We Own Nothing, As Usual and to Our great Regret.
A Second Chance
Chapter Four: Aftermath, History, and a Conversation
Carter Slade groaned in pain as the nurse wrapped his arms and leg with bandages doused in a healing salve. It had taken him an hour to find the infirmary, and every minute had been filled with arm and leg pain from the bite of the jikininki.
The monster's saliva was designed to dissolve the bones of a victim but leave the flesh unharmed. When he was transformed, the Rider had proven more resistant to the bite than most, but was not unaffected.
Fortunately for Slade, the effect didn't transfer over to his untransformed state completely, but he would still have to take it easy for a few days so the salve he had been lathered in could take effect and fix the fragility.
He left the infirmary not long after, intent on getting some food. He was always hungry after transforming.
When he arrived at the cafeteria, Slade got his food and at by himself at a table in the corner, with his back against the wall. It was an old habit for him back in the days before he became the Devil's Bounty Hunter, and one he had never quite kicked.
As he tucked into his food, Slade looked up and saw a familiar face. The girl the Rider had saved last night was at the lunch line, getting her tray. In the better lighting, and with his non-transformed eyes, Slade could see her clearly now.
The girl was about 5'2, with pale skin and a toned figure. She appeared to be his current age of fifteen, but it was very hard to tell with monsters. Her defining trait was her hair.
The human disguises of many monsters tended to have unusual hair colors, and hers was no different. Despite her apparent age, her hair was a gray color that was typically reserved for the elderly.
Slade was forced to remind himself that it hadn't been that long ago that he had that exact same hair color. He noticed in his observations that she was wearing the normal school uniform, and her bag was covered in multicolored pins featuring symbols of various bands. Slade only recognized a few of them from his old life, and he also saw that there was a set of small white wires heading up to her ears that vanished under her hair. He could only assume that they were headphones of some kind.
The man-turned-fifteen realized that she had noticed his staring and was walking over.
'Oh boy.'
He noticed two more things about her as she walked over.
First, her eyes were a powder blue, the color of a blue sky over meadows.
Second, like the vast majority of monster girl disguises, she was quite pretty.
"I couldn' help but notice ye starin' at me." she said as she approached.
Slade absently noticed that her accent was Irish in nature, maybe Scottish?
"Pardn' me, ma'am. Ah jus' never seen a girl with grey hair before." he responded.
She giggled and set her tray down. "Ye must be new here, then. Lotta girls got hair far stranger than mine."
The gray-haired girl put her bag on the floor and sat down.
"Ye've got me there, ma'am." He extended a hand. "Carter Slade."
Grasping his hand in a surprisingly strong grip, she responded with "Cailin Ailbe."
As they began to eat, Slade noticed a few scratched on her arms from the ropes he had saved her from.
"Ye know," she said between mouthfuls. "There's somethin' familiar 'bout ye."
"Oh?" Slade responded while wondering internally what cover he should use.
Cailin considered it for a moment, then shrugged.
"Probably nothin'."
Slade had met with Cailin for lunch the rest of the weekend, and had fully healed from the jikininki's bite. Ever since that first night, he hadn't felt the call of the wicked in need of punishing, but considering what he knew about the school, it was probably only a matter of time.
As he walked down the hallways towards his first class, he heard a commotion off to the side. Slade quickly identified two tall boys as members of the soccer team who were standing over a smaller boy.
He couldn't make out the small boy's face or hair from the angle he was at, but he seemed to be jumping up and down to try and grab something from the taller boys, who were passing it back and forth above his head. Both of the jocks were laughing, while the boy's voice increased in volume with every pass. Sighing to himself, Slade stepped forward.
"HEY! Wha' in tarnation are y'all doing over here?" he shouted, getting their attention.
Apparently, the jocks didn't want to deal with him, since they took off with whatever it was they had stolen. Slade prepared to head to class, but was stopped by the boy they had been picking on, who placed his hand on his shoulder. Turning his head, Slade was shocked by the facial features of the boy.
