ourmizarthegleeful:

Here’s my official Fic-a-thon entry,
enjoy the introduction of a type of magical creature rarely mentioned
in fiction. Next story: Clamcor  

Maddie swung the pink, spiked baseball
bat that her dad had given her into the side of smugglers head with a
sickening thud and watched him go down hard. Breathing heavily, she
spun around only to find that there were were no foes left.

It had been more than a year and a
half since Toby’s death, she still hadn’t completely forgiven him for
not letting her be a proper Mizar sooner, perhaps if she had been
things would be different. Ever since the two had that talk after the
funeral she had been undergoing intensive training in combat,

magic and tactics. Then yesterday Alcor
had told her about the smugglers who would soon be docking in
Spokeane. Father and daughter had blipped to the harbour and Alcor
had called out a challenge from the bottom of the gangplank, and in a
few seconds the two had been surrounded by a dozen thugs.

 Maddie looked down at the burned and
beaten bodies of the smugglers and was violently sick. Her dad flew
down from where he’d been burning ‘Alcor and Mizar were here’ into
the side of the small container ship and put his arm around her.

“Are you okay Mizar?”

“I’m fine Alcor, I just didn’t
expect them to make that noise when hit with this thing.

Alcor looked around at the carnage,
“Your aunt Mabel would be proud kid.”

The girl smiled faintly, “thanks,
now lets go rescue those captives.”

The two quickly made their way though
the ship taking out the few stragglers as they went, a few
surrendered and were left tied togather on the deck for the poliece
to pick up. Once the pair were sure there was no one left, the two
made their way to the cargo hold,.

Most of the hold was filled with boxes
of magical contraband, but about a third of it was divided between a
workshop and several rows of empty cages. Confused, Maddie went to
look at the workshop and started crying. It was filled with dissected
corpses, the organs of which were carefully preserved for sale.

“We’re too late,” she said softly.

“No look!” Alcor was standing by
the farthest cage.

Cowering in the cage was the weirdest
looking magical creature that Maddie had ever seen. It looked like an
old fashioned paper umbrella but instead of a handle it had a single,
long, birdlike leg. On the oiled paper were two rips, on of with
showed a single round eye, and the second had a look slimey tongue
poking out.

“What is it…?”

“Alcor knelt down and began picking
the cages lock with his claw. “Its a Karakasa Kozo or paper
umbrella priest boy. You know how these smugglers came from Japan,
well those islands have some pretty weird magic energies which  often
result it old objects and animals changing, like this guy.

Alcor grinned with satisfaction as the
lock clicked open.

Maddie rolled her eyes, “Your such a
dork Alcor.” She pushed her dad away from the cage and knelt down
in front of it. “Its okay little one,” she said comfortingly. “We
got rid of all the smugglers, your safe now and we’ll take you back
to your home.”

The umbrella yokai began crying, “No
home, nowhere to go! Rikku and friends give bad men everything to
take us to better life across big water. Bad men lock all in cages
then kill one by one. Only Rikku left. Bad men say Rikku have no
insides to sell. Rikku have no home, no family and now, no
friends…” It broke down completely, howling with misery.

Maddie took the weeping yokai in her
arms and gently rocked it. “There, there, you can come stay with
us, we’ll give you a place to belong.”

Alcor gave his daughter a look that
spoke volumes, she shot him one back that said more. They locked eyes
for a long moment but finally the demon nodded, he knew she was right
and this kind of creature wasn’t dangerous. Still there was something
he’d have to discuss with his daughter later. He snapped his fingers
and blipped the three home.

Rikku would go on to live with them
for the next three years, it took months to recover from his terrible
ordeal and begin making trips outside the house. He loved to jump out
and surprise visitors with a huge oiley lick, but he would only do
that to Maddie if she was having a particularly bad nightmare about
Toby. It never failed to jerk her awake. He would often wait
anxiously while Maddie was out cult bashing with her dad. In the end
he got a job at a haunted house attraction, which paid enough for him
to live on his own, even then he would often come to visit them.