Amidst A War Of Heroes, Shall A Witch Crash The Party

Uryuu Ryuunosuke was a hobbyist at heart. His hobby wasn't exactly normal, being as it was serial murder, but it was still a hobby. So naturally, like any true hobbyist, when it one day started to get dull, he didn't simply stop doing it. Instead, like the resourceful and dedicated (to murder) young fellow he was, he tried to spice things up a little.

In his case, his method of creating a new flavor of murder was found in his family's old shed, right next to where he hid his first victim. After saying hello to his sister as was proper (she didn't say anything back, how rude). Ryuunosuke happened to find on one of his family's old tomes, some crazy writing about summoning demons that his ancestors wrote up.

Ryuunosuke found it a dry read, finding lots of boring ramblings about servants and magic cups or something, but he had to admit the rituals itself sounded like great fun. It had all the classic horror elements like ritual murders, circles of blood, offerings of children and the works. It was some genuinely praiseworthy stuff, or at least he thought so. It was also a lot flashier than his habits, he'd probably have to skip town after doing it once or twice. Oh, but what fun he'd have before he did.

Material gathering was pretty easy. Afterall so many people just never lock their windows or never expected to be stabbed in their bed, but binding and gagging the living sacrifice was a bit more troublesome, because little kids just squirm so much but killing the boy's sister, mother, and father was quite easy! After that, it was a fairly simple matter of dragging the bodies into a nice big room, the living room in this case, and piling them together in a corner. The boy started freaking out at that point, one could guess being put on top of his family's corpses must have been a new and unappealing experience for him.

Ryuunosuke kicked the boy and said: "Oh calm down will ya kid? It's not gonna take that long anyway."

The serial killer waved his family's old book in the boy's face and said: "I just gotta do a bit of finger painting, chant some mumbo jumbo, and if my ancestors were right, then abracadabra, instant monster!"

Ignoring the kid's now even more frantic screaming, Ryuunosuke turned around and began roughly replicating the summoning circle shown in the spellbook. Occasionally Ryuunosuke would jam his hand in one of the corpses behind him, redipping his metaphorical brush. Eventually, he was satisfied and stood up and looked at his work.

Ryuunosuke: "Now let's see... I read the chant they've got in here, but it says that so long as there's a summon that suits you it will come pretty much no matter what you say."

The young man grinned like a kid in a candy store (the actual kid screamed like a boy whose family had been slaughtered by a serial killer and piled up beneath him but he had been muffled by a gag).

Ryuunosuke: "ooh I hope there's one that matches me... Well, that is if this wasn't written by loonies of course, which hey, isn't that likely."

Laughing at his little joke, the serial killer put the book aside and assumed the ritual posture ill.u.s.trated within the pages and said: "With this offering of flesh and blood, I, Uryuu Ryuunosuke, artist of flesh, blood, and bone, call you up from the fiery depths. I've no preference for your face or form, I care not for what powers you command, I ask only that you understand my sense of beauty!"

Ryuunosuke's poetry was met, for a moment, with no response. The killer sighed, thinking what a shame it was that something cool like a wizard from hell didn't pop up, but then the circle suddenly lit up like a lightbulb, blinding both the boy and his captor. Ryuunosuke didn't mind though since it meant that without question, something interesting was about to happen. Excitedly, the murderer rubbed his eyes, in an attempt to see again faster. When it finally did return, he was met with a truly mystifying sight.

Ryuunosuke: "...Butterflies?"

Yes, that's definitely what he was seeing. Butterflies. Lots of them. Gold ones too, which was probably the oddest thing about them, aside from the fact that they were flocking happily around a gorgeous looking blond woman in a black and gold dress, who was standing in the middle of the circle of blood. For a normal person, the woman herself probably would have attracted more attention, but Ryuunosuke was more concerned with how the butterflies clashed so much with his redecoration of the house (blood was the new color of the year every year, in his opinion).

