“The Court calls the case of the Holy Empire of Yomi vs. Mura of Gakidō to order. Let us begin,” Judge Nidar proclaimed before continuing. “We thank the jury for their attendance today. I’m happy you could arrive at such short notice.”

Lamia nodded silently and Kishin sat with his arms crossed.

“Firstly, Mr. Mura, do you fully know of the charges you have been convicted of?”

Mura sat in his chair nodding with the mask over his face.

“Might I ask that my client have his facial restraints removed, so that he can properly answer?”

Nergal turned and scowled.

“You wish for him to chant incantations at us, Naraka?” the Jikininki spat in disapproval.

Judge Nidar decided to reply on behalf of his friend.

“With all due respect, Minister, he is detained in a court of law containing several of Yomi’s most powerful men and women. If he wished to attack us, we’d might as well skip straight to the execution.”

“Fine by me either way…” Nergal growled, his sunken eyes piercing through Mura.

Naraka bowed thankfully before preceding to remove Mura’s mask and setting it down on the table with an audible clank.

“Yes, I do,” Mura finally answered.

“And do you know that such a conviction of high treason, being passed by His Majesty, will be met with either exile from Yomi and her allies or death?”

“I was informed of that, yes.”

“Lastly, do you know that in the case of a felon convicted of high treason, you may waive your right to a courtroom trial and instead receive a trial by combat?”

“Yes, I do,” Mura answered again.

“Do you wish to receive a trial by combat in hope of receiving a blessing from Lord Kagutsuchi?” Judge Nidar asked.

Mura had heard of the Empire’s “trials by combat” from Crow a few days ago. They promised the guilty a ray of hope if they could defeat the empire’s champion. Kill the champion and it would be declared that Kagutsuchi had mercy on the felon, allowing them to walk free. The catch was that for eons, the champion of the empire was an invincible monster simply known as the “Great Worm”. Countless hopeful souls chose to fight against the beast, but ultimately each one died unsuccessfully. Choosing such an outcome was merely opting for a quick and painful demise.

“No, I do not.”

“Very well, the Court does find that the defendant has knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to a trial by combat on the charge of high treason. As such, the trial shall now commence. I’ll hear from the Empire’s representative first. In the meantime, input from the defendant is no longer required.”

Nergal, with a confidant stride in his step, walked towards Mura. As he moved, one arm remained still at his side while the other swung freely. It was a peculiar method of walking that slightly unsettled Mura. Nergal lifted the mask off the table and proceeded to strap it back onto Mura’s pale face.

“Thank you, Judge. Let it be known and documented by the Court today that Mura of Gakidō, was and has always, lived his life as a criminal. He grew up on the streets, trained and nurtured by the thief known as Belial. Such an upbringing resulted in the degenerate you see before you today. Crime is in his blood. Unlawfulness is his nature. Such a citizen like this does not respect his people, nor his nation.”

Naraka frowned, but inside he couldn’t be happier.

—We need this to look as one-sided as possible. All I have to do is play my part and Nidar will do his…

“It isn’t any surprise at all that the defendant here has been accused of high treason against the empire. The punishment of betraying the hand that fed him, that lifted him from the squalor into the luxury of becoming a Jikininki, should be death. That is all.”

Nergal walked back to his table, his eyes like specks of emerald glinting in the dim light. In time for his statement, Naraka stood and looked up at the judge.

“The defense may now proceed,” Judge Nidar said.

“Thank you, your Honor,” Naraka replied, turning to face the nearly empty jury box.

“As a teacher and as a friend, my student Mura meant the world to me. To hear of his sudden arrest and betrayal of my trust… it was simply too much at first. I considered leaving him to his own fate and whatever implications that may have implied at the time.”

Mura’s eyes spelled utter bewilderment as he turned to look at Lilith, who starting to shake with anger before Naraka continued.

“However, I meditated on the matter. I prayed. I came to the realization that such a pitiful soul deserved not death, but mercy. Let me remind the jury of the poor slaughtering of our patron, Lord Kagutsuchi. He too was deemed worthy of the sword by his father and was put to death before he could even speak. But think what could have become if he was to live? Allowed to flourish! I offer you now a chance to exile this man from our company, our nation. Instead of a final relief from worry, let my former student live with the thoughts of what he has done so that he may reflect on them and one day find forgiveness in the void.”

