Death's Hunt

Chapter 9

Just as I had predicted, Vlagor entered the bar five minutes later. I noticed he was looking around the establishment with some confusion.
“Where is everybody else?” he asked.
“Sheri came in, Anga told everyone to leave,” I bluntly stated.
“Ah! I see.”
“All right Kakrix… Vlagor is here. Now would you just tell us what your idea is!” Anga grumbled impatiently while tapping one of her fingers on the counter.
“Just follow me,” I said walking out the backdoor.
As the four of us entered the black fog, I could hear Anga mumble in frustration under her mask. As for what she was saying, I could not understand. Once we emerged from the mist, we stood in front of a farm in England. The full moon illuminated the wide fields of corn, the barns where the animals quietly slept in their stalls and the farmhouse. Overall, it wasn’t anything special.
“Why the heck did you bring us here?” Anga growled.
“Well, considering your particular manner for relieving tension, I thought you’d like to just go at it.”
“Can you speak a language I understand?!” Anga shouted infuriated.
I sighed and simply said, “Go kill some things.”
Anga’s expression immediately changed. It was clear that after everything she had been through, she wanted to let her anger out onto something or someone. She didn’t say a thing. She just ran directly toward the farmhouse. I then felt a hand on my shoulder.
“I must say Kakrix, I was not expecting you to do something like that,” Vlagor stated.
“It was nothing.”
“However, I do have one more question for you.”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Why did you bring me along?”
I looked at him for a few seconds and simply said, “If we had not waited for you, you would have arrived to an empty bar without its owner. Need I say more?”
“I assume you are right,” Vlagor responded.
“All right, why don’t you just go get something. Chiyoko and I have our own little agenda.”
“Ah! I see. You’ve grown a liking to her.”
“I have not grown a ‘liking’ to her,” I replied defensively.
“Sure you have,” he whispered while nudging my shoulder with one of his elbows.
“Vlagor! I tell you I have not grown a liking to her! It’s just two deaths together.”
“I know that. I can see you are very serious,” he laughed, and I could hear a hint of sarcasm in there.
“Vlagor, get down here.” As he bent over so we’d be looking eye to eye, I grabbed his beard and yanked on it before growling to him through clenched teeth, “Listen to me carefully. There is nothing going on between myself and Chiyoko. There is no romance. It’s just a death training another death. Do you understand?”
“All right! All right! I understand. Now could you please let go of my beard?”
I unclenched my fist and walked away while gritting my teeth. As I approached Chiyoko who was sitting down in the fields, I changed my attitude as to not frighten her.
“So, is everything going well?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she simply answered.
“All right. Now get up. You’ve got some work to do,” I ordered her, but this time with more compassion in my voice.
As the two of us walked through the fields, I began to ask her a few questions. “Chiyoko?” She looked up at me. “Have you ever killed something?” She stared at me surprised.
“No! No, I haven’t. Why would you ask that?” she answered me in a shocked and confused tone.
“Have you ever swatted a fly?” I asked.
“Well, um… yes, I have.”
“Did you feel any remorse or regret about hitting it?”
Chiyoko seemed to think for a bit before answering, “No, I… I guess I didn’t.”
“Then maybe you should think about this when you have to kill something. Imagine it is a fly and you are just swatting it away. Maybe that will help you.”
Chiyoko seemed to be a little bit scared. “But… but… but…” I bent down and held her in my hands.
“Let’s practice on something easy,” I told her. “You see that corn stalk over there?” She nodded. “I want you to cut it down with your talons.”
“I… I can do that,” she said. As Chiyoko walked over to it, she looked up at the plant. She raised a foot and grabbed the cornstalk, but then she stopped. She actually seemed puzzled by what she was supposed to do now.
“Use your talons to cut its base,” I explained.
She nodded and in a few seconds she had completely severed the vegetable from its roots. As it crashed to the ground, a white orb rolled out. Chiyoko looked at it with some confusion while I sat down beside her.
