Utopia Hunter

Shito stood in the lobby of the dorm, as promised. He was leaning against the wall, his arms folded, glowering at a scuff mark on the worn floor. The dorm was old and badly-maintained, most of the windows boarded up or simply cracked. The corners were thick with cobwebs, and there was a crack in the floorboards that let daylight right into the basement.

The grounds outside were no better maintained. There was an honest-to-god cemetery in the back, and the grounds were overrun with weeds. There were only five students living in the dormitory, though, and most of them were zombies.

At the swirl of colour, Shito looked up tensely. "You're that guy's friend?" he asked Karakael, realizing now that they hadn't even gotten his name. Where were they even going, and what was going to happen if he betrayed them?

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Chika was in a pose that almost mirrored Shito's, waiting tensely for whatever the hell was going to happen. He'd world-hopped a few times now, but he still wasn't quite used to the idea or the process. It didn't help that every single time it had been a different method.

He looked up as well when the stranger appeared, scowling. He was more than a little nervous about going to a place where they apparently programmed zombies as a matter of course, but he wasn't about to let that nervousness show.

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"I take it you are the boys I am supposed to transport?" The former Inquestor smiled tersely, deepening the lines and scars in his face.

These 'Zombies' looked like normal children to him, but then again, it was amazing what a skilled technician could coax out of unliving flesh. He himself was a testament to that fact; a revived body that had been given life again through the 'magic' of the Darkling Wind.

He nodded to both of them, then gestured to the portal behind him. "If you would follow me, please."

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Boy, this guy really did look like a freak, didn't he? Shito levered himself up from the wall and stepped forward boldly. "Yeah, sure. We're following."

They really did look normal and alive. In fact, no one at their school suspected that they were undead zombies. It would take a close inspection to realize that their hearts didn't beat. Not to mention that their right hands were removable, but that was a bit of an aberration that they hopefully wouldn't have to demonstrate today.

And only a psychic of the right kind would see the black ring like a tattoo around both of their necks, showing that they were marked by death.

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Chika moved into place just behind and to one side of Shito, so they'd both be able to see where they were going and what might be coming at them. The one - and almost only - time the two of them got along without effort was when they were working, heading into a battle.

Actually, that wasn't true. They were still usually arguing at the top of their lungs as they battled. In this case, however, they were of one mind on the matter. Neither of them liked the idea of zombies being enslaved and forced to serve uncaring masters, especially not if the souls were still there.

"Just don't try anything funny," he said, trying to sound tough. He mostly just managed to sound like a teenage delinquent trying to bully a kid out of his lunch money.

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Karakael was no psychic, though he was versed enough to detect (after some searching and observation) that they had no pulse. Unlike Elloran, he was wise enough not to complement their creator.

"You have my word I will not 'try anything funny'." He responded with another slight smile. Karakael was quite used to dealing with foolish children and arrogant youths. His own child soldiers would have laughed at Chika's attempt to intimidate him.

"I suppose I should apologize for my friend. He has yet to adjust to the community, and still forgets that in other worlds magic and souls are more than mere philosophical concepts."

He spoke as he lead the way through the vortex of colors, carefully navigating his way back in time.

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Shito frowned at this statement, squinting to try to see through the vortex of colour, trying to watch where they were going and detect any danger before it arrived.

"This isn't magic?" he asked, keeping his opinion of El to himself for now. Not that he hadn't already made himself pretty clear.

He thought El was a moron, and probably evil. When it came to certain things - mainly the issue of slavery - Shito had very personal reasons for his immovable opinions.

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Chika was a bit less set in stone about the issue than Shito. For him it was only the thought that someone might be able to control him that made him frightened - and therefore angry. He had no personal experience of it already to goad him on.

That didn't mean he was being reasonable about the issue, however. "I still think it's gross to be using the bodies of dead people as your slaves, soul or no soul," he growled. "And we don't use magic." Though he was uncomfortably aware that he had no reasonable explanation for his own existence other than 'the gods did it', which could certainly be interpreted as magic. But still! Chika was a modern Japanese boy, he didn't believe in things like magic.

Souls were different, that was all.