Naraka bowed and returned to his seat. Judge Nidar bowed in return, smiling slightly. He didn’t expect Naraka to lay the shame on so thick, but was glad he did. Due to Mara’s manipulation of events and evidence, the entire trial was already going to be a kangaroo court. It was simply up to Naraka and Nidar to further manipulate it to their desired outcome. Sending a majority of the Jikininki obstacles to snag their arrival helped immensely, as did Mura’s purposeful silencing.

“The prosecution now has the chance for a returning argument,” Nidar said, his tone implying he wished to hurry things along.

Nergal stood up from his chair, one hand behind his back as the other pointed toward Naraka.

“As the Defense has stated, there is no question he means what he says. He has not seen his disgraced student once during his imprisonment, instead banishing himself to his studies in disgrace upon hearing the news. My deepest sympathizes are with the Chief Advisor for his misplaced trust and squandered time. However, this does not mean he should be allowed to live. The Defense uses the argument of evoking the name of demonkind’s patron deity and his tragedy to make a futile point. While saddening, without Lord Kagutsuchi’s murder, the demon race would cease to exist. His death brought about our civilization, the Golden Age of Devils and so much more. I’d like to ask the jury to consider the inspiration that the execution of a traitor could have—“

Naraka spoke out.

“Objection, your Honor. The prosecution’s statement is based on mere speculation and imagination.”

Nidar let out a mock sigh and gave his answer.

“Very well, sustained.”

Kishin let out a small whoop, to which Nidar responded by banging his gavel on the desk.

“Settle down everyone. The defense can go on if they so wish.”

Nergal opened his mouth to speak, but closed it slowly and simply retained the same glaring mask of an expression he always wore.

“I’d like the jury to know that my client, despite the charges of high treason, brought to light the existence of Goetia members far before his arrest. He clearly had some sort of allegiance to his empire before that moment. The evidence and reports taken by our spymaster shows that Mura clearly made a poor decision by choosing to disobey a direct order to assassinate a young human. Now, orders should always be obeyed. However, he let his heart cloud his thinking. The boy was clearly not ready for such an advancement to Jikininki, as evidenced by his rapid succession through the system.”

“Your point, being?” Nergal retorted.

“My point is that while he has disobeyed a direct order given from his Majesty, Mura has shown evidence attributing to ignorance rather than direct hostile behavior. Such a mistake shouldn’t be met with such a permanent response.”

Judge Nidar looked around the room.

“Does the defense have any witnesses they’d like to call to the stand?”

“No, your honor… None were willing and we couldn’t very well bring a human here.”

“And does the prosecution have any witnesses?” Nidar asked, turning to the respective side.

“Unfortunately none that could be here today…” Nergal murmured.

“Alright then. The evidence submitted to the Court has been reviewed and investigated. You may present any at this time,” Nidar said.

Nergal removed a sealed folder labeled as confidential from his jacket. Flipping it open, he removed photographs taken of Mura; showing him and Lilith talking to Hangaku Amano after killing the incubus. Another displayed Mura removing his Jikininki pin.

“I believe the evidence speaks for itself, ladies and gentlemen,” Nergal confidently declared. “The defendant is shown here, conversing with a human female and shortly after, discarding his Jikininki pin: an invaluable gift directly from the Emperor himself. The act of his betrayal forever encapsulated.”

“Your Honor, might I suggest that this picture simply shows us what we already know? I believe that this trial isn’t about my student’s guilt, but about his sentencing.”

Naraka smirked to himself as Lamia and Kishin giggled behind them. Nergal’s expression remained unchanged.

“The boy deserves to die. If you know that he is guilty, you should just allow me to cleave his head off already,” Nergal turned, his voice cold and disturbingly unsettling like dirty snow slipping between a person’s toes. Naraka, however stood his ground.

“So you’d just kill him like you did to your previous nine compatriots? It’s common knowledge between us all in this courtroom that you not only started out as a criminal just like Mura here, but upon becoming Tenth yourself, you proceeded to murder each person ranked above you until you became First—”

“Silence, boy.” Nergal crooned, a smile etching onto his face; his muscles contorting into a form seldom constructed upon his visage. “It isn’t murder when conducted in the ways of old; just ask your protégé. I dueled each one, right after the other. Each one of the upstarts lost and died. I splattered the dirt with their steaming entrails. I ended the Jikininki that day because they were pitiable, toothless creatures. I replaced them all afterwards anyway, hand-selected by one worthy of the title of First. This trial isn’t about my past, it’s about your failure. As a teacher, and as a man.”

