with leaves, grasses, everything and anything that was there, flew over his head.
Shintaro whipped his head around in disbelief.
It was working.
It was working.
It was working.
The amalgamation of small life forms, the surrounding life, was sucked into a tiny vortex of wind, compressing itself, building itself up. From the whirlwind came feet, and from the feet rose shins of dark dirt. The shins soon became full legs, and the legs grew upwards, the abdomen, the chest, the arms, and last of all, the head.
Details slowly emerged from the rocky body, curves becoming defined and softening the hard and uneven edges. Shintaro watched in fascination as the body took shape, in a form that resembled a human being in every way, although the skin colour was still a mottled combination of greens, browns, and greys.
Hair flowed from the scalp, and with that, the body's, the zombie's complexion turned pale, bright as the dawn's light. The zombie's eyes, her eyes opened, displaying brilliant crimson irises that gazed off into the distance.
That was when Shintaro realized exactly what was happening. If Shintaro looked past the mindless zombie he'd just erected, past the fact that necromancy was real, there was one thing that came to mind, a very very pressing issue at hand.
Shintaro was a teenage male. Late teens, mind you, but still only a teenager. This girl looked to be about the same age, except well… there was no thinking around it. The girl was nude. She wore nothing, everything laid bare in front of Shintaro.
Shintaro turned away, social norms overcoming shock.
"Oh god I'm sorry, I-" Shintaro began, cutting himself off when he remembered that the zombie should be mindless, a ghost of its former self that followed all orders.
Shintaro slowly swiveled his head back, suppressing his hormones to not focus on anything below the nape. The zombie was quite pretty actually, her eyes like a magnet.
Shintaro found himself examining the- his zombie. She had fine black hair, which cascaded down to shoulder level- woah, stop there. Look up. That's better. His zombie had rather beautiful features, so much so that Shintaro wondered whether she had had a relationship.
No, no no. Necrophilia, especially with a mindless zombie was a big no-no. Stop. It was all well and fine to resurrect people, Shintaro figured, but it was just… no.
His zombie's mouth began to open her mouth very slowly, still with that same blank look in her eyes.
Shintaro wondered if she was going to try to say something. That shouldn't be: he had specifically gone for a mindless zombie ritual, not a mindful zombie.
Yet all the same, his zombie had widened the gap between her two lips to half a centimeter before stopping.
Then she jumped.
"Ah! Don't look!" His zombie screamed out, hastily crouching down and covering all her… exposed areas, distress very clear in her once empty eyes. Shintaro took a startled step back, giving himself a few moments to process the scenario.
"What." Given the time Shintaro had to think, or three seconds, he felt that this was an appropriate answer. His zombie shivered in place, looking up at him almost in fear.
"W-what did you do to me?" His zombie asked. "I-I-I don't remember how I got here. What were you going to do to me? Why am I naked?" Shintaro's mind was flooded with questions, but it occurred to him that this, at least, was something he could think rationally and explain.
"Calm down." Shintaro told her.
"How can I, when a rapist is in front of me?" His zombie shrieked in near delirium.
"I'm not a rapist." Shintaro stated, very calm and clear.
"T-then why…" His zombie trailed off.
At this point, it was very clear to Shintaro that something was wrong. Something was very very wrong. A mindless zombie doesn't accuse its summoner of being a rapist. A mindless zombie shouldn't be able to be defensive, feel threatened, or anything without a command from a necromancer to do so.
So then why was his zombie acting this way? Had Shintaro messed up the rites? Had he done the ritual wrong? Was the sacrifice inadequate to bind his zombie's will?
"I'm not a rapist." Shintaro repeated. "I'm a necromancer. I brought you back to life. You can thank me now."
According to the guide, most of the recently deceased wouldn't be able to travel to heaven or hell, because of the lag between death and the decisions made by the forces above. There were just too many people dying on a constant basis. So, because of that, Shintaro's zombie probably didn't know she had died.
"Why? Couldn't you just have left me alone?" Or not. Shintaro's zombie sounded awfully indignant about her resurrection. Why wouldn't anyone be happy about getting another chance at life? Something was wrong again. Wow, so many things wrong in so little time. It was a new record for Shintaro.
"Well, I didn't really choose you, so to speak, I just went for any tombstone in the cemetery. It was by chance. Really, I didn't mean to bring you back." Shintaro defended himself. Shintaro wasn't sure why he needed to defend himself for bringing someone back to life, but he supposed it was possible to apologize for anything.
