Back In Black | Kyouhaba

In The Graveyard

There was a graveyard in Sendai. A typically empty place, bleak and dreary even on the sunniest, warmest days although today was as dull and damp as the place itself. Something about it was depressing. Not mindbogglingly tragic or gut-wrenchingly morbid but simply just depressing. A simple sorrow sat upon the plain headstones and a solemn mourning hung in the air.

There was one grave of note and that was the grave with earth churned around the sides and an ajar coffin sitting in the ground. The earth around was recently moved yet it was not fresh – perhaps three weeks or a month old. No body lay in the coffin either: apparently, the corpse had left its resting place a while ago and was trudging around Sendai with newfound 'life', at the beck and call of some bastard.

Or, at least, that's how the story went. The story was, naturally, true, but that's how things were in Sendai. Magic, monsters, zombies... none were uncommon in Japan or the rest of the world, for that matter. The corpse in question was Kyoutani Kentarou: accomplished abile, experienced fighter, the local dead guy and Watari Shinji's best friend.

Since Kyoutani was dead and well, Watari saw no reason to stop at his undug grave – after all, he had paid his respects last month at the funeral, with everyone else. Watari was here for something else.

Someone else.

He didn't do this often. Just when he felt guilty or regretful. Remorse wasn't the right word, or maybe it was – he'd check a dictionary for that later. Either way, guilt and remorse were definitely what he'd been feeling for a long time now and he had to do something about it. A bouquet of flowers in one hand – red lilies to be exact – and his lunch in the other.

Watari knelt in front of the grave. No new flowers, naturally, and the ones he had left last time were long gone. He lay down the new bouquet and opened his lunch on his lap. "Hello," he greeted the headstone dumbly. It didn't answer back but that was to be expected.

Dead didn't usually talk to the living, Kyoutani was the exception. He and Yahaba always had to be the exception.

"I'm back," continued Watari anyway, picking up the chopsticks. "Glad to see me?"

Once again, he received nothing but silence as he picked up a small sushi roll. "The Sanctuary's doing well. Kyoutani came back to Japan and died immediately though but then, he's always been a fucking moron. Seriously, it was immediate. He had been on Japanese soil for a day and then, boom! Murdered! Murdered by an idiot with a zombie-fanatic cult." He chewed the sushi thoughtfully. "We've mostly shut it all down, but their leader did get away. We're still hunting him down and, let me tell you, when I say Yahaba's planning to kill him, I mean it." He chuckled to nobody.

The wind blew past, and he swallowed the sushi, chuckling to himself to fill in the silence. "Now all the big damage's been undone, though, things might get easier. Yahaba brought Kyoutani back to life – I told you he was a necromancer now, too, right?" The gravestone remained quiet. "Well, he's a necromancer now, as well as a carnamancer. I've definitely told you this, I think. Back with the koi fish thing." Watari paused like he'd receive an answer, before nodding to himself. "Yeah, I went to you after that, you know all that stuff now."

The graveyard was deserted aside from him. Just outside, he could hear the rumble of cars but mostly footsteps as Sendai moved about for lunch. Watari didn't get up to join anyone – he kept eating his sushi, unaware of the sniper.

Black hair hung just in front of the scope but not enough to hinder the view of the shooter's target. The target was many things: a murderer, a traitor, a disloyal bastard who abandoned friends in their hour of need. A pathetic coward. All of them names that were too weak for Watari Shinji. The sniper took aim.