A/N: Hope none of y'all mind me going into Boris' downfall in this chapter. I just love zombie flicks and got a hankering to write that out. Oh, also, my main fandom is Cyborg 009. My hubby made fun of me for throwing Ivan Gamo in here for a "guest appearance." Once again, thanks for reading.

Part Thirty-Seven:

There were rumors of eleven demons at the next village to the north, and Kurogane's competitive spirit rose. They'd rise and meet this challenge. He was with a group of good warriors, and he was with his mage.

He went ahead of everyone when he heard horse's hooves. He was glad to see his father ride up towards their encampment before they marched north. Not that he felt uncomfortable commanding the men, but he knew his father to be an excellent fighter and one that would add a lot to their campaign against the demons, since they were a man down.

His father dismounted and Kurogane gave him a shallow bow. His father said, "I'm proud you took out nine demons already. You should have called on our allies, though."

"There was little time, father," Kurogane explained, grateful no one else was around to hear him get criticized by the man he respected the most. "I wanted to make sure our people were protected."

"Without backup from other provinces? That wasn't a choice I'd make."

"My mage has done well in supporting us," Kurogane responded.

"And you'll need to learn to make due without your mage soon, need I remind you?"

Kurogane took a deep breath and glanced over his shoulder to make sure it was still just the two of them. "Father, there is something I have to tell you. You may not approve."

"Out with it," Lord Suwa snapped.

"I invited the mage to stay," Kurogane said.

Lord Suwa's expression soured. "For how long?"

"The rest of his life, if he'd like," Kurogane answered. He'd have to stand by his words to Fai, no matter what, and it was for the best his father knew right away.

His father's crimson eyes narrowed and his brow crinkled. His father didn't indulge in a lot of anger, but when he did, it was fierce. He could tell this was going to be one of those moments. "You're mother and I have indulged you a great deal on this business with the mage. I've been very understanding and chalked up what you have with him to a battlefield tryst, and battlefield trysts are meant to be temporary. Now you tell me this?"

"I want him by my side for the rest of my life."

Lord Suwa let out a heavy sigh and shook his head. "We'll talk about this later. Now we have some demons to slay."

He walked with his father to the encampment. He let his father take charge of how they were to approach the village. Kurogane couldn't help but notice how brusque his father was towards Fai and dismissive of him. He stopped just shy of saying 'stay out of our fight, dirty foreigner.'

Fai put on a cheerful facade, anyway, and did as he was told. However, Kurogane knew how bright Fai was, and he didn't doubt the mage picked up on his father's hostility. Kurogane took a deep breath and knew he had to focus on the challenge in front of him, hunting demons. He was a warrior, and he had to put that first, or a lot of innocent people could suffer.


Zellen sat stiffly on the chair in front of the review table. There were nine mages on the board that would review his application, one of which was King Ashura. Zellen was watching them nervously as they looked over the papers with his various listed studies and his aunt's information and credentials, since he had chiefly apprenticed under her. Also, there was King Ashura's letters of recommendation, citing the hard work Zellen had put in, lately.

"So we've looked over your application. You're aunt has done a good job preparing you, but we certainly see some holes in attack magic. It won't bar you from testing for your D title, but some questions maybe be difficult," The head of the board, Ivan D Gamo, pointed out. "You may withdraw your application and try again after you've studied more attack magic."

"My focus is healing. My talents lay there, just like my aunt. I've accomplished some minor hexes," he said, hoping that wouldn't count against him. He noticed Ivan jot something down. Surely, that couldn't be good.

"You are younger than our typical applicant, however King Ashura thinks you have a maturity about you. What would you do with a D title if we were to grant it?" Ivan asked.

Zellen's mind went blank. He hadn't thought about exactly what type of job he'd want. An idea did come to him when he recalled his auntie mentioning his parents when she told him about this interview. "I want to be a circuit healer, just like my parents were."

"A circuit healer is a harsh job, one of the roughest a mage can do," King Ashura said. "They face lots of dangerous diseases, and they have to travel constantly. It's a huge responsibility."

"It's what I want to do," Zellen insisted, feeling peaceful about the choice. He had a feeling, though, Tanya wouldn't be too happy. She had ridden circuit when she was younger and hated it.

"Well then, how can we argue with such a noble goal?" Ivan said. "Your written test will start next week. It'll take you three days. You'll be tested on practical knowledge and creativity. After the written portion, you'll have your practical, which we will judge on its success. You'll have two day to complete that portion of your test. Then we will deliberate over the weekend and notify you by letter."