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Karakael himself had reasons to dislike slavery. Yet he was aware that it, along with many common habits of humanity, were almost impossible to escape. Though he could make rather biting comments about Shito and Chika's own situation being quite close to slavery. Then again...they had not irritated him as much as they had Elloran with their innocence.

"No, this is not magic. We are now passing through the Overcosm, which is a dimension apart from the normal existence in my galaxy. The darkness you see encroaching around you is the past, and the galaxies memories of it. To travel through memories of the past and dreams of the future merely takes training and a different perspective on the world. It is not 'magic' in the traditional sense."

"A body is a tool of the soul, correct? When it no longer possesses a soul, it merely becomes a tool."

"Then what is it that gave you your soul back? A soul is an immaterial thing, impossible to control by human standards. Yet you both have one. Was it thanks to magic? Or something else?"

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"We signed a contract with the Ferryman," Shito said, shrugging. "We work for him, sending illegal zombies on to the afterlife, and he pays us for our work. When we pay off the loan on our soul, we'll be alive again and able to move on with our lives."

He looked around with more interest now, trying to make some sense of the chaos. Could one see memories if you looked into these colours? Maybe only Karakael could make sense of it.

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"It might not have a soul any more, but it's still... it's just... it's not right!" Chika said, struggling for words to explain a concept that seemed fundamental to him. "It was a person, someone who was alive, someone other people cared about. People who might've been left behind when that person died, and now have to know that their loved one got chopped up into pieces to make mindless servants out of!"

The thought of his precious little sister dying was horrible enough, though he'd had more than a few nightmares about it since dying himself. But the idea that someone might callously take her body and use it that was was revolting. He couldn't imagine how the people of that world could stand it.

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"Hmm. We have no afterlife in our universe, and what ever gods we once had are long gone. There is no 'Ferryman' in our universe. Magic, gods, and other such things simply do not exist."

If one unfocused ones mind and knew enough history it could be possible to guess at the events that whirled and twisted around them. Yet here in the place where the future and past mixed nothing was for certain. Even the inhabitants of this beautiful vortex could not say what could happen and could not. None can understand a mind as large as a galaxy, and few could even comprehend the workings of the sixth dimensional being they traveled through. There were those who had gone mad staring at the songs of the Overcosm.

Karakael turned to the other young man.

"So it would be acceptable if those left behind were the ones that sold the body to the Necro-Factories?" A pause. "My parents once tried to kill me for that very reason. I was worth more to them dead than alive." Another pause.

"Not everyone lives idyllic lives in worlds without strife or conflict. You may judge my galaxy as harshly as you please, but until you have lived in a world where hunger and pain are the only options, or have attempted to fix such a world only to fail and fail again, or have tried to shoulder all of humanities burdens, I highly doubt you have any right to shove your innocent morality down upon us."

Karakael spoke matter-of-factly, as if he had this conversation on a regular basis. Which was quite true. One became rather irritated after so many judged his galaxy to be so evil, and yet were blind to their own universes faults.

"You may consider Ton Elloran evil, but remember that he is the only Inquestor innocent enough to even listen to your words. You would do well to remember that what is true in your world is not necessarily true on ours. Nor will it be true on many of the several billion planets in the Dispersal of Man. It is far easier to be righteously outraged when one is not shackled with the burden of Compassion necessary to govern a galaxy as large as this one."

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Shito really wasn't interested in getting lectured, though he thought it sounded like this universe was a pretty awful place to live.

"We're not innocent," he snarled. "And I'm the last person to say that our world is a perfect and shining place of goodness and light. But just because a place is shitty and horrible doesn't mean you just accept that as all there is and decide that it's good enough. You fight, you fight and fight until you either win or die."

He snorted. "And frankly, I don't give a shit how horrible your world is, or how filled with pain and sadness every person there is, or how else you justify slavery. I just want to know if those zombies are really lumps of meat like you believe, because you could be wrong."

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"Wha... no that doesn't make it better, that makes it worse!" Chika exclaimed in answer to Karakael's question. "Fuck, people don't need more incentives to turn on each other or be shitty to their kids!" As much as he resented his dad sometimes, he knew he had it pretty good in the parent department. That didn't mean he was unaware of how many shitty parents there were.

