Death's Mantle 2

by Harmon Cooper

  “I didn’t light into you; I just explained to you some of the history between our associations so you can better understand why there’s bad blood.”

  “There’s definitely going to be some bad blood, I get that. But I’m going to maintain a naïve optimism about it and ask a simple question: does there have to be?”

  “That is quite naïve.”

  “Yeah? Maybe. I don’t know the next time we’re going to have to fight each other, but I want you to know now that all my shots are going to go wide, and if I do have to go at you with the sword, I’ll be sure to keep it to flesh wounds.”

  “The next time we have to fight, I’m going to disintegrate you,” Danira said with a playful snarl.

  “Really? Here I am offering an olive branch, and you’re talking about turning me to pixie dust.”

  Danira suddenly turned to Lucian and placed her hand on his cheek, startling him. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  She was gone before he could react, the woman beamed up by a golden ray of energy.

  “Did you see that?” Lucian asked over his shoulder, looking for his crows. “Hugin, Munin. Did you guys see that?”

  Hugin and Munin appeared almost instantly, both of them nodding.

  “She touched me in like a caring way,” Lucian said, placing his hand where Danira’s hand had just been. “Then again, right before she did that, she said she was going to disintegrate me next time we fight.” He shook his head, not able to contain his goofy grin. “I guess that’s just the way it goes with women, especially heavenly beings.”

  Hugin fell to the ground, Munin cascading after him, both of them pretending like they were dead.

  “I know, I know it was lame,” Lucian told them. “I never got the chance to be a dad, but had I been given the chance, I would have leveled the block with my dad jokes.”

  Still, with his hand on his cheek, Lucian returned to his former bedroom and took the stairs to the top, his focus shifting to his newest creation, the one that he still wasn’t quite satisfied with.

  For something this large, something this powerful, Lucian knew that he was going to need to pour even more energy into it.

  He had plenty of Soul Points now, more than enough to experiment. As he walked over to the towering mecha, the name Lucian had come up with returned to him.

  “Grimzilla,” he said, weighing the words, and figuring it would work.

  He had Grim Mecha, and he now had Grimzilla.

  And the name made sense, even if the giant robot didn’t have a tail. He could give it one like the Spaniard had, of course, but maybe that would come after he got it to actually work.

  Lucian cycled more of his power into Grimzilla, his hands stretched in front of him as he imagined the mecha’s armor strengthening, the craftsmanship improving.

  It really was strange how his power worked, how he didn’t have to actually do any of these things on his own.

  He simply willed them in his creation, and as he did so he saw portions of the metal harden, grooves starting to form on Grimzilla’s legs for aerodynamic purposes, more compartments with hidden energy weapons taking shape.

  After a bit more enhancing of his creation, Lucian saw that he was down a couple thousand Soul Points.

  He still wanted to check on his brother, and he knew that anything could happen once he met Yoshimi.

  Lucian’s crows came to him, and as they did he pressed his thumb and pinky finger together, his form wisping together in his brother’s backyard.

  It was a cold day, snowflakes falling from the sky and melting once they reached the ground.

  “Here goes,” Lucian mumbled as he floated into his brother’s home. He found Connor sitting on the couch, reading something on his phone. Baby Jen was lying next to him, her eyes closed at the moment.

  Lucian’s heart skipped several beats once his brother’s death date appeared.

  Name: Connor North

  Date of Birth: 11/01/1980

  Date of Death: 07/19/2058

  “It worked,” Lucian said, finding it hard to catch his breath even though he couldn’t technically breathe.

  Killing the parasite had worked.

  “I know you can’t hear me now, but one day, I’m going to tell you what I did to save your life. I don’t know how that’s going to work. I don’t know where you’re going to go once you pass, or how I will get there. No one has been clear to me on that,” Lucian told Connor, Tuck the cat taking notice that Lucian was in the living room. “But I’ll tell you one day, and you can thank me then. No, you don’t have to thank me. I didn’t mean it like that. I would do it again if I had to. I want you to take care of yourself…”

  After fiddling with his phone for another moment, Connor made his way over to the dining room table, where he had his little kit out, half a pill on a small circular mirror.

  Lucian’s shoulders dropped as he watched his brother chop up a small section of the pill and press the shavings into a line.

  He cleared one of his nostrils, just to make sure there was no blockage, and once he did Connor snorted the line, sniffing again just to make sure he got it all.

  “Whew,” he said, his eyes going wide for a moment before a haze settled in.

  “Daddy?”

  Connor turned to see that Jen was awake, the young girl standing on the couch as she looked over at her father.

  “Don’t stand on there,” he said, his first reaction being to hide what he was doing, then realizing that she was too young to really process what was on the table.

  Connor went to his daughter, picked her up in one hand and walked back over to his small kit.

  “Don’t tell Mommy,” he said as he zipped it up, hiding the evidence.

  “Mommy,” Jen said, looking to the door.

  “That’s right, she’s coming in a couple hours.”

  “You asshole,” Lucian said under his breath, wishing he could clock his brother for doing drugs in front of his niece.

