Attention Freeze

Roko left early the next morning. He had bought some supplies from the inn to take with him as the general direction of "northeast" was not exactly clear on this supposed farm's location. Roko anticipated a long search for this farm. He speculated that the villagers might know where the farm is but he doubted they would just tell him. So with snowshoes in hand, Roko began trudging over the only slightly thinner snow. Roko's best bet for finding this farm would be to go deep into the eastern side of the woods, until he could barely see the edge of the road and make his way outwards until he felt like he's traveled far enough to head deeper into the woods and sweep backwards towards the village until he ran into something. He followed this plan, walking close to the edge of the road for a long time until he heard the rushing of water. Recalling that Kaguya had said there was a river near here, Roko rushed over to see an icy river flowing down the forest. People would naturally build settlements near sources of water so Roko decided to follow the river deeper into the forest in hopes of finding this farm. It wasn't long until he happened upon a clearing in the distance and soon afterwards, the burnt ruins of a farm.

The journal had called it small but even a small farm was pretty big. The clearing Roko had entered from was probably meant for farm animals to graze upon behind the destroyed home. While to the side was a garden, though the only way you would tell is by the untended crops left to tend to themselves after this farm's destruction. As for the home, or what's left of it, Roko could tell the general structure and surmise the purpose of the few rooms that this home used to have. Though it would have been a rather large home for a single person to live in. Roko guessed that at least two people must have lived here. And from what he could tell, a huge fight must have broken out.

Aged, dried blood splatters could still be seen in the floors of the burnt down home. More blood splatters could be seen in the grounds of the farm, littered all over the premise, telling a story of a very fierce fight. One wilder than any farmers could put up and with a group much larger than any farmers could defend against. There was something wrong with this scene. And Roko was starting to piece some of it together when,

"So this was where you went."

Roko turned around as Kaguya and Mikado joined him at the morbid ruins.

"When I heard you went to look for a farm, I had hoped you weren't talking about this one." Kaguya sighed as he looked over the charred remains with a sad look in her eyes.

"You know about this farm then?" Roko asked.

"Yes." Kaguya closed her eyes, "This was our farm."

Roko paused, only barely surprised by the news and more shocked by Kaguya's ready admission.

"Ours?" he asked, "So this was your family's farm, Kaguya? You weren't a princess originally?"

"Not my family's, no." Kaguya shook her head as she smiled, "I've always been a princess. One of noble birth."

"Then who do you mean when you say, 'ours'?"

"Why me and Mikado of course." Kaguya turned to her loyal knight who bowed solemnly, "Mikado and I built this farm."

"You two?" Roko said, "Why?"

"...As I said, I was always a princess. And I mean that quite literally. I was the daughter of who was once the king. I had a mother, the queen, and a few siblings to join me in the castle. But being at the center of power meant you were also at the center of attention for this insurgent country. I was barely ten when the rebels came storming into our castle and killed...every member of my family."

Roko gulped. Kaguya's voice remained steady and calm while telling this traumatic story, though she kept her view down, hiding her face and any emotions that could creep onto it.

"Father. Mother. My sister and brother. All of them were slaughtered along with the soldiers who tried to defend us. I was too young to understand what was happening but they told me that if nothing else, I had to escape. And so I did. While everyone died in the castle that day, I alone escaped with my precious knight."

Mikado looked down, Kaguya's retelling stirring a cocktail of emotions that never left the sad look in his eyes.

"...Me and Mikado escaped." Kaguya continued, "We were both young, driven out of our homes with no allies to support us. Despite the whirlwind of emotions that neither of us could fully process at our age, we knew we needed to find some way to survive. So we built this farm."

Kaguya looked up, her eyes looking over the ruins fondly, "It was rough. Neither of us knew the first thing about owning a farm but eventually the townsfolk were able to quietly help us. We learned a lot from them and with their help, we were able to make a new start, as meager as it was. But it was a fresh new start, away from all the horrors we experienced and away from all the chaos that brought it upon us in the first place. For five years, me and Mikado lived our lives as simple farmers."

Kaguya paused, her eyes opened wide as she recalled the next part of her story. One that Roko felt he already knew was coming. But he asked, "And then what?"