"Look, this Elloran guy said you could make robots if you wanted to, that would do the same thing," he said, struggling to be realistic. He knew that there were things other people considered 'right' and 'moral' that were disgusting to him but not necessarily evil. But slavery wasn't one of them, and as far as he was concerned, neither was chopping up freshly dead people to make servants out of them. "If you did that, then people wouldn't have any reason to sell their kids for parts, right? So wouldn't that be better?"

He glanced sideways at Shito, a little startled by his partner's vehemence. Shito was usually the pessimistic one of the two of them, not the one declaring that you 'fight until you either win or die'.

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The Inquest was an interesting place to live, but Karakael would never say it was pleasant...unless you were one of the few on the top. It was a galaxy where humanity reigned supreme, and there were amazing wonders and beauty that came out of it, just as there was horrors and suffering.

"Have you striven for a millenium to fix the problems of the galaxy? Or to attempt to save as many as possible despite the ever present guilt of being unable to save all? Or will you be done when you complete your contract, ready to go back to the gray world and fight no more because the problems that the 'real' world faces are impossible to fix with bullets or violence?"

"I am not wrong." The Inquestor replies with absolute, justified, certainty. "But I will give you the chance to prove it to yourself, as Elloran wishes."

"Then what would you have us do, child? Deny people the right to do what ever they can to survive? My death would have allowed ten people the ability to survive. Would you prefer us to destroy worlds and restructure societies simply because they allow the practice of slavery? There are a million worlds where such an occupation protects the poor from worse forms of work. There are a million others where it is just as evil as you say it is. A million where it is illegal and shunned. And tens of millions of variations in between.

Were we to stop manufacturing servo-corpses five worlds would loose the only thing that gives its people a job. Seventy billion people would die if we were to create robots to do the job that a dead body would do. Would that be more preferable to you than the possibility that one child among a million might die?"

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Shito hesitated. The numbers were overwhelming, too large for him to think about. Not really. His convictions were personal, and his world small in comparison to this. Did Karakael really rule an entire galaxy with so many worlds?

He didn't really have an answer, except to shrug. "Okay, so the world is complicated, and it sucks. The fact that lots of people do it, and you can't stop them, doesn't make it right. All I really care about is myself, anyway."

He glanced at Karakael. "And if you're just going to whine about how hard it is to rule the galaxy, maybe you should give it up and let someone else do it."

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Chika wasn't having any easier time of comprehending the numbers. His world-view was even smaller than Shito's, and he had a great deal less experience than his partner, though he didn't know it. He shook his head and growled. "Yeah, like he said," was the best answer he could come up with. "Saying 'it's a big problem and there's nothing I can do' is just a cop-out. At least we're trying to make a difference. We might be wrong, but we're trying."

It was true that he had every intention of returning to his old life when his contract was up and he'd paid off his loan. That was the whole reason he was doing this, after all. But would he be able to pretend that nothing had changed, to ignore the existence of all the things he'd learned about, like evil people-eating zombies?

Probably not. But he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now he had a different bridge to deal with.

Edited Date: 2009-11-02 12:59 am (UTC)

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"Some of us do not have the luxury to be selfish. Yet the sacrifice that we make allows people like you to think such a way...and it is a worthwhile sacrifice to make."

Karakael laughed. "I tried to escape my duties once. But it seems I still have much to atone for. But perhaps you should ask Elloran what his reasons for remaining an Inquestor are. He truly has a choice."

"I commend your efforts. It is important to try. In this galaxy our attempts at 'trying' is the never ending search for a Utopia. Perhaps if we find one we Inquestors will change our views on the inevitability of the world." He lied easily, knowing for a fact that humanity destroyed the only Utopia within its grasp. But that was another story for another day.

"We are here." A portal opened in the color to reveal a solid patio and a young man waiting on it for their arrival.

"I enjoyed our conversation. Please, give my regards to your host."

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Shito rolled his eyes. There was pretty much nothing more pathetic than someone with godlike power and domination over the whole universe complaining about how difficult his job was.