  Lucian’s cape started to bubble on his shoulders, a strange mixture of anger and disappointment spreading through him.

  “Yoshimi,” Lucian finally said with a deep breath out, no longer wanting to witness what was going on in his brother’s home, especially since he was helpless to intervene.

  The geisha comb formed in his hand, and rather than break it on his brother’s floor, Lucian pressed his thumb and pinky together.

  He appeared in Tokyo, hovering above Shibuya Crossing, the streets quiet below.

  All the lights of the famous shopping district were off save for some of the taller buildings and a few streetlamps, most of the shops closed aside from the occasional convenience store, and a few of the bars.

  Lucian brooded for a moment, spiraling up and down, trying to calm his nerves.

  He felt his muscles tense and relax as a taxi slowed to the curb to pick up a drunken couple, the woman leaning against the man as he tried to maintain equilibrium.

  The Japanese man made a gesture like he was going to vomit, but he stopped himself just in time, the woman patting him on the back.

  Lucian hadn’t been to Tokyo before, but he was familiar with Shibuya Crossing, especially as it was used in several animes as a key location.

  Lucian could see why.

  With Shibuya Station on one side and a shopping district that reminded him of Times Square, it really was no wonder that people flocked to this area.

  It was also clear why it would be inspirational, especially if someone just felt like people watching, perhaps from one of the covered pedestrian bridges that crossed the street with their large windows, or at a Starbucks coffee shop that was on the seventh floor of a building overlooking the crossing.

  Looking around again, Lucian saw dozens of American brands here, from Hooters—oddly enough—to a massive Under Armour store with a black geometric form outside of it. As he floated around, his eyes fell upon a sign pointing to a Denny’s.

  “Denny’s? What kind of food will they hav
e at a Denny’s in Tokyo?”

  To answer his own question, Lucian floated in the direction of the sign, finding that the place was open twenty-four hours, just like a Denny’s in America.

  The sign was lit too, and as Lucian floated in front of it he saw that they served food that looked almost like what he would get at a Denny’s in America, but smaller and more proportioned. The pancake in the picture was perfectly round and the bacon had no creases in it. Even the over-easy egg looked like someone had trimmed it around the edges, making it perfect.

  “Weird,” Lucian said as he dropped the comb on the ground, Yoshimi’s piece shattering.

  It reappeared in his hand in a matter of seconds.

  He was just about to throw it down again, but then he recalled that she said it would do this, that once was enough.

  Or at least he thought that she told him that once was enough.

  A group of people stumbled out of a small bar, the women dressed nicely, their high heels clacking against the pavement as they tried to help each other stand. The man that was with them smoked a cigarette, a serious look about him as he watched the women.

  They started speaking, and once again, Lucian came to realize that he could understand them fluently.

  “Why did you let us drink so much?” one of the women asked the man. “I still have work tomorrow!” She made a pouty face, her friend laughing as she hugged her arm. “We both have work tomorrow!”

  “What about karaoke?” the man asked. “There’s a good karaoke bar around here.”

  “That would be fun,” a third woman said. She was with the group, but had been standing off to the side, quickly messaging someone on her phone. “I really want to sing some American songs. Practice my English.”

  “Maybe we could sing…”

  The two women that were latched onto each other exchanged glances.

  “What song?” the woman on the right asked.

  “I can’t remember the name...” her companion said, humming a tune.

  The man ashed his cigarette. “It’s not very far from here. Come on.”

  Lucian ignored their death dates once he saw a spark on the other side of the street.

  The spark lifted into the air, forming a tree and showering the pavement with what looked like digital cherry blossoms as Yoshimi appeared.

  “You called?” she asked.

  “That was some entrance!” Lucian told her, suddenly feeling less distraught than he had been upon leaving his brother’s home.

  “It’s just a thing I like to do sometimes. We should go somewhere else. Injuresouls, Watchers, the Progeny of Light, the Progeny of Darkness, or Death Hunters will be here if we stay too long.”

  “In that order?”

  “Let’s hope not,” Yoshimi said as Lucian’s vision started to fill with digitized cherry blossoms.

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Tea with Yoshimi

  Lucian and Yoshimi sat before one another, the room cast in the light from the sparkling waterfall outside. After a graceful bow of her head, Yoshimi poured him a cup of tea, Lucian graciously taking it from her.

  The female Death wore a sparkling kimono with a large swath of black fabric wrapped around her stomach. Her hair was up in two buns, and her lips were shaded with a deep red that was at odds with the paleness of her skin.

  “I have something as well,” he said, a plate appearing on the table, six pieces of chocolates arranged on it at an angle.

  “You made those?”

  “I did. I’m still learning, but they have been well received so far.”

  “I see,” she said as she went for a pair of chopsticks. She lifted one of the chocolates to her mouth, taking a small nibble from it.

  “This is really good.”

  “You think? I mean, I tasted it and it tasted fine to me. I have tasted it a bunch, actually,” Lucian said with a chuckle. “I don’t know how much chocolate I’ve eaten, but I’m definitely going to gain weight if I keep eating like that.”

  “Yes, it’s very good.”

  She took another bite of the chocolate and set it down on her own plate.