"...We were hunted down again. Apparently someone was close to gaining enough power and wanted to get rid of any loose ends. Our farm was attacked by an entire army and we fought to death's door for the second time in our lives. But in the end, our farm was completely destroyed. Our livelihoods lost again."

Roko looked around, all the splatters of blood now telling of the second most desperate battle that Kaguya had to face at a young age.

"...So what happened next?" Roko found the courage to ask, "How'd you become princess again?"

"Hard work and dedication." Kaguya smirked, "The same way we tilled the fields, we forced our way back into noble society. It was clear we could not have any other life. As princess, it was always my fate to succeed the throne."

"..."

"At any rate." Kaguya sighed, "You found this place from the journal didn't you? I wonder why the mysterious culprit wanted to send you here of all places."

"...Kaguya." Roko said, "The entire reason why I'm here is because of the death of Lady Yuno."

"That's a name I haven't heard in a while." Kaguya nodded.

"It said that she came here in her last moments. Do you know why or what happened?"

"I can't say I know why she came here." Kaguya shrugged, "As for what happened, that's been an unsolved mystery for years hasn't it?"

"It said that something must have been splattered on her shoes, causing the killer to enter the victim's own chambers to grab a replacement. Further testimony states that someone likely to be her was seen heading to this farm."

"Is that so?" Kaguya mused.

"Kirito came to investigate these ruins as well. Are you unaware of all of these things?"

"Certainly not." Kaguya smiled, "Even if I was not a princess, I do learn a few things on occasion."

"So you were aware of both of these events?"

"Well, I was aware of Kirito's actions because he came to me himself."

"I thought so." Roko nodded as he opened the journal again, "The journal says he was investigating this farm and was questioning the villagers when he learned something incredible. I assume he found proof of your survival?"

"Smart as always." Kaguya clapped, "Yes. Kirito found some of my old belongings among the stuff I left behind in the middle of the attack. He was very forceful, bursting through some of the villagers who were helping hide me to find me."

"And then what?" Roko asked, "Did he try to kill you too?"

"Oh, no." Kaguya laughed, "Kirito was an old supporter of my mother and father so he was quite ecstatic that I managed to survived all these years."

"Then I suppose his blotting out was to protect you in case anybody got a hold of his journal." Roko nodded.

"Hm. I would assume so. After losing my home, I was determined to force my way back into the royal society though it would take some time to prepare ."

"Then what do you know about Yuno?"

"Yuno was a kind young woman. Her husband was on track to succeeding the throne when he was killed. As for what she was doing at the ruins of my old home, one can only speculate."

"..."

"What's wrong, Roko?" Kaguya asked.

"I don't want to believe it but I have to ask." Roko sighed, "You weren't the one who killed Yuno right?"

"...Goodness, you certainly aren't afraid of being direct." Kaguya chuckled, "Sir Kirito was much the same way. So I'll tell you what I told him. There is no reason to even believe I killed her. If we examine the three aspects of a crime, the means are a mystery to this day. As for motive. I have no grudge against Lady Yuno. In fact, I hardly knew her. If anything, she was was one of the few people with a genuinely positive political campaign that I could agree with. She would have been more an ally than an enemy. Last, and most damning of all is opportunity. Yuno, or someone likely to be Yuno, was seen heading in the direction of this farm but this was not common knowledge. This was a day or two after my farm was attacked as well so I had my hands full trying to figure out what to do after losing my livelihood for the second time. I certainly wasn't thinking of returning or lingering at the very painful reminder of my lost life so I would have no reason to be around the scene of the crime at the time Lady Yuno was there. Is that enough for you?"

"That's certainly a very complete rebuttal." Roko nodded, "You could have just said you didn't though."

"I figured you'd be the type to appreciate a long, detailed and logical rebuttal instead of just a flat denial."

"Can't say I don't." Roko sighed, "So you don't know why Yuno might have come here?"

"I don't know what she was thinking." Kaguya shrugged, "To be fair, the figure seen at the village only looked like Yuno. There isn't complete evidence to say that it was Yuno."

"...If we consider how she was found, the replaced shoes would implicate that someone at least knew enough of the castle lodging to sneak into her room and locate the replacements. Which should mean that it was someone of noble standing at the time."