"I'm sorry you had to sacrifice so much that you're only master of the whole entire universe," he grumbled, mostly under his breath. "Poor you."

He stalked towards the portal with a contemptuous snort. Akatsuki would have to take care of the pleasantries, if he were so inclined.

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Chika rolled his eyes, but he wasn't sure if it was from amusement at Shito's snark, or just agreement. "Good luck with that saving the universe thing," he said over his shoulder as he followed his partner out.

As they stepped out of the portal he looked around, curious. Whatever this place was, it was sure to be even less like Tokyo than anywhere else the two of them had yet visited.

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Karakael laughed again as he faded from view. Shito was quite wrong if he believed the Inquestor had any intention of saving the universe. It was far more interesting just to observe it. "Thank you. When you need transport back, simply request it on the community."

But before he was completely gone he glanced back at his past, the spires and tunnels of the endless Inquestoral Uran S'Varek. It certainly was a sight to behold.

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Shito looked around warily as the portal vanished, walking towards the man who was waiting for him. He felt strange and out of place in a t-shirt and jeans, in this otherworldly place, but he was determined not to let it show how nervous he was.

As was usual for the young zombie when he was nervous, he reacted by looking angry.

He stalked up to his host and folded his arms, looking him up and down as if he were finding him wanting. "I never got your name. I'm Tachibana Shito. I assume you're the one we're supposed to meet."

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Elloran turned towards the portal, smiling slightly. He had been looking out across his gardens when the two Zombies had arrived.

"Welcome to Uran S'Varek, the seat of the the High Inquest. I am Ton Elloran n’Taanyel Tath. It is a pleasure to meet you." He bowed slightly, looking completely at home in the strange world and crazy palace he inhabited.

Uran S'Varek had a green sky and no horizons. His palace was a riot of crystal spires and gravity defying bridges, all colored in pastel stripes and waves. There was a constant chorus of sound around their host, and his cloak moved and twitched in time with the quiet beat.

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Chika was a little distracted by staring at the bizarre landscape around them. Only belatedly did he remember to introduce himself. "Akatsuki Chika," he said, still staring at the non-existant horizon. He really hoped he didn't need to say the guy's name at any point. Not as tongue-bending as some American names he'd encountered, but bad enough. And long. He was pretty sure he'd only be able to mangle the name of the place.

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Shito felt the same way after he finished introducing himself. Ton it was, then. Or something.

This place was really weird, too. He struggled to keep his eyes on Ton, rather than letting them wander to the weird landscape like Chika was.

He stepped on Chika's foot, deliberately, trying to get him to focus.

"Good to meet you, Ton," he said. "...Now what?"

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"Just Elloran, please." The Inquestor replied. "Ton is a title, much like your -san or -chan."

"I thought you might like to meet a few of my servants, as you seem so disturbed by the thought of the enslavement of my Servo-Corpses." He gestured to a wall where a door appeared at a sub-voiced command. "I was told not to take you by way of the displacement plates, as your world has nothing similar."

He nodded to a child guard on the opposite side of the terrace, and she crisply fired off a salute and fell instep behind them, scanning the potential threats to her master.

"I hope you do not mind the music. It is a new symphony Sen Sajit composed for me, and I must admit I have yet to have the time to listen to it. Is it not a wonderful piece?"

The Inquestor was far more courteous in person.

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"Ow, hey!" The step on his foot certainly got Chika to focus - on glaring at Shito, but it might have been a step in the right direction. It was certainly normal for them.

He opened his mouth to ask what a 'displacement plate' was, then closed it again and shook his head. He didn't even want to know. This place was hard enough to handle already. The guard made him pause and stare again, and he wondered if this was one of the so-called Servo-Corpses.

"It's, uh, very melodic," Chika said, trying to do the polite thing but not succeeding very well. He liked music well enough, but this was nothing like the rock and rap that he listened to.

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"Elloran, then," Shito said. He didn't bother to tell Elloran which of his names he'd prefer him to use. He obviously knew enough about Japanese to know about their suffixes, which mean he should be polite and use Tachibana. If he called him Shito, that would tell Shito something.

He started at the gunfire, whirling around to look at the child and then staring dumbfounded for a moment.