“Congratulations, you just got your first soul.”
Chiyoko stepped back, clearly scared, “What? You mean I… I…”
I wrapped my tail around her body and slowly pushed her back towards the orb. “It’s okay Chiyoko. It didn’t feel any pain nor did it suffer.” She still looked nervous. “Plants are the easiest thing to deal with. In fact, some deaths specialize in only taking plant souls. That’s because they know they aren’t hurting anything.” Chiyoko reached for the orb, but then retracted away from it. The pulsing white sphere glowed in the night. “Don’t be scared Chiyoko. It won’t hurt you.” She closed her eyes tightly and quickly grabbed the soul in her talons. After a few seconds, she opened one of them. “See? Nothing bad happened. It’s all fine. Here, let me help you,” I said helping her guide her feet towards the pouch at the back of her kimono. “This is where you will put the souls you collect. All right?”
“O…o…okay,” Chiyoko replied.
“Now come on. Let’s keep practicing.”
Throughout the night, I helped Chiyoko carve her way through the corn field. At first, she didn’t want to do it. But after the nineth or tenth cornstalk, she started to gain more confidence, showing less and less hesitation in her actions. One thing I can definitely say about her is that she learns quickly. And that’s a good thing. Once we had finished, I directed her back towards the main part of the farm. It wasn’t long before we met up with Vlagor whose bag was bulging from the amount of souls he had in it.
“What have you been killing?” I asked staring at the burlap sack.
“Oh… you know… cattle, horses… I think I may have gotten a donkey as well.”
“Who owns so many animals?” I muttered.
“Oh! I didn’t stay on this farm. I went to the neighbours, and their neighbours, and so on.”
I stared at him with a clearly unamused look on my face. “You know mortals will be talking about this.”
“So?”
“So, it means that this is probably going to become one of those unsolved mysteries.” He still didn’t understand where I was coming from. “Because life stock just does not suddenly drop dead on mass?!” I cried out infuriated.
“What are you talking about? Sure they do! A virus can spread and wipe them out,” Vlagor protested.
“Vlagor, listen! No virus eats the dead animals.”
“So, they will just say it was a bear that went on a rampage.”
Before I could explain to him that there were no bears in the UK, Anga came back hauling a bag that was twice her size with souls bursting at the seams. “How did you…?” I started but she interrupted matter-of-factly.
“Killed everything I saw.”
I stared at Anga. “Please don’t tell me that you went to the neighbours, and their neighbours, and their neighbours like Vlagor did?” Anga didn’t say a thing and was definitely avoiding making eye contact with me. I pinched the bridge of my nose while sighing. “The point of us being here was to collect souls.”
“And that’s what we did!” Anga exclaimed.
“I meant in a discreet manner. Do you realize… Have you even thought for one second that annihilating an entire county’s worth of living creatures would not spark some investigation?”
“Geez Kakrix! You sound like you’re actually worried they will find us!” Anga laughed.
“It’s not so much that I’m worried they will find us – because I know that is impossible – but I am worried that it will cause panic in the mortal realm. Because that means that humans will be making more noise since they will be panicking. And that means my job will be less enjoyable.”
Everyone, including Chiyoko, just looked at me. Chiyoko was the first to speak up. “Excuse me, I know you are worried about this, but I think you’re doing what my mom called catastrophizing, Kakrix. I mean, just because Anga and Vlagor went a little too far doesn’t mean everyone on Earth will be panicking.”
“Also, I hate to point out the obvious, but Kakrix, your reasoning in this case is completely and utterly stupid,” Anga blurted out.
“Well at least you’re back to your usual self,” I muttered. This caused Vlagor to burst out in laughter. Even Chiyoko giggled slightly.
As the sun began to rise over the countryside, the four of us headed back to our world. On the way back, I heard Vlagor say, “Well, it seems like little Chiyoko’s training has paid off.”
“Yes, I guess it has,” I simply stated while placing a hand on Chiyoko’s head and ruffling her hair. She laughed at this, making me smile.