  “Sorry to bother you, by the way. I’ve got a lot of questions, and I figured you’d be the person to ask. I don’t even know where to begin.”

  A full arrangement of sushi and sashimi appeared on the table, some of the pieces in bamboo boats, others on small, rectangular plates garnished with ginger and wasabi.

  “I’m looking forward to this,” Lucian said, and just as he was about to dig into one of the rolls, he stopped, remembering his manners.

  He cleared his throat and went for the chopsticks, which he used sloppily at first, until he got the grip under control.

  He dipped a roll in a small saucer of soy sauce and placed it in his mouth.

  On his next go around, he started off with a dab of wasabi, doing the same, enjoying the intense flavor.

  “Did you come here to eat, or did you come here to ask me questions?” Yoshimi asked with a soft smile.

  “Apparently both,” Lucian said after he had finished chewing. “Okay, so I got a little bit of a dilemma. I’ve got about two and a half days left to find my predecessor, otherwise Gaspard is going to try to rip me a new one. Now he’s saying that they’re going to force me to give up my mantle, but I have a feeling that maybe I can appeal this decision with the Committee. I don’t know. Is that how that would work?”

  “You could certainly appeal it, but they may hold you during the appeal process, and as a minority leader, Gaspard definitely holds some sway over the other Committee members.”

  “It’s not like there are that many members,” Lucian said, recalling that the Committee had only five people on it, two of which were twins. This made him wonder if they had split their mantles as well, something he hadn’t considered before. “Anyway, I have to find him. I don’t want to lose my mantle.”

  “You know how to call me, right?”

  Lucian looked to her, trying to hide the surprise on his face. “You would intervene?”

  “If they come for you, you know how to reach me. I don’t think they will like seeing me in this scenario, especially after…”

  The two were quiet for a moment as Lucian waited for her to finish.

  “… Especially if they plan to do something with an acquaintance of mine.”

  “I will take acquaintance,” Lucian said graciously. “I don’t want to have to call on you, but if it comes down to it, I’ll take you up on your offer. I actually wouldn’t mind finding him, just to see how he’s doing. I kind of like the guy, even though he was a bit lazy at first. Maybe not lazy, just unorthodox.”

  “You told me before that you stay in a place he created, is this not the case?”

  “It is. He basically built a home into the side of a cliff overlooking this big, futuristic city. All fake. And by fake, I mean there’s no one there, but the lights are on. Flying vehicles, too. Anyway, I added a little spot of my own at the top of the cliff, so I have a place where I can train. There’s a lake up there too, a forest, and I put up a workshop as well.”

  “So even though he is gone, you are able to live in a place that he created solely for himself. You don’t find that odd?”

  “I find everything about this odd,” Lucian admitted. Both of them went for a piece of sushi, and when he was finished eating, he continued. “But I have just sort of learned to accept the oddity, if that makes sense.”

  “It does make some sense, but you do realize for him to create something that large would require him to use some of his mantle, do you not?”

  “His mantle? But I have his mantle.”

  “Yes, you do,” Yoshimi said. “Do you remember Menor and the way he had split his mantle with Alice?”

  “I was just thinking about that, regarding a pair of twins on the Committee.”

  “Yes, them,” Yoshimi said, her right eye twitching.

  “But yeah, I remember him talking about splitting his mantle.”

  “You don’t
just have to split your mantle in half to get the same result. Does that make sense?”

  “You mean you can split it into more than two pieces?”

  “Yes, I don’t know the number of pieces, but it is safe to say that you could split it into dozens upon dozens of pieces if you so desired. I suppose I shouldn’t dance around what I am suggesting here: your predecessor created this world you live in with a portion of his mantlecore. I don’t know how large of a portion, but it must be substantial. Otherwise, it would have collapsed had he died, or disappeared.”

  “And because he gave whatever was left of his mantlecore. You said mantlecore, right?”

  “Yes, he gave you his mantle, which is another way to say his mantlecore.”

  “Since he gave it to me, I’m allowed to live there and exist there.”

  “Right. Are you able to modify it freely?”

  Lucian nodded. “Easily.”

  “So, if a piece of him is there, and you’re currently living there, perhaps you need to start there,” she said as she brought her tea to her lips.

  “Start there? I searched his room and his library, nothing.”

  “No, not just there, the entire place. Search every part of it. See how far it goes, how big the space is. Did he leave anything behind?”

  “Actually, he left a cat named Ezra.”

  “Maybe you should ask the cat where to find him. The cat may know. That doesn’t mean it will tell you, but it’s a start.”

  “I’ll do that,” Lucian said. “I’d like to find him.”

  “But if you are able to, and they come, call me. I will…”

  “You don’t have to,” he said softly.

  “You didn’t let me finish. I will clear the air—let’s just keep it at that. I was there at the South Wind; I saw firsthand what happened. Perhaps my testimony will persuade them to leave you alone.”

  “I hope it doesn’t have to come to that,” Lucian said.

  Part of him wanted to go toe-to-toe with any of his adversaries, especially Gaspard, but he also knew that stirring up trouble with the Council of Death may not work out in his favor.