He ignored the bit about the music, pointing at the child. "How old is she?" he demanded. "Is this one of your servants, too?"

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The girl snapped her golden eyes off the surroundings and back to the two zombies. She gave Chika a contemptuous stare, and then transferred her eyes to Shito, where upon her irises slitted, ready to tear the zombie in two.

"Stand down, Sheta!" The Inquestor commanded. "They mean no harm. They are my guests."

"It is my duty to protect you, Hokh'Ton. Even from your 'guests'." She strode quickly to her masters side, and stood solidly between him and the zombies. "I am Sheta, child soldier for the High Inquest. You would do well to show the proper amount of respect before your superiors, boy."

A hand on her shoulder forced her to stop, and she glanced up at the Inquestor.

"Sheta is twelve years old. She is one of my most dedicated body guards. Does that answer your question?"

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"The fuck kind of world is this?" Chika muttered, eyes narrowed. "Little kids as bodyguards, jumping to kill someone who talks to you rudely? Cutting dead people up and using them as slaves... fuck, I'm glad I live in Tokyo, that's for sure."

The whole place was starting to creep him out. He wanted more than anything to check on one of the 'Servo-Corpses', make sure it didn't have a soul, and get the hell out of there again. At this point he really hoped that Elloran was right and they didn't have souls, because then he wouldn't have to stick around and do something about them.

They'd agreed not to switch their hands before leaving, in case violence only erupted later. They hadn't wanted to be screwed over if they'd already had their hands switched for an hour. Now Chika was starting to wish he had an easy way to defend himself, if little kids with guns were going to be jumping to kill him.

Though he honestly wasn't sure he could kill someone living. Especially a little kid.

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Shito knew he could kill someone living. He'd done it before.

But little kids were something else for him, too. He didn't know if he could kill a kid, either.

He glared at Elloran, then frowned at the child. "He's not my superior," he told the girl firmly. "And don't throw your life away for no reason. We're no threat to him."

Right now, he added silently.

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"Sheta duty is to protect me. Please do not fault her for her zealous nature."

"You're not an Inquestor." The girl responded. "There for you are inferior to Ton Elloran." A pause. "And it is my duty to throw my life away for him if necessary. I would happily sacrifice myself for him. Not that I would need to."

Sheta had absolutely no qualms about killing either of the two zombies, even if her actions would result in her own death for displeasing her master. (Though Elloran would never punish his servants in such a way.) Her loyalty was absolute, as was the loyalty of the hundreds of other soldiers that Elloran commanded.

Another door opened in front of them, and a young woman walked through, trailing a shambling creature that held a tray with various refreshments. The woman stopped before Elloran and bowed deeply.

"I am sorry to interrupt your Lordship, but I regret to inform you that Elsiketha has Fallen Beyond." Her voice dropped, and she whispered to the Inquestor, breaking only to offer the Zombies refreshments to be served by the corpse-creature.

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The idea of eating something that thing had carried was just plain gross. Chika ignored the whispered conversation, since it clearly had nothing to do with them, and studied the creature. It certainly resembled an illegal zombie in some ways.

Elloran had said that the creatures could be programmed to mimic any emotion, for plays if Chika understood him properly. Which meant he couldn't be sure that anyone on this world wasn't a zombie, but he could at least be sure this one was.

The problem was, he couldn't tell if it had a soul without killing it and trying to send the soul on. He wasn't Michiru, with her ability to see the black rings of death on people's necks. He wondered idly what she would make of this thing.

He glanced at Shito, a question clear in his eyes. Trade hands now and kill the thing while they weren't expecting it? Or wait?

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"I don't fault her," Shito said contemptuously, but then the woman and the zombie entered.

He also studied it, ignoring the whispered conversation, though he wondered what she meant about someone 'falling beyond'. Beyond what?

He met Chika's gaze, and nodded fractionally. Better to just do it, though he was a little nervous what the kid would do if he produced a gun and started shooting. Well, he'd cross that bridge if they came to it.

He pulled his right hand off and held it out to Chika quickly, trying to keep the movement subtle and fast. The stump was sheared cleanly off, and clearly showed muscle and bone, and there was no blood.