Or rather, his lack of facial features, considering the boy had no head. Where his head would normally be, there was just a stump at the top of his neck, as if someone had hacked it off with an ax. Despite his missing cranium, the boy's body apparently had no trouble moving on it's own, seeing as it was now writing something in a notepad.
Upon finishing writing, the headless body turned the notepad so Slade could see it.
Thanks for the help, stranger. Would you mind helping further by locating my head for me? The name is Ketsu Kokoro, by the way.
Carter Slade was momentarily unsure of what was going on. He had heard of dullahans before, but he had never actually met one. Or at least, he thought he had never met one. After all, they looked completely human, with the additional ability of having a detachable head.
"Uh, sure?" he responded, a little confused. The body immediately began scribbling again.
Excellent! Follow me! I know where they will put my head! Lets GO!
Then, Slade watched as the headless body of Ketsu Kokoro took off in the direction the jocks had fled and slammed into and through a closed door like it wasn't there.
Normally, being a Ghost Rider kept one from getting major sicknesses and maladies, but Carter Slade felt the beginnings of a migraine regardless. He rubbed his forehead and hoped that he would have enough time to get to class after this.
Then he took off after the now-sprinting body in the hopes he could direct it away from any more doors.
Or at least, get the doors open before the body smashed them as well.
Carter Slade, the legendary Ghost Rider, was almost late to his first monster history class because of a severed head. The enthusiastic dullahan's body had broken through two more doors before he had managed to catch up. The missing head had been located in a tall tree at the edge of the woods. Slade had been the one to climb up and get it, since the body was unable to actually see the tree.
It had been quite an experience, climbing up a tree to retrieve a severed head while it's body bumped into the tree repeatedly and the head itself shouted encouragement. The head itself had brown hair and blue eyes, and had a thin, almost reedy voice that puberty was just beginning to leave it's mark on.
Regardless, he had retrieved Ketsu's missing head and the boy had thanked him profusely. He had promised to come find Slade if he ever had a problem with his head again. Slade, unsure how to take this, simply said it was no problem at all, then ran for his classroom.
He made it to his seat two minutes before the bell rang. Not that it mattered, since the teacher was always late. It was another five minutes before the door to the classroom opened again.
In walked Professor Rutan Skuldge, a middle-aged and overweight man with balding brown hair and blue eyes that were permanently bloodshot. Clutched in his hand like a lifeline was a steaming hot cup of coffee. Most of the students believed him to be an alcoholic of the highest order, and although it was true that he did enjoy a good drink or several every now and then, the truth was far stranger.
No one was quite sure what species he was, but whatever his race was seemed to revolve around sleep. If he wasn't teaching in class, he could be found sleeping anywhere around the campus, no place too strange to take a nap in.
So far this year, Professor Skuldge had been located on the roof several times, tucked away in the library, under a table in the cafeteria, in the teacher's lounge, on a toilet in the gym locker rooms, up a tree, and, on one particularly memorable occasion, inside the Class President's room. No one was quite sure how he got into the room, and no one really wanted to know.
His reputation among the students was mixed, with most of them agreeing that he was a good teacher, but many thinking of him as weird and possibly perverted with his unusual choices in sleeping arrangements.
Professor Skuldge opened the class with a cavernous yawn and a sip of coffee, as he usually did, then began to speak.
"Alright, class. Last time, we talked about the Great City of Tarkoom, the Icarions, and their downfall. Today, we'll be talking about the Lost Cities of the Mediterranean." he said, blearily looking out at the students, his eyes starting to focus as he continued. "Who here can tell me the names of the Lost Cities?" he asked, resulting in murmurs and several raised hands. He picked one at random.
"Atlantis, sir." said the girl.
"Good, that's one. Anyone know the other one?" Many of the hands went down. It was little Yukari Sendo who answered.
"Pesh, sir."