"I agree." Kaguya nodded, "Though, I would like to add that I haven't been to the castle in years and certainly wouldn't have been welcomed back if I showed up there in the middle of the night. Even assuming I had any reason to return there to begin with."

"...This mystery isn't going to be easy to solve then is it?"

"There's a reason why its lasted this long." Kaguya sighed, "Ah. Before I forget, there is a reason I tracked you down all the way out here."

"Really?" Roko blinked, "What's that?"

"I have the results of the DNA test."

"Already?!" Roko cried, "That's pretty fast!"

"Zadkiel was very eager to help when she was told the circumstances." Kaguya smiled, "Though I'm afraid I have bad news. The DNA in the hair is too corrupted to make a proper assessment."

"Corrupted?" Roko frowned.

"Yes. The DNA in the hair seems to be mutated, it's structure changed or invaded by an unknown power that is unrecognizable to anything that could exist in this world. So this is proof positive that the person at the tomb was in fact in contact with an unknown corrupting power and that power is the only possible way for someone to resurrect the dead."

"And all those signs implicate the robed person at the tomb." Roko nodded, "The book is most likely the grimoire."

"From what I understand, that is our best bet." Kaguya agreed, "It doesn't actually tell us anything about who we're looking for but it clarifies what exactly they are."

"All we're getting are answers to questions we already know the answers to." Roko scowled, "We need to find something soon."

"It's still rather early." Kaguya replied soothingly, "Both in your investigations and my negotiations. There is still time to figure things out. There are still many avenues to investigate. As long as we continue, we'll find the necromancer."

"If the necromancer doesn't get to us first." Roko scoffed, "I can't shake the feeling that we're still playing right in their hands."

"That's fine." Kaguya smiled, "They can string us along for a long as they want. It doesn't matter if we win in the end."

"Everyone's always so much more confident about winning than I am."

"You're just overly negative." Kaguya laughed, "Come now. It's been a while since we had a meal together. Let's have a bit of an early lunch."

Kaguya walked off, Mikado silently following her. A bit of snow had begun to fall, an unexpected twist in the forecast. Following Kaguya back in the gentle snowfall, Roko pondered his next move. He wasn't sure if this farm was any sort of lead anymore. Certainly it seemed suspicious at first and hearing Kaguya's history around it was surprising but in the end, his retractions were likely in effort to protect Kaguya. The circumstances behind Yuno's death were mysterious sure but there was nothing incriminating that Roko could tie to it. He could try to get more information from the villagers, but this was so long ago, they might not even remember any details. The only who knew the full story to this case was Kirito and he had chosen to hide the truth away to protect Kaguya. Was there nothing else behind this incident? Was there ever anything to it to begin with? What even was the purpose of the journal? Why did the necromancer return it to him? What exactly did they want him to find?

Roko gave a shuddering sigh. Maybe it was a fool's errand to try and get in the heads of the necromancer or Kirito. Kaguya was right, their investigations have only just begun and there are plenty more things he could focus his efforts on but a dark feeling continued to nag at him in the back of his mind.

"Are you cold?"

"Huh?" Roko looked up, escaping his thoughts as Kaguya glanced back at him.

"You seem pretty cold." Kaguya smiled, "Are you not used to the snow?"

"Not particularly..." Roko replied, finally noticing the slight shiver shaking his body and the deep breaths he was taking to try and steady himself. His home would get pretty cold during the wintertime and maybe every once in a while, they would even have snow. Roko always enjoyed the cold more than the heat but an arctic region like Hatsuyuki was a bit more than what he was prepared for.

"If it's too cold for you outside, then you'll just have to burn your emotions brighter."

"Huh?" Roko looked up again, confused by Kaguya's foreign remark.

"It's an old Yukian phrase." Kaguya giggled, "It's something my mother always told me when I was young. 'If it's too cold for your outside, then burn your emotions brighter.' Even I'm not quite sure what it means."

"Burn your emotions..." Roko mused.