"It's quite an usual potion you're going to make for us," Maxim D Udom, one of the younger board member said, lifting up Zellen's written proposal. "You have found a potion that suppresses psychometry? Intriguing. Fortunately for you, my brother has that malady, so you're in luck. I'll arrange for you to test it on him."

"My wife does, too. That's why I chose it," Zellen explained.

"You're actually married to a psychometrist?" Maxim asked in incredulity. Then his face showed understanding. "Oh, then you must be the one that eloped with the duchess' granddaughter. You're that Zellen?"

"Yes, sir. That would be me," Zellen admitted, blushing slightly. He certainly didn't want a lot of gossip about him, but it just wasn't avoidable.

"I thought I told you that, Max," Ashura said.

"News to me," Maxim said.

"You don't get around much, do you?" Ivan asked. "Anyway... let's vote. All those in favor of letting Zellen Vagin take the exam?"

They all raised their hands, and rather than be relived, he found his nerves were even more on edge.


Fei-Wang watched from the distance and chuckled. The eleven demons were swooping around the Suwa village causing chaos among the farmers. His plans would, hopefully, pay off. The villagers would be so distressed and upset when Lord Suwa couldn't control all these demons that they would rebel against him. At least, that would be a bonus to his plans.

His main plan was to create distress in Suwa and force Lord Suwa to march into Tsukiyono. He wanted to force Mamoru into continuing his father's work: conquering other provinces. This was a way to goad the boy-lord into increasing his territory.

Fei-Wang would help out Mamoru by sicking demons on the enemies, thereby weakening the enemy and making them easier to conquer. Once Mamoru took over enough land and wealth, Fei-Wang would dispose of the boy-lord and take over. His ultimate goal: to march on Edo itself and control all of Nihongo. It was a step-by-step process, but one he'd patiently see through.


"And who carries a silver staff anyway?"

"That snotty... psycho..., that's who," one of Boris' fellow combat mages sneered. Boris gave an exaggerated, mocking, fake cough and leaned against the barracks' doorway. He propped his silver staff on his shoulder. He knew he wasn't liked; he could care less. It was just jealousy. He had his D title already, and his father was governor of Valeria and was good friends with King Ashura. Now he was serving as a soldier keeping the peace on Valeria, a very tricky prospect at this moment in time.

Not once did he ever rely on a favor from his father or King Ashura; not once did he throw around names to get where he was. He had to struggle hard for each thing he earned, because that's how his father believed it should be. And it was the right thing; he wanted to be his own man, apart from his family's name. So it didn't matter to him what some thin-skinned, envious grunt thought of him. He knew what he had earned, and he only cared that his father knew it.

"I mean I was just wondering why you use silver, anyway. Gold packs the power," the first man, Ollie, obviously embarrassed, babbled. "I mean, you also use amethyst and not fluorite. It's a strange choice."

Boris gave his fellow combat mage a sardonic grin. His father had worried over his choice, too, when he went in front of the council for his D title, but he blew him off, knowing his choice was perfect. "My signal color is purple, so the amethyst only amplifies my spells more effectively. Silver has more focus than gold. You maybe able to blast down a field of men with gold, but I can pierce a man through the heart with no more than a pinprick sized wound using silver."

"Bragger," the second, bitter man, Stephan, spat out with a glare. "Prove it."

Boris held out his staff with a patronizing air. "This got me my D title, that's all the proof you'll get," Boris replied. Stephan hated his guts and was trying to force Boris into a new army unit.

Little did the man know that it only encouraged Boris to stick around so he could be a thorn in the man's side. Boris got his rocks off harassing people. He didn't understand it himself, but he knew that arguments and drama made him aroused. He got a perverse pleasure from it; he found it much more captivating than any person trying to catch his attention with sweetness. The more toxic the situation he was in, the more he found himself wanting to pleasure himself. He admitted to himself he was a little sick in the head for it.

Being brought up on Valeria, where the natives hated him just because he was Celian, had already drained Boris of the "milk of human kindness" a long time ago and fed into his sick, twisted libido. He wondered if that's what created his kink, sometimes. Boris said, "King Ashura wants us down in the town's square. It seems the Valerians are going to march to the castle."