The woman spoke aloud but was not addressing anyone in the room, "My, my, to think I'd be invited to a banquet that only the famous should attend. And here I thought I'd sealed the story away forever in the witch's darkness. I guess someone either escaped my tale or managed to get a message out. Well, it was an island tale, so I suppose they might have used Justice Wargrave's method... Oh well, it doesn't matter."

The woman sighed and then addressed Ryuunosuke directly, "You there, I am Servant Caster. Are you the one who summoned me?"

The serial killer was pulled out of his thoughts, and responded, "Oh yeah, name's Uryuu Ryuunosuke. I must say, lady, I'm surprised. I thought demons would be uglier and have less uh..."

The murderer waved his hand at the butterflies that filled the room, "...less shiny hangers-on. But I guess it doesn't matter in the end. As I said, my name's Uryuu Ryuunosuke, and I'm a serial killer!"

The young man declared his chosen profession with pride and then looked at the child in the corner. "The book said that you guys eat life force or something, so I got you a snack all ready to go!"

The woman took a small puff from her golden pipe, then sighed, shuffling over to the child. The boy had by this point been terrified and didn't dare to make a noise, and merely watched with a mixture of horror and resignation But then the strange woman knelt over him and... cut him loose.

Ryuunosuke demonstrated his surprise with an air of class befitting his serial killer status. "The F.U.C.K?" That air of class being 'low' class of course.

The child himself could only look up at the woman with confusion in his eyes as she lifted him to his feet and looked at him sadly. After a brief moment of silence, she sighed sadly. "...I'm sorry that it couldn't go better than this for you."

The woman placed a hand on his c.h.e.s.t, and gave a mournful smile, "but do not worry. For soon I shall open the way to the golden land and you will be able to smile again."

The child didn't respond. After all, the moment the woman finished speaking, life left his body, and he simply slumped over, never to speak again.

Ryuunosuke: "Wait, WHAT?"

He cried out in surprise. "You can kill people by just TOUCHING them? That's awesome! But..."

He paused and placed his hand on his chin and thought about the situation for a bit. "Is that it? It doesn't seem very demonic, more like a lethal injection, quick and clean."

The woman who called herself Caster stood up and looked her summoner in the eye. "Of course it's clean. Elegance is, after all, the most important factor for a witch like myself. And as for you, Mr. Serial Killer, shouldn't you have more pride in your work?"

This woman just got more confusing by the minute, or at least Ryuunosuke thought so. Well, when all else fails, best to just straight up ask.

Ryuunosuke: "What do you mean more pride in my work?"

Caster: "The tale you write..."

She gestured at the mess the man had made, the pile of corpses, the smears of blood and gore, "is sloppy. There's no elegance, no methodology. Keep this up and even the most mediocre detective will corner you. A killer owes it to the detective to create a puzzle. Obscure the solution and hide the clues."

Ryuunosuke: "Uh... the killer owes the DETECTIVE? Lady, I don't know how it works in hell, but generally, the criminal doesn't owe jack scrap to the cops."

Ryuunosuke started to laugh at the witch's bizarre logic.

Caster: "Oh? Then who will recognize your work, oh 'artist of flesh, blood, and bones?'"

Caster countered Ryuunosuke with a wicked grin spreading across her face.

The killer's laughter was silenced before it could really start. "...Ah."

The witch didn't give the killer time to respond, waving her pipe through the air. "Come my golden butterflies, spread through this humble abode and show this amateur how to create a true murder. After that, we shall aim for the cup, and with it, the path to the Golden Land shall truly open!"

At their master's command, the golden familiars swarmed around, cleaning up the bloodstains, moving the bodies and the murder weapons, changing the wounds, and locking doors. For their master was the Golden Witch who creates closed room mysteries, and they must forge a crime worthy of her name.

And with this murder, the 7th pair is born. Amidst a war of Kings and

Heroes, shall a Witch crash the festivities.