Chapter 11-Raise the Dead
Living in Shai Feng is an experience. Being a major monster dominated country in Orience, a lot of strange things can happen with so much accumulated demonic energy in one place. The spontaneous creation of rogue monster realms, young women being scouted out by Youko for "pink salons", the constant brawling between that himezumi merchant and the Kakuen stripper who find something to argue about every two weeks, stuff like that. If you're a mage, then the strangeness is amped up as working magic attracts the most mystically inclined monsters start paying attention to you.
Tai Ren was no such person. He was born and raised in Ming Hua, Shai Feng's capital city, and had a completely normal childhood for someone raised in a monster-heavy environment. He grew to inherit his mother's slender form, and his father's looks-long black hair braided behind his head, narrow gray eyes, a hard head that could