"Damn," Ollie swore and got his staff, as did Stephan. Boris strode ahead of them, shoulders squared, chin high. He could tell his fellow combat mages were falling more and more behind, whispering between themselves. Boris rolled his hazel eyes at their childishness and picked up the pace. He paused when he arrived at the entrance to an alley way. He looked behind him, Ollie and Stephan were no where to be seen.

He turned to the alleyway and saw the pair of his fellow combat mages talking to a Valerian down the way. Stephan pointed at Boris and he and Ollie ran towards the town square. Boris was baffled until the Valerian lofted a club and whistled. Several Valerians joined him and several more circled Boris on the street.

"Hey! If we want to send a message to King Ashura, we take this one and send the head to him on a pike. It's the governor's brat, and that'll send a message for sure."

Boris, not one for panic, was infuriated. It was one thing to harass him out of his army unit, but a whole other thing to betray him to a bloodthirsty mob.

Boris coolly analyzed where everyone was and made a break for it down the street. He ran hard and they chased him doggedly. He glanced back at them, estimating over twenty people in the mob. He turned down a side street. He swirled and cast a killing hex, taking down three of his would-be attackers with purple runes.

That only outraged the crowd more. They shouted threats at him and promises about how he was going to suffer when they got him. He turned and ran as more Valerians joined the chase, now hurling stones and other things at him.

He was getting exhausted as they drove him further and further from the town square and the safety King Ashura would offer. He cursed his luck and came to halt at the entrance of a charnal house. He recoiled in horror, not being used to dead bodies. These Valerians actually buried their dead.

The Valerians quickly surrounded the charnal house on the hill just as dusk was starting. Boris saw they made a tight ring around him and more and more people where joining them. He knew there was no way he could attack; now there were almost one hundred of the angry town's people gathered. If he took out one section, the people behind him would take him down for sure. He needed numbers, and he needed them now.

His own stomach turned at the taboo idea he got glancing at the open door of the charnal house. It was filled with dead pox victims, hundreds of them. He gripped his magic staff and looked at the leader of the mob.

There were three forbidden books he had read behind his father's back, in morbid, rebellious curiosity, when he was a teenager. They were Valerian books he wasn't allowed to read. He remembered those books well, because he knew on Celes it'd be considered a major no-no. He had memorized ever spidery curve of the rune sets in those three necromancer books just to rebel against the norm.

He recalled the knowledge in those Valerian necromancer books and saw a potential way out of this, but he was fully aware it wasn't permanent. Those books warned him he would doom his mind into insanity in the distant future, but still, he could live now and deal with that later. He gritted his teeth. He wouldn't let these Valerian bastards win, even if it cost him his mind one day.

"Put down your staff or we'll stone you to death!" The leader demanded.

Death. He remembered his pox ridden mother right before she died when he was fourteen. It was why he had sought out necromancy books behind his fathers back. He was hoping there was a way to reanimate his mother. Her death was a horror that tore his heart out. He didn't want her to die. And now, he wanted to live, desperately.

He laughed at the man and quickly traced eighteen purple runes with the casting tip of his staff. He held up his hand and the crowd flinched, thinking he was going to aim whatever spell at them. "Laying down and dying is something I won't do. I'll take you all down with me."

He pointed to the charnal house and clenched his jaw; the purple runes flew into the house and seconds later there were groans and movement. He gripped his staff and let the lightning quick corpses move past him and towards the screaming crowd. Any reanimator caster was always ignored by the corpses that they resurrected. They tore into the living with an envy only the dead could have, and they feasted on the livings' flesh. He sank to his knees, feeling the magical aftershock of his spell throughout his body. It was a cold recoil that almost made him vomit.

Boris moved into the empty charnal house, put his staff down, and sat on one of the tables, waiting. Sure enough, as evening was coming, there were explosions of all color of runes outside. It was King Ashura that entered the charnal house.

"Oh, Boris, please tell me it wasn't you that unleashed the undead. Please tell me you didn't reanimate."

"It was me."

"I have to arrest you for reanimation. If you are a citizen of Celes, no matter where you are, that is an egregious crime. You have to be held accountable for it," Ashura said sorrowfully.

"I know," he said solemnly, ready to pay his penalty.

"Do you know all the consequences of what you did?"

"Yes, sir. I had very little choice. They were going to send you my head on a pike."

Ashura looked truly sad. He laid a hand on Boris' shoulder. "It seems they took your head, anyway. This is something so terrible it would have been better for you to die. It will be more painful for you than you know. Raising the dead is not something trivial, and I'm curious to know how you learned necromancy. It's something forbidden to teach among Celians."

