Chapter 10: The headless Statue

"Are you Shoma Mizayaki from Yamato( Japan's old name)?" an old man wearing a butler outfit fetches Shoma at the airport of Italia (an old name of Italy based on the Ryōshi organization)

"Yes, sir," Shoma answered, bowing to the old man.

"Come inside, Sir. I am the one my master had been assigned to show you the archeological Herculaneum," the old man said before opening the door for Shoma. "I was instructed to take you to Naples, where the statue you have requested can be found, although it is currently under sealing. My master is waiting there, Sir."

It took two hours before Shoma reached the ancient Herculaneum, which had been wiped out from the face of the planet because of the massive explosion of one of the three supervolcanoes found there two thousand years ago. It said that the eruption annihilated three cities during that time, and one of them was Herculaneum.

"Greetings, Madam," Shoma bowed to the elderly woman waiting for him under a tent with food that had already been prepared.

Madam Arguela Antonita, the current headmaster of Castiel Clan, a clan belonging to the exorcist department, is the elderly woman waiting for Shoma.

And Shoma's part was her youngest son when they were still both studying at Ryōshi High. During their first mission, when both of them were still second-year students, Shioma and Ray fought with a grade A Dybbuk. Ray sacrificed himself along with the dybbuk so Shoma could seal it. Since then, Shoma would visit Arguela to check on her health for Ray.

Ray was Arguela's most beloved son since he was the heir to the clan and the strongest next to her. As a parent, she mourned when her son's body returned inside a sealed Jar that Shoma brought to her. He witnessed how a mother cried over her son's death, but there was nothing he could do but comfort her.

The thing about a Ryōshi is that when you die, you'll die without regret.

"Oh, my dear Shoma, welcome, welcome, child. It has been a year since you last visited me. And also, do not call me Madam. Call me Mama since you and my daughter are engaged," she said, smiling at him.

"Err about that, Mad- I mean Mama. Where is Clara? It has been five years since the last time I saw her, and she was still fourteen," he said.

"Oh, she's at Terra Australis (Antarctica) for her training. She still has one or two years before going home and inheriting the clan. By then, you two will be tying the knot," the old lady answered him.

"Oh damn," Shoma told himself.

"I see," he said and started to regret what he had said. He has no choice but to tell Clara back then that he will marry her if she comes out of her room after learning that her favorite brother is dead.

"You plan on not coming here until this day, aren't you?"

"I was busy, I guess," he answered her before taking his seat in front of her.

"Ah, becoming a teacher must be a pain in the ass," Arguela said.

"A little bit, especially; I had this special student from the Rodriguez clan," he said.

"Oh? I thought Setsuwi's line declined when his daughter was killed," she said.

"That was what I thought, but Minami has been hiding him, and I only came to know when she told me about him before she died," Shoma said.

"And did you find potential in him?"

Shoma took a deep breath.

"I did find something else," he said.

"What do you mean?" the old lady said, confused.

"I sensed something within him. It is akin to dybbuk and Keirei, but the boy is unaware. When I found him the next day near his house, he was sleeping out of a cold, and then piles of exploded flesh from a potential Goryo scattered all over. A shaman can't do that," he said.

"You're saying that he might be an exorcist?"

"I'm not sure either. I have his mother searched, and the report was leading me to this place exactly at that statue whom she excavated sixteen years ago," he said, pointing at the headless statue.

Arguela stood up.

"Come and touch it," she said.

Shoma stood up and walked closer to the statue, and the old lady followed suit.

Shoma saw letters written underneath the statue that he couldn't understand.

"Standing here is the once loyal warrior to the kingdom of Herculaneum and Pompeii."

"That is what the writing means. It was written in Hercules' writings that didn't exist anymore. Luckily for us, we found some ancient writings about something disturbing about this ancient city, and I suspected the documents had been put away before the massive destruction of the city," she said. "Touch the statue, son," she added.

Shoma obliged. He saw nothing special about the statue until his fingertips touched it.

Die! Die! Die!

Those words met him, and suddenly he was sucked into a place where black and red space and almost a Realm. The place reeked of hatred and vengeance, hate and every emotion are negative. He felt like this place was home or something since all he could see were the remnants of something that might have lived there. The negative energy is strong enough to hurt him, thanks to Arguela. She pulled him out of place and removed his hands from the statue.

"If I didn't pull you away from the space, the remnants would drive you mad," she said.

"This isn't just an ordinary statue," Shoma told her.

"I know. This statue has been cursed for thousands of years, and someone has been locked up here, and I suspect that whoever the statue was, is the one who might have been living inside," she said.

"Was it a diablo?"

"I'm not sure since we never saw a real one before. But if I am correct and because of the strong remnants, it might be one."

Shoma finally realized what Minami was trying to say to him. She told him his younger brother had potential though he didn't believe it. It dies to make sense now that Shoma found this statue. His mother might have been accidentally touched the statue, and she freed it.

"But the question is, who it was, and why did it become a ball of immersed negative energy," Shoma asked her.

"There is some information I read about in the old document about this statue, and according to the writings below, this statue's owner was a warrior. The clue made me think that the one described on the documents must be this statue," she said.

"Who is it?"