Utopia Hunter

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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