There wasn't much more meaning he could discern from the words alone but it did seem to spark some idea in his mind. Roko took a deep breath and tensed his body, letting an alertness seize his body and stall his shivering, calm his breath and clear his mind. Not unlike bracing one's body for the cold but just that act alone would fade really quickly after a few seconds. So Roko focused his mind on one emotion. A determination that his frustrations and doubts had been clouding over. That no matter how things played out, Roko was resolved to see it to its end, no matter what awaited him. In the face of this resolution, his previous irritation and resentment cleared away as Roko flared forward, almost daring the world to bring him the next problem for him to solve.

"That's a good look in your eyes." Kaguya smiled, "That suits you very well."

"Lady Kaguya." Mikado spoke up, directing their attention to the sky. Where in the distance, in the direction of the village, smoke crawled up to the skies.

Rushing through the snow, the trio made it back to Fuyuki in record time, discarding their snowshoes as they escaped onto the clear roads. Making it to the village gate, Roko was shocked to see a great wave of zombies taking up the entire square. Undead filled every inch of the roads, moaning and stumbling their way about. There were not any bodies on the ground from what Roko could see but those might have just become zombies themselves. But by the same observation, none of these zombies were getting killed either which means those guards were failing to do their jobs.

"We'll have to cut our way through." Kaguya scowled, "But this swarm is enormous. Could we run them over perhaps?"

"No need." Roko spoke up, "The doesn't seem to be a lot of bloodshed so nobody's getting killed on either side. If I had to guess, most of citizens managed to hole themselves up in their homes before the zombies over took the town. In this situation, we can take advantage of the zombies' limited mobility by getting on the rooftops."

"How?"

Roko turned towards one of the forest trees near the border, one whose branches reached over the walls and scraped the roof of the nearby home.

"I see." Kaguya nodded, "Then we'll have to use ranged weapons to start killing the zombies."

"More importantly, we need some rope." Roko said as he set down his backpack and started rummaging through it, "Should help us traverse the town easier. Just keep your footing."

Roko pulled out a large coil of rope from among the supplies he had bought with him on his expedition to the farm.

"Hmm..." Kaguya took the coil in her hands and weighed it, "We can cut it in half. Mikado, cut this in two if you'll please."

"At once." Mikado drew a small dagger as he took the rope in his hands.

"Anything else you have in there?" Kaguya asked as she peered into Roko's backpack.

"Just stuff the inn supplied me." Roko said, looking into his own backpack, unsure of what exactly he had in there.

"Hmmm..." Kaguya reached into his pack and pulled out an ice axe, "This should work."

One after another, the trio climbed the tree and onto the roof. Roko in particular had some difficulty, having never climbed anything steeper than a stair in his old life. Mikado and Kaguya on the other hand seemed to climb the tree with little difficult which would have surprised Roko if he hadn't just learned about their more rural old life.

"There we go." Kaguya smiled as she helped Roko onto the roof, "Not bad for your first try, right?"

"Funny how I've thrown myself down a tree by order of magnitudes larger than this yet I'm still having trouble." Roko scowled.

"What?"

"Never mind." Roko sighed.

Standing up on the roof, Roko could see Mikado already starting to deal with the zombie horde, throwing the ice axe down with perfect accuracy into the skulls of the unintelligent zombies before pulling the axe back up with the rope they attached to it.

"Here you go." Kaguya handed the rest of the rope to Roko, "There was a hook in your backpack so that should allow you to traverse the roofs much easier."

"Thanks." Roko said as he took the rope and tied one end to his belt, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm staying with Mikado." Kaguya nodded, "There isn't much I can do aside from looking for any people in danger or any appearances from our mysterious necromancer. There are still some complications that might arise in Mikado's efforts and I'd like to be here to protect him from any disasters."

"And I suppose I don't need anything like that?" Roko scoffed.

"I would extend my help if you really needed it." Kaguya giggled, "But we only have so much rope so I can't go jumping around rooftops with you. As fun as that seems."

"I was just kidding." Roko sighed, "Besides, there's something I have to investigate as soon as possible."

"Investigate?"

Roko looked out towards the other end of the village where black smoke billowed out from behind some houses. Now that he had an understanding on the situation, there shouldn't be a reason why there would be smoke coming out from somewhere. There's not enough panic if it was just a fire. A fire would also quickly start spreading across the zombies and start engulfing the town. No signs of that.

Roko gripped his rope as he measured his routes across the roofs towards the smoke. Something was definitely going on.