Chapter XXXIII—In Need of Assistance

She flipped Shinjiro over and his arms flopped like he were nothing more than a stuffed doll.

“Oh-no! Shinjiro?!” She touched his neck, feeling for the beat of his heart. “He’s still alive!”

Hans stood with his back turned to her, protecting her from the incoming undead that ambled forth. He jumped, kicked one away. “We have to get back to Asher’s mansion,” said Hans.

Moving quickly, she took Shinjiro’s blade and shunted it into his scabbard. “Why there?”

“He has the best healers and physicians money can buy. If they can’t save him, then no one can.”

The mere thought of losing Shinjiro made her throat close up. “All right!”

She lifted him up and started striding toward the edge of the shrine grounds. One of the undead trudged forward her. “Hans!”

“I know.”

He moved quickly, jumping and turning in the air. He nearly kicked the skeleton in half as a snapping sound issued from its body. Glancing after her, he said, “What are you doing? Do you mean to carry him the whole way like that?”

“Do you see a better way!” she snapped.

“Wait,” said Hans. “I’m certain the caretakers here have a horse and wagons.”

“Do you see any caretakers Hans? This place is empty.”

They made it to the road, the undead lost and forgotten. Perhaps they would soon fall over, the spells of Chinatsu no longer effective. That they still ambled about searching for victims to attack meant she wasn’t far.

“Hans!” growled Rōkura. “I want to kill her.”

“And we will—when the time is right.”

She could barely stand the wait, but right now Shinjiro was the more pressing concern. As they made it back down the road, Rōkura continued striding along. It was the same direction that little girl had gone, the girl who had called herself Chinatsu.

Chinatsu.

Hot tears flooding Rōkura’s eyes and she swore she wouldn’t forget the name. If she told people freely what she was called, finding her wouldn’t be difficult.

“Do you hear that?” asked Hans.

She turned her head. “Hear what?”

“Deaf and blind, I see.”

“Shut up, Hans!”

“I’m sorry.”

She heard it. The sound of a horse approaching. Her heart soared with hope, and no matter who it was, if they failed to lend assistance, Rōkura was going to steal that horse and race toward Asher’s mansion.

The rider crested the hill.

Rōkura could barely see him and he wasn’t even that far.

“Withersbee?”

“What?” asked Rōkura. “It’s Withersbee?!” The looked on as Hans waved. Then she called out to him as loud as she could.

Withersbee kicked his horse and the sound of its hooves clopping along the stones of the street increased in pace. Then he called “Whoa!” and the horse neighed loudly as it reared up on its hind legs.

Rōkura sniffed.

“Withersbee!” exclaimed Hans. “We need help.”

“I see that,” he said, getting off his horse. “The tomb wasn’t that much trouble was it?”

“No,” Hans said. “We ran into a little girl who called herself Chinatsu. I believe she is with the Soulless Night gang.”

“Are you serious?” Withersbee exclaimed, his eyes widened.

“Later!” Rōkura said. “We need to get Shinjiro to a healer.”

“I will take him back to the manor,” said Withersbee. He took one look at Shinjiro then turned and mounted his horse again. “Give him to me.”

Rōkura approached and Withersbee surprised both Rōkura and Hans when he hauled Shinjiro onto his horse with almost no effort.

“We will see you back at the manor,” said Hans.

“Right,” Withersbee said, nodding. He wheeled his horse around and yelled as he kicked the animal in the flank.

As he was off, Hans sighed heavily. “That was... fortunate to say the least.”

“Why do you even care, Hans?”

He took pause then. “You wound me, Rōkura-san. Without Shinjiro, who will keep you straight? The gods know I won’t.”

“And you shouldn’t!” she hissed. “I’m going back.”

His eyes widened. “What? What are you—“

“I’m going to kill her, Hans!”

“What about Shinjiro?”

Rōkura lifted her hands and looked at them. “There’s nothing else I can do for him. I have no healing touch—no ability to make Withersbee’s horse run faster. But I can kill—Hans I can kill!”

Taking a step back, Hans wasn’t sure what to say as he listened to her exclaim that she could kill. She seemed… almost rapturous.

He sighed. “Ogai-sama would be well pleased.”

Narrowing her eyes a little, she glanced toward the direction she thought Chinatsu had gone. The road split. This way led back to the mansion, but the road leading in the opposite direction had to be the one she took.

“I’m coming with you.”

“No you’re not!”

“Please, Rōkura…” he pushed his glasses up onto his nose. “Don’t true to be so cliché. It doesn’t suit you.”

“I guess I can’t stop you.”

“Why are we waiting time?”

She nodded, then lurched off toward the other road, running as fast as she could. Once she found that little girl, Rōkura was going to put her hands around her throat and squeeze all the life out of her.

The oni had lost her parents, had lost her world. She had no memory of that place outside of the fragments of a few dreams because of her Mind Block, something only Ogai-sama could restore, and that was something she simply assumed on her part.

Perhaps he could not undo the Mind Block.

Rōkura didn’t know.

In any event, there was nothing that she knew of that pulled her back toward the world she had come from. She had been isekaied not only into a new world, but into a new life, and now Shinjiro was mortally wounded.

She wasn’t going to let the same people involved with her own death, and that of her parents, take more from her.

Increasing her pace, she didn’t need to glance about for the girl. The road was straight forward, hemmed by forests. But if she wasn’t quick, Chinatsu will turn off onto another path, and then she would never catch that girl.