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Writing Prompt #12 - Busted! - (4/26 - 5/8/17)

Custodian

Member
Admin
Who wants to waste time on spring cleaning, anyway? ;) Let's do something more exciting!

BUSTED!
Uh oh! It seems that a mundie* has walked in on your character conducting some secret world-y business. What happens next?


* Mundie: A person who is not initiated / aware of the secret world.

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Kuro-Hebi

The Black Snake
Bug Catcher


2017.06.03 - Selective execution (Busted!)
Uh oh! A civilian walks in on your character conducting some secret world-y business. What happens next?

The moon was slowly rising over Yan'an, a prefecture-level city of the Shaanxi province which had been in the heart of many human conflicts, once the headquarters of the Chinese Communists and then completely razed in WWII by the Japanese bombing. As such, the city was a great magnet for those spirits who had a taste for humanity's darkest emotions.

Katsuro was often sent there, among other cities with a tragic history, to purify certain locations. But sometimes it was detected too late, and a malign spirit would already have claimed the spot. They were usually easy to exorcise but, once in a while, he'd be up against a tougher opponent. He always knew in advance though. The stronger the spirit, the more likely it would be felt, or even seen, by regular civilians. That's how some would end up in the newspaper, or that a place would earn a reputation of being haunted. When this was the case, Katsuro had to tread carefully as to not attract attention upon himself. Though his katana was inscribed with a variation of a quantum observer algorithm that rendered it unnoticeable to those not of the Secret World, using it in public would temporarily break the effect.

Thus he waited for the sun to begin its descent before making his way toward the Yan'an University grounds. The campus was mostly quiet but for a few people gathered here and there; they were easy to avoid. He knew he was getting close when his '6th sense' picked up spiritual energy in the vicinity. He was now standing in the campus square, that modern sculpture in its center sending long shadows over the stone pavement. Katsuro's crimson gaze scanned the area and, satisfied that no one was around, he began placing talismans in specific locations. Once everything was in place, he took a seat at the base of the sculpture and began chanting a mantra of light in Japanese, his voice deep and steady. Slowly the sky turned to dusk, painting the world in bright orange hues, every object sending a long purple shadow across the ground, like spectral claws trying to get a hold of the last specks of light.

His eyes closed and still chanting, Katsuro's right hand came to rest on his katana's handle... There was something in those shadows, gathering in a single point. He knew what was coming as he'd fought many of those things in Kaidan. Like the vengeful Onryo he knew so well, full of pain, confusion and denial, victims of fate lashing at the living. As the shadows gathered and grew, the Asian man didn't stop chanting but shifted his stance to be ready to strike. As soon as the first distorted visage took form within the mass of darkness, his blade traced an arc of silver towards it. The last rays of sunlight dipped beyond the horizon and the spectre wailed in agony. Katsuro didn't give it time to react, his sacred blade slicing through the ethereal form relentlessly. Only when the spirit gave its final cry did he sheathed his katana. A black gloved hand fetched a small pouch in his coat and from it, sprinkled a handful of white sand toward what was left of the spirit. There was a brief flash of pure white light before all trace of spiritual energy disappeared.

Katsuro was about to leave when he noticed something at the corner of his eye. He turned sharply and dashed toward the figure... and a brief curse escaped his lips. There wasn't just one but rather three people there. The one who'd first caught his attention was a young man with a camera in his hands, the kind a professional journalist would carry around. The other two were a young couple, a bit farther from the campus square, but with the same shocked expression as the photographer; they had most likely all been witness to the exorcism. With a heavy sigh, Katsuro bowed to the man who was gripping his camera so tightly his knuckles had turned as white as his face.

"I'm sorry. May the Kami grant you peace and a chance to reincarnate as a higher being." Katsuro addressed the man, who simply stared at him with an air of utter confusion. And that was the last thing he saw, a glint of light on a naked blade and those crimson eyes, filled with neither remorse nor hatred.

The body of the photographer hit the cold stones of the campus square with a dull thud as a pool of blood formed around it. His camera lay by his side, a perfectly aimed hit from the blade having sliced through both the device and the memory card nested inside. As for the two other bystanders, they had lost both their voice and the strength to even run the hell away. They kept staring, blank faced, at the killer before them. But Katsuro had, surprisingly, no interest in them. He slowly sheathed his blade again and, using his powers to summon the winds, he dashed out of the University grounds and into the night.

By the next morning, the first thing on the news was the murder of an university student by an unknown assailant. Police warned every citizen to be vigilant and an investigation was opened. But, as days went by, then weeks and months, no clues could be found, no leads and certainly no more assassinations. The story died, forgotten even by the masses. The fact that a man had stood there on that night to exorcise a vengeful spirit was never printed in any paper nor uttered on any news channel. Maybe in a forgotten pile of police files, a line would mention a young couple talking nonsense, visibly traumatized by the murder they witnessed. But that's just supposition....
 
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