"Excellent. Now, I have a little presentation for you today, and afterwards, I would like you all to read pages 85-107 in your textbooks." Professor Skuldge said as he bustled around and set up a projector. Slade idly noted that he seemed rather unfamiliar with the device, since one of the students had to help him assemble it. After it whirred to life, the professor turned off the lights, took a sip from his coffee, and began to speak.
"The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean together, and it is there that our story begins. For thousands of years, the city of Atlantis beckoned like a radiant jewel to wizards, mages, scholars, and any other who wanted to partake in the knowledge stored there. It is said that Atlantis is where the first wizards worked out the secrets of magic."
With a click, the projector displayed an amazing image. It was a painting of a fantastical city made of white stone and golden roofs. Fantastic, magical lights floated everywhere, and the cobblestone streets were filled with wonder. Strange merchants peddled stranger and exotic wares, children chased each other in-between the legs of their parents, and stately wizards with long beards and magical staffs watched over all.
"A lovely sight, isn't it? It was a paradise without equal, perfectly sculpted, and quite impossible to find if you were a human!" The professor changed the slide to a new image. Projected on the wall was a sketch of a ship at sea, it's passage marked by two great pillars of stone etched with strange runes and symbols. Written across the pillars was a single phrase.
Ne plus ultra.
"You see, Atlantis was always moving, invisible to humans and safe inside it's own pocket of space. These two pillars, the Pillars of Hercules, were the only way in or out of Atlantis. Can anyone venture to guess what the words on the Pillars mean?" Professor Skuldge asked.
There was a moment of silence, each student wracking their brains to try and figure out the inscription. The fact that the vast majority of them hailed from Japan worked against them. In the end, it was Slade's Catholic upbringing that won out.
"It's Latin, sah'. It means, No More Beyond." he answered.
"Well done, Mr. Slade. No More Beyond. A warning to sailors who stumbled upon the Pillars by accident. Alas, never again will any man gaze upon the splendor of Atlantis." the professor sighed and clicked.
The slide changed to a portrait of a human male, adorned in armor and astride a mighty war horse.
"You see, in 334 BC, the human general and king Alexander the Great launched an invasion of the Achaemenid Empire. It was around this time that the Pillars of Hercules vanished, and Atlantis was lost to all. Some scholars believe that Alexander planned to take Atlantis for himself, so the Atlanteans severed the connection to the world. The greatest gathering of arcane knowledge in existence, never to be seen again." There was no small amount of sadness in Professor Skuldge's voice.
"But enough about Atlantis, the City of Wizards. Let us now turn our gaze to it's dark counterpart." With a flourish, a new image appeared from the projector. The painting was of a city like Atlantis, but twisted, all winding streets of black stone and ominously dark water winding through canals. Strange, humanoid figures stalked the dark streets, and a strange golden light shined down from above. A symbol was etched into the corner, that of a golden disc surrounded by curled, golden thorns.
"This is the only known image of Pesh, the City of Goblins. The second of the two Floating Cities of the Ancient World, Pesh would disappear from one place and appear in another instantly. No one knows quite how they managed this feat, and unless the city reappears one day, I doubt we'll ever know.
"Now, those of you who have read my Beastiary know the difference already, but the Goblins of Pesh were very different than their European counterparts. They were human-shaped with leathery green skin and long, prehensile tails. Much of our information about this strange city of shadows was recovered from the ruins of the Athenian Agora in Greece, where a buried chest was found containing a fragment of Plato's lost dialogue, the Hemocrates."
The professor changed slides again. This time, the image of a photograph was put up on screen. It depicted a group of archaeologists clustered around an ancient chest.
"The fragment was held by the Greece Ministry of Magic until 1942, when it was stolen by the Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald's followers. Thankfully, it was recovered a year later during Operation: Hollow and returned to Greece after World War II ended, where it sits to this day."
With a final click, the projector shut off. Professor Skuldge turned the lights back on and returned to the front of the room.
"The City of Pesh vanished not long after Atlantis did, and all expeditions have failed to find it. But who knows? Maybe one of you will find it someday! Now, open your books and read pages 85-107 until the end of class.. Tonight's homework will be an essay based on your speculations of what happened to Pesh, and whether or not it will return one day."