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"I am proud to serve -" But she silenced herself and fell back at the entrance of the dignitary.

Elloran's gaze flickered to his guests but he made no motion to stop them. Instead he signaled for another waiter to come and sub-voiced a request for the cleaning crews to be ready.

Both the woman and Sheta were distracted by the conversation and the Inquestor was able to maneuver them farther away from the potential danger scene.

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Chika could tell Elloran had at least some inkling of what they were up to, and he was grateful the guy was at least getting the women out of the way. He didn't really want to find out how that kid would react to having a gun pulled, either.

He pulled his hand off and traded with Shito, then flexed his fingers to make sure everything was attached properly. It always felt good to have his own hand back, and he wished they had longer than just an hour they could spend this way.

They'd done this hundreds, maybe even a thousand times now. Chika's sword materialized in his hand with no effort on his part, and he knew without looking that Shito's gun would be there, too. He positioned himself to guard Shito's back, in case the child guard decided they were a threat after all. It would be a lot less messy if Shito was the one who killed the corpse.

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Shito attached his hand onto his wrist also, the skin melding with only a small scar for a seam. A revolver emerged through his palm and he caught it in his left hand, pointing it at the servo-corpse. A chain ran from the gun to his right wrist, forming a circlet like a handcuff around the wrist.

Without a moment's hesitation, he cocked the gun and fired three times. At this range, he could scarcely miss, and the bullets hit the corpse in the head.

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The creature stumbled backwards, then collapsed with a sigh. 'Puppet with its strings cut' was Elloran could think of as the pitiful corpse twitched and then grew still.

The servant woman was standing open mouthed in shock at the sudden attack, while Sheta was grasped firmly by Elloran so she would not immediately attack. He had a hand in front of her eyes for the same reason, assuring that the lasers embedded in her eyes could would not react automatically at the threat.

"Shall I send for another, Tachibana, Akatsuki?" He asked, referring to each of them in turn as his vassal snapped her mouth shut and preformed a few hasty gestures to summon another waiter.

"Was the food not to their liking, my lord? If I have done something to displease your guests..."

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"It wasn't the food," Chika replied, rolling his eyes. Shito was done, so he stepped forward and pointed his sword at what was left of the rather pathetic body. He found himself hoping fervently that there wasn't a soul in it - both so they wouldn't have to take on this whole damned planet to free all the zombies, and also so there wouldn't have been someone trapped in there, suffering, all this time.

Being a zombie himself, Chika could think of few fates worse than to be aware and not in control of something like that.

Energy gathered around him and swirled around the blade, but failed to focus into the brilliant rings he was used to. He concentrated harder, but there was no change. "Nothing," he said with a sigh, stepping back and reabsorbing his sword. "If there's a soul there, I can't touch it. Shito, you wanna try?" Not that he thought his partner would have any better luck, but he wanted to be sure.

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Shito was content that if Chika had tried and no soul had emerged to be sent on to the afterlife, that there was probably no soul to send on. But since the offer had been made, he nodded and stepped over to the creature, raising the barrel of his gun to the sky.

Nothing, once again. He couldn't sense anything, either.

"It's just a hunk of dead meat," he said, glancing at Chika and then looking at their host. "Thanks for letting us check," he said, somewhat more politely than he had been thus far.

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"Of course. You left me no other options." The Inquestor sighed. "You may believe otherwise, but I cannot in good conscious allow millions to suffer when I have the ability to fix it."

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"Yeah... sorry about that," Chika said, not sounding - or feeling - very sorry, but knowing they'd probably overreacted just a touch. If it was possible to overreact to such a thing. "And sorry about the Corpse-Server or whatever." He did feel a little guilty about that. Gods alone knew what the things cost to make.

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Shito frowned down at the creature - no, the robot made of meat. He prodded it thoughtfully with his foot, then crouched down and began to examine it in more detail.

It was mostly out of curiosity now. Were the things warm to the touch, or cold like a zombie?

"It's good that you care," he said carelessly, somewhat surprised by Elloran's words. "If it had had a soul, would you really have done something about it?"

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