Chapter Seventeen

XXX

"Death is such a whore, coming for us all."

--Zell Sankovich

"I'm pretty sure the afterlife is a genital-free zone...."

--Inspector Nishimoto

Amma bustled about town, looking like she'd walked straight out of a 1940s movie. Her black hair was sprayed into tightly flipped curls, and she wore a loose black suit with shoulder-pads. Her feathery black hat was cocked on one half of her head like a piece of art, and she wore chunky black high heels. Professor Solstice, on the other hand, dressed simpler-- in brown square sunglasses, an aqua T-shirt, long cargo shorts, and white sneakers.

So far everything was going well— or Amma told herself it was. She'd attempted to chat with Tamako, the pretty receptionist at the police station. ("It's always important to know where your protectors are," Amma reasoned.) But given Amma's rudimentary knowledge of Japanese, Tamako's mouth twisted in confusion. When a middle-aged, bespectacled cop walked in, she tried introducing herself, and he smiled, greeting her as "the honorable Inspector Nishimoto" in passable English. A younger, slimmer cop entered, introducing himself as "the dishonorable Officer Yagami." But apparently, there was no time to chat, as they were (the Professor translated) solving the mysterious death of a very important woman.

"Princess Achara has died," Inspector Nishimoto informed the Professor, "From drinking poisonous tea. The public is divided over whether it was suicide or murder."

"But we're investigating it as a murder," Officer Yagami cut in, raising a thin eyebrow, "It just seems...so strange."

"I see."

"If anything, you might want to investigate that Prince," Professor Solstice said.

"We have," Inspector Nishimoto replied, "But there's no evidence to convict him. We can't act on suspicion alone."

"After all, some people think Achara killed herself because it was such a stressful time for her-- marrying the Prince, and singing that Linguini opera and all...."

Nishimoto sighed and adjusted his square glasses.

"Daiki," he spat, causing the young man to jump.

The younger man looked away, his thin cheeks blushing dark-red. Did he not like his first name-- or did this mean the older man was serious?

"I'm glad you're interested, sir," Yagami told the Professor, "But please...let us handle this."

"O-Of course. Good luck."

As they walked away, Amma attempted to lighten the mood.

"The local food is sugoi," she told Rudy, carrying him in his cage, "I don't think I should risk feeding it to parrots, though."

"Sugoi, sugoi!" Rudy screeched, flapping his wings up and down, "Sugoi, sugoi, sugooooi!"

"Will you tell him to pipe down?!" grunted Professor Solstice.

"But, honey, what if he sees Pearl? That could be our code word."

The old Professor opened a map, almost entirely obscuring his corpulent body.

"Parrots don't understand the concept of codes. In fact, I don't think most humans do."

"I could crack a few codes in my day."

They looked up at the deep, familiar voice. Towering over them was a large, handsome white man, with muscles, paunch, and dark chest hair.

"Zell!" cried the Professor, "My goodness!"

"Small town, isn't it?" laughed Zell, adjusting his jeans, "But not small enough; I still haven't found Pearl."

"You didn't look hard enough," snapped Professor Solstice, "Where were you expecting to find her anyway?"

Zell twisted his mouth and knit his brow, a curious, almost boyish expression.

"Well...the Palace, of course. But I don't want to get too much into that."

"You have to, dear," Amma bubbled, fanning herself, "Pearl's our baby."

Zell exhaled deeply and shook his head.

"Damn! I don't want to get into that, I told you!"

"I guess we won't force the issue then," groaned the Professor, "For now, at least."

"There's an inn in town," Amma pointed out, studying the map, "Owned by this sweet old couple, the Takayasus. You think Pearl ended up there?"

"Safe and sound already?" The Professor's brows shot up. "It sounds too simple to be true."

Zell laughed and his whole body shook-- the laugh of a gentle giant.

"Ah, Amma, you remember that murder mystery party!" he cried, grabbing her shoulder, "It's never the most obvious solution!"

"Of course not!" she chuckled.

The Professor lifted his sunglasses-- revealing straight, heavy brows.

"What murder mystery party, Amma, Zell?"

"I met Zell before you, remember?" Amma said, "We played games together."

Professor Solstice glared at his brother.

"What kind of games?"

"Oh you know, little detective games. We went to those mystery parties in fedoras. I called him Dick Tracy, and he used to call me Deepthroat."

Zell choked on his water and began coughing violently.

"You want to pull yourself together?!" demanded Professor Solstice.

"Ohh, yeah. Sorry!"

"Well, he looked in the most logical place— the Palace," sighed Amma, returning to the subject, "We can't fault you for trying, Zell."

"Of course not. Now, between the three of us, we ought to split up. That's the best way, I think."

"What about Rudy?" Amma asked.

"He can stay with you-- kind of like an...alert system."

"Good. I can't leave him alone or he goes ballistic."

Zell nodded, then leaned toward the map.

"Where did you say the inn was again?"