"No, sir, I won't tell. It's my secret to keep."

King Ashura sighed and shook his head. "Gustave will be sick when he hears this. I'll take you back to Celes, and we'll have the trial there. Hopefully, I can spare you and your father discomfort there."

Boris took a deep breath and nodded, his shock starting to lessen. "I'd like to be on Celes again, where there aren't any corpses."

Boris never did reveal where those three books were or how he learned necromancy; he had hidden them well in Valeria, so he could review them every once in awhile. He was doomed anyway, so there was nothing they could do to make him reveal his secrets or where he had hidden those books. They were his and no one else's.

Gustave had been utterly heartbroken over Boris, but he stood by his son and begged the courts for mercy. Before sentencing, Gustave passed away from a heart attack, sending Boris into a deep depression. Boris contemplated suicide after that, but Ashura had him watched too closely. Execution was looking immanent, but Ashura saved him.

He argued that the Valerian rebellion was put down with the reanimation, therefor, Valerians were terrified of Boris. He dictated that Boris would govern until such time as he became mentally unstable. Then he'd be committed to a hospital on Celes for the rest of his natural life.

He was also stripped of his D title, the least of his problems, and he was going to be sent to create order out of chaos on Valeria. Not to mention, his career in Celes' army was over. He was formally drummed out on a chilly Celian day when the blizzard was harsh. He was stripped of his coats and marched in disgrace through two lines of soldiers that looked at him with revulsion.

His only compensation was that he knew his two betrayers were turned in to King Ashura, and he had them executed in real style in a way only Ashura could dream up. Boris heard that young Prince Yuui had to be sent away before it happened, his twin and he were trundled off to Kella. The little boy with the golden hair came to mind, and he was proud the little thing actually made it beyond the age of five. No one else, but Boris, thought they'd live.

Boris' betrayers were stripped naked and beaten on Luval's battlements with thick whips. Boris was allowed to watch. They begged him for mercy, but he crouched down and said to them he'd grant them the same mercy he'd received: none. After all, he was sentenced to a life of insanity. They'd at least not experience that degradation. They'd be dead soon, and he'd have to fight against his deteriorating mind for the rest of his life. He turned and left it up to Ashura. It would seem that Celes hospitality, a euphemism for the harshness of their culture, was granted to the men and they died of blood loss.

And this was Boris' endless dream on a loop, as he rested beside Yuui.


Fai shot an arrow rather use his magic, not wishing to drive the demons off from the hunting party. He nailed it in the chest and ran behind a barn. Lord Suwa was there, disemboweling a demon with Pale Blue Ice.

"Mage! Where's my son? It's your job to stick with him!"

"I don't know. We got separated. He went to rescue some children, and I haven't seen him since."

"Damn it!" Lord Suwa swore at Fai and ran towards the heart of the village. Fai, trailing close behind, began feeling guilty he hadn't stuck closer by Kurogane.

The demons were all slain, but there was still wide disarray among the warriors and villagers. In all the chaos, they found Kurogane, clutching a wound on his left arm. They rushed up to him.

"Please tell me that isn't from a demon's claw," Fai pleaded, trying to get a better look at the wound.

"No. One knocked me against a door frame," Kurogane let the mage fuss over his arm and perform first aide.

"It was you job to be there, Fai!" Lord Suwa roared, glaring at Fai. He felt the color drain from his face as more guilt bubbled up.

"I'm so sorry."

"Father, it was my own fault, not Fai's. I left the mage because some children were in danger. Fai had to hold his position or it could have been bad news for him."

"Bah! I'll hear none of it!" Lord Suwa stalked off, leaving Fai feeling terrible.

"I'm sorry I angered your father," Fai said.

"He's angry at me. I told him I asked you to stay, and he's not comfortable with the idea. I think he's still counting on the idea of me settling down with a wife one day and giving him grandchildren."

Fai took off his obi and tied up Kurogane's arm, not meeting the ninja's eyes. Kurogane's fingertips touched Fai's chin and he tilted the mage's face upwards. Kurogane said, "Give him time, Fai. He'll come around. I just ask that you don't let him have any bearing on your decision. I still want you to stay with me."

"Kurogane!" Lord Suwa bellowed from the outskirts of the village.

"We'll talk later," Kurogane promised, and jogged over to assist his father.

To be continued.