Nidar hammered his gavel on the desk repeatedly. The banging reminded Mura and Lilith to blink, having been rendered unblinking in horror at Nergal’s words.

“Order! Order! I believe I’ve heard enough, to be quite honest. The photo evidence shown does display the defendant seemingly renouncing his Empire and station as Tenth of the Jikininki Ten. However, this evidence does not provide a clear case of why the death penalty should be sought out.”

Judge Nidar flipped over his notes and the remaining evidence left; or what little there actually was. The time had come to reveal their ace in the hole.

“Your Honor, I have a piece of evidence I’d like to show the Court,” Naraka stated with a smile. He took out of piece of paper from his coat pocket, which had been folded up previously. Everything was falling into place.

“This is a copy of the mission statement delivered by Zozo Communications to my former student. Minister, what comes to mind when one mentions a Zozo? Aside from reliability.”

“Stupidity?” Nergal said dryly.

“Exactly, reliability and stupidity,” Naraka began. “I did some investigating of my own, you see. I happened to discover two things of interest. One was this mission statement… and the other was a tidbit revolving around the Zozo stationed at this particular outpost.”

Nergal turned away from Naraka and sat down.

“The first thing the mission states quite clearly here is that, and I quote: The assassin is tasked with locating one Hangaku Amano and assessing the situation appropriately,” Naraka finished.

Nergal refused to say anything, hoping that Naraka wasn’t going to go further.

“The second… was that the Zozo in question couldn’t read if his life depended on it.”

The Minister of Defense’s fist curled around his evidence photos, slowly crushing them in his grip.

“That being said, I decided to pay our little blue friend a visit. You know what he told me, Your Honor? He disclosed that he had the mission statement read off to him by none other than Grendel… who told him the statement explicitly said to ‘kill Hangaku Amano’; not ‘assess the situation appropriately’.”

Nergal slammed his hand down in irritation, his typically calm demeanor beginning to crack.

“Objection, your Honor! There is no evidence to back up the defense’s claims of this Zozo saying such a thing!”

“Actually, Minister, there is. You see, just in case of emergencies like this, I tapped the cell phone of my student’s Thrall, Lilith.”

Lilith let out a muffled noise from behind her mask as her eyes grew wide. Mura’s quickly followed suit, remembering the conversation that afternoon. It had been after they left the conversation with Lamia they received a call from Zozo.

Naraka held out a black and silver disc, which he proceeded to click on with his thumb. Out of the disc played a voice, belonging to Zozo.

“So here’s the skinny: we have a report of a human performing and practicing magic not too far from your current location. She’s dangerous and scary, so be careful! Her name is Hangaku Amano, you gotta assassinate her! Witches can be pretty powerful, so don’t let her know you’re a demon! Try to get her guard down, when she’s away from whatever she’s using as a Thrall! Annnnnnnd that’s all it says here—“

Naraka stopped the recording, leaving Nergal and the others aside from Judge Nidar speechless.

“My student was told false information in an attempt to entrap him. All the while, his actual mission statement as given by His Majesty simply told him to assess the situation and act accordingly. Mura did just that, after he discovered the human wasn’t a witch but was possessed by an incubus. He acted accordingly by sparing the human and killing the creature responsible.”

Naraka placed the device back into his pocket and sat back down.

“Impossible… Your Honor, surely this evidence was introduced unfairly. I had no time to prepare for such a thing—“

“The evidence was submitted several days ago, just as yours was. It is the prosecution’s duty to study the evidence submitted, just as it is the defense’s.”

Nergal swallowed, done in by his overconfidence. He never bothered to view the oppositions, as it shouldn’t have mattered.

“At any rate, with everything being presented to the Court, I have reached a verdict.”

With that, Mura rose from his seat with shaking knees as his sentence was read out. As he heard the words spoken aloud, everything fell silent as tears welled in the eyes of him and Lilith together. Tears of bittersweet joy.