With that said, the professor sat down behind his desk and began to go through papers. Slade grabbed his textbook, cracked it open to Page 85 and began to read.
Over the next hour, he took several notes, but found that his eyes kept drifting towards one passage from the text. It was a translation of the Hermocrates fragment, detailing the journey that Hermocrates undertook to Pesh.
"
Hermocrates sat in front of me with a glass of sweet wine in hand and mystery in his eyes. Socrates sat to my left and Critias to my right. After taking a great swig, he began his tale.
'As I walked the streets of Pesh in the company of my hosts, I saw the natives going about their daily lives. The men stood even with me, yet had no hair on their leathery scalps. In contrast, the women had light-brown hair, all worn down to the waist, and in elaborate braids that contrasted with their green skin. When we walked past a stall, I saw a male serving drinks with his hands, feet, and tail in an astonishing display of agility. Wherever I walked, their luminous eyes followed me, devoid of trust but filled with the curiosity of a predator who has just found an interesting new morsel. My guide, Iskander, stood out with his red eyes and slightly darker coloration then the rest of his race. He patiently waited for me to catch up, and grinned a mouth full of shark-like teeth when I had.'
'Come, visitor. The Queen awaits your arrival, and she is not one to be kept waiting.' "
That night, Carter Slade's dreams were filled of strange cities and baleful golden light, under which mysterious shapes moved silently.
The next day, Slade found himself summoned to the Headmaster's office. Judging by the looks on his fellow students faces, they did not expect to see him alive again. Needless to say, this did not fill him with confidence.
He was even less confident when he walked into the dark office and was met by a white-cloaked figure with glowing eyes. "Ah, you're here. Good. Sit down." the Headmaster said, leaving no room for argument.
Left without much choice, Slade sat in the single chair in front of the desk. For a moment, there was silence, the two beings simply staring at each other. It was the Headmaster who broke the silence.
"Do you realize how inconvenient the paperwork is when a student arrives at Yokai Academy despite no record of entry, no travel papers, and not even a damn social security card?" the robed figure asked, closing his glowing eyes for a moment.
Slade considered this for a minute, then carefully responded. "I imagine it woul' be quite complex, sah."
"Tell me about it. I was up all night trying to figure out where you came from. I went through the family records, the student list from Mahoutokoro that I'm technically not supposed to have, even the old articles from the Newspaper Club." the Headmaster rubbed his forehead gingerly, then looking into Slade's soul.
"So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the last record of you is from around 160 years ago, when a Texas Ranger was sentenced to hang until death, but disappeared the night before he was supposed to face the gallows. Now, I don't know about you, but that seems rather suspicious, doesn't it, Mr. Slade?"
"It would indeed, sah." he agreed, realizing where this conversation was going. A pressure was building inside the room, focused around the Headmaster. He was ready for anything.
The Headmaster grinned a decidedly sinister smile. "I'm glad we agree on that, because that means we've come to the part of our discussion where you give me the answers I want and I decide to either let you go or dole out some disproportionate violence upon your person."
"I assume that you have a preference as to which one I pick?" the monster disguised as a school Headmaster asked, evil intentions swimming through his eyes.
In his time, Carter Slade had faced down notorious criminals, monsters of all sorts, and even the Devil Himself. He was not an easy man to intimidate, but there was something about the Headmaster that set the Rider's spirit on edge. He could feel that it was...
Unsure.
Slade had never felt the Rider respond in such a way before, and it unnerved him greatly. The Headmaster's voice broke him out of his thoughts.
"You don't actually have to respond, by the way. I can see the answer in your eyes, though it was hard to see through all the hellfire swirling around in there." At Slade's startled look, he let out a bark of laughter. "Oh yes, I know all too well the look someone gets when they have been touched by the Dark One. Though, to be fair, I haven't seen it in someone so young before, so it threw me off a little at first."