Amma ran her finger along the path, carefully translating each word with an app on her phone.

"Hmmm...diagonal from here, uphill. About that way."

She pointed in the direction she was talking about. The men followed her finger, and sure enough, there was a tall, brown, traditional-looking building.

"Maman should be there, too," she continued, bobbing her head, "And Hajime. Come on; let's go."

"Let's go!" cried Rudy, "Let's go!"

Professor Solstice lifted a hand.

"Wait! What if she's checked out-- in a different inn?"

"Don't be silly," chuckled Zell, "Where else would she be? Feeding koi with the prime minister? That reminds me, I gotta show her my impression of Marlon Brando feeding koi…."

The Professor scratched his sagging jowls, unsure of how to respond.

"I'm sorry...It's just that lately my mind's been going in fifty different directions."

"Whose wouldn't?" Amma asked, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, "It's enough to make me go insane. I keep thinking Pearl's kidnapped or dead!"

"Dead!" squealed Rudy, "Dead! Dead!"

"Shut up!" Zell shouted, getting his face very close to the cage.

"Shut up!" Rudy repeated, "Shut up!"

"I wouldn't recommend telling him off," Amma suggested.

"You got that right," grunted Zell, "Okay, let's go."

As the trio trudged uphill, a strange figure emerged from the trees. Amma put on her cat-eye glasses for a closer look. It was a muscular young man, wearing a loose black sweater over tight navy-blue pants. His feet were bare enough to reveal sharp toenails and translucent skin stretched across sharp bones. Though she could see the oily, pale flesh of his neck and chin, most of his face was obscured by a short, dark-gray veil. She froze, then glanced at her husband and brother-in-law. They shrugged. This clearly didn't look like a traditional Japanese outfit. Still, Amma walked closer.

"Moshi-moshi!" she greeted clumsily, flipping through her Japanese-language book.

"Moshi-moshi!" cried Rudy, "Moshi-moshi! Moshi-moshi!"

The figure stood stiffly-- neither waving nor speaking. Zell erupted into a peal of loud, jagged laughter.

"That greeting's only for the phone, ya Stooge!" he snorted.

"Oh, right!" Amma chuckled. Zell laughed along with her.

"My wife's no Stooge," snapped the Professor, "She's just learning, that's all."

"You wouldn't say that if she wasn't your wife," Zell spat.

The Professor swelled with rage, until spit bubbled in the corners of his lips. But before he could speak, he turned his attention to Amma.

"Konnichiwa," she told the figure.

"Amma-San," the figure hissed, revealing a low male voice, before speaking English, "How dare you come between us! Pearl wants nothing to do with her old dumb mama!"

Amma's eyes bulged, and her chin nearly hit her chest. Professor Solstice folded his beefy arms.

"How dare you speak to my wife like that!" he shouted, dark color rising in his cheeks, "And about my daughter...arrrrgh!"

The figure shuffled close to the angry Professor and tapped a long finger to his opponent's shoulder. Professor Solstice's face petrified with fear as the figure absorbed a long, thin, white beam of light from the man's shoulder. The light vanished, softly embedded within the man's finger. Professor Solstice tumbled backward, landing flat on his back. Zell and Amma rushed over to him with racing hearts.

"Honey!" Amma cried, running her hand over his forehead, "You feel so...so...!"

The Professor's full lips parted, but he didn't speak-- he couldn't. His flesh was wrinkling at an unnatural rate-- until his once-full face withered into an unrecognizable mass of tightly-drawn skin and hard bone. He lifted his hand and they gasped-- it was nothing more than ivory curled bone peppered with bits of skin.

"O-Oh my God....!" gasped Zell, slapping a hand over his mouth.

Amma's blood ran cold. She couldn't bear seeing her once-big, cuddly husband withering before her eyes. His eyelids shrank back, revealing glittery brown orbs of eyes that would never sleep again. She looked toward the hill, but the figure was gone.

"Cap," she said, shaking her husband, "Cap, honey, can you hear me?"

No movement. She felt for his heartbeat...but nothing. Amma felt tears sting her eyes.

"Amma," Zell spoke, his arms trembling, "C-Can you save him?"

Amma froze. Most witches and humans with elf blood can't bring back the dead, but she hadn't the time or feeling to explain that.

"Wh-What am I going to do," she sniffled, wiping her eyes with her sleeve, "I've lost...everyone!"

Zell wrapped his big, strong arms around her. His shoulder was soaked in her tears; and he cried himself. He knew how close Amma had been to Cap, and though he hadn't seen his brother in ages-- his heart broke at the fact that he would never see him again.

When Amma finally pulled away, she buried her face in her hands and repeated,

"Wh-What am I going to do? I've lost...everyone!"

Zell ran a big, warm hand over hers. She watched with wide, red-rimmed eyes as his own brown, pink-tinted eyes gleamed with a faint inner fire.

"Keep going. All we can do is keep going, until we find them."