"Do you know who I am?" His zombie asked him.
"No, why?"
"I'll give you a hint." The girl laughed mirthlessly. "I committed suicide from the roof of a building."
Shintaro thought for a moment. His zombie had recently died, and was buried here, so she was most likely from the same city he had lived in. Shintaro now knew the cause of death, and if he were to just cross-reference… ah.
"Ayano Tateyama, sixteen year old girl commits suicide for reasons unknown." Shintaro listed off. "Friends described her as cheerful, happy, and always willing to give up time for others."
Well, that explained why Shintaro's ritual failed in the mind-control aspect. The rite was focused on those who had died with regrets, or died purely by accident. For those who wanted to stay in the grave, well, that was something else entirely. Like, a whole line of the summoning would have changed.
"Friends." Ayano, his zombie, laughed again. "That's funny. So, can you just leave me dead, or will you force me to follow your every bidding and command?"
Shintaro noted that Ayano backed away a bit, still nude, taking refuge behind her tombstone. Of course she wouldn't like to be watched. Of course Ayano wouldn't like being seen nude. Even a (hopeful) criminal mastermind could tell.
"Neither." Shintaro deadpanned, taking off his jersey. Hopefully Ayano wouldn't see this as him stripping. Hopefully.
"A-a-and why not?" Ayano stuttered.
"First, put this on." Shintaro tossed his jersey at her. "It's probably going to be a bit big, but I am not going to take off my pants. It'll be like a miniskirt or one of those things that girls wear nowadays."
Ayano caught the jersey, wrapping it around herself as if she was freezing. To be fair, the girl probably was. It was still raining, and she had nothing on. On that note, did zombies feel the cold? The guide had never stated anything about the zombie's side of the equation.
"As for why I can't, you won't dissipate until I die. I believe I can control you, but I may or may not have messed up the original ritual." Shintaro explained. He wondered if Ayano would attempt to murder him in order to release herself.
"Alright." Ayano said, oddly submissively. Hadn't she just wanted to die again? Ayano stood up, the jersey extending down to her mid-thigh, thankfully covering up all her… parts, and the sleeves went to her fingertips. Ayano was soaked in the rain, but Shintaro hadn't thought to take an extra umbrella, since he hadn't thought that a mindless zombie would care.
"So, what do you plan to do with zombies?" Ayano asked hesitantly. What a fun topic. Shintaro supposed that it wouldn't hurt to tell his first zombie about his future plans.
"World domination." Shintaro said, rather smugly. "Get tons of zombies, take over. That's about it actually."
"Really?" Ayano giggled, a real laugh this time.
"Is there anything wrong with it?" Shintaro narrowed his eyes. Ayano Tateyama was the first person he'd told his childhood dream to, and also the only person who'd laughed at it.
"It's so… cliché." Ayano told him. "All the wanna-be evil lords can plot world domination, because it's easy."
"Yeah? Then why don't you try it?" Shintaro replied, feeling a bit put off that his zombie was telling him that his dream was easy.
"Well, world domination isn't hard compared to some other things that no one's ever pulled off. World peace is much harder to accomplish, and not many people can even come close to affecting it."
"Have you ever heard of a criminal mastermind plotting world peace?" Shintaro scoffed.
"No, but how many criminal masterminds have plotted world domination? Practically every single one." Ayano countered.
"Nice challenge, but I'll stick to world domination." Shintaro smirked. "C'mon, get over here." Ayano blinked, hard.
"Why?" Ayano asked.
"Do you want to be in the rain?" Shintaro retorted. "I only have one umbrella, and I'm not asking again. I assume you don't want to stay here, and would rather be under a roof."
With that, Ayano sidled over to him, Shintaro's loose jersey fully zipped up as she clung to his side. Why was the umbrella so small? Sure, it was a personal umbrella, but he could've sworn that there was more space.
Shintaro figured this was his first step, his hop-skip-jump, his small start. Today, Ayano Tateyama. Tomorrow, the world.
After all, what can't a necromancer do?
AU PROMPT – The main character reimagined as a brainy zombie.
Again, didn't follow the AU very well, depending on who you consider the main character. I still can't tell who exactly is the main character in Kagepro, although FOR SOME REASON the wiki considers Ayano a side character. Meh.