The Headmaster interlaced his fingers and leaned forward inquisitively. "So, what has brought a Ghost Rider to my Academy? Are you hunting, like a faithful hound? Spying for your master, perhaps? Or is it something else?"
"Somethin' else, I assure you. I ain' got a master anymore." Slade growled, not liking the memories being dredged up.
"Oh, I find that very hard to believe, Mr. Slade. It's not like Mephistopheles to let one of his dogs run wild without at least a leash to tug on. You'll have to do better then that." the Headmaster said, a flash of something eager darting across his face. The same type of eagerness that a lion experiences when pouncing upon an unsuspecting zebra.
"Believe wha' you will, sah. I ain' no one's dog anymore. Haven' been for hundreds o' years, unless you count God." Slade responded.
"A pious servant of the Devil? Now I truly have seen everything. But you have not answered my question Mr. Slade, and I find my patience growing thin. So tell me, why are you here?" asked the Headmaster, his voice taking on a deep growl at the end of his sentence.
Slade sighed and answered honestly. "I'm here 'cause o' Tsukune Aono. I got to protect him."
Not much could faze Tenmei Mikogami, Dark Lord the Headmaster of Yokai Academy, and this revelation caused him to raise only a single eyebrow.
"Tsukune Aono? Why protect him? He's not even a monster. I know that you can tell the difference with the Rider's intellect, so why him?" the Headmaster asked, getting curious now.
"I dunno." Slade answered. "When I was reborn, I was filled with this purpose. To be 'is guardian, to keep him safe from something."
Mikogami frowned under his hood. "You were reborn? By who?"
"Dunno tha' either." Slade admitted. "All I know was that I had used up my strength an' faded from the world, an' then I was back with this job and these powers again."
"You don't think it was God who brought you back? I thought you were a pious man, Mr. Slade." the Headmaster commented.
"I am, bu' I don't think it was Him. I don't think He'd have anything t' do with hellfire and brimstone." Slade mused. "Besides, I know now you won' stop me, an' you'll let me stay here."
"Oh? How do you know that, Mr. Slade?" asked the Headmaster, his expression unreadable under his hood.
"'Cause you got far too interested when I bought up Tsukune. You got a plan, an' it involves 'im in some way, so you need 'im safe." Slade answered. "Am I wrong?" he asked.
The Headmaster laughed. "You are good, Mr. Slade. I think we'll work together just fine."
Over the next hour, Slade filled the Headmaster in on his personal history, his reasons for making the deal and his reasons for striking out on his own to protect the Contract, his mentoring of a new Rider and his final ride.
"You've had quite the history, haven't you Mr. Slade? I'll need to take some time to think on all you've told me."
"Of course, sah. Shall I leave you be for now?" Slade asked respectfully.
"Yes, but before you go, there are a few smaller points of interest." the Headmaster removed several papers from his desk. "First, you'll need to fill these out for my records. It's just basic information, age, blood-type, race, preferred funeral arrangements, you know how these things are."
"Of course." Slade quickly filled out the relevant information.
"Excellent. Second, in regards to your actions last night..."
Slade found himself tensing again.
"I am rather grateful for your actions in saving Ms. Ailbe, as it would look rather bad on our records if one of our foreign exchange students were killed. That being said, I would greatly appreciate it if you uncovered exactly why she found herself chained up and left for dead against a pack of roving jikininki."
"I'll keep tha' in mind, sah." said Slade
"I'm sure you would, Mr. Slade. And finally, I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to protect Tsukune Aono. As you said, I have a rather vested interest in his future, and the world is changing rapidly. He is, ignoring his faults, a good person, and I believe that we will need him in the end."
"Don' you worry none, sah. I'll keep him safe." Slade swore.
"Yes, I do believe you will." the Headmaster said. "You may go."
With that, Slade left the Headmaster's office to resume his vigil. Their conversation had been rather interesting, and the Rider was stirring inside his soul.
Tonight was going to be interesting indeed.
AN: Been a While, hasn't it?
Again.
Plans are Afoot, and not All is what it seems.
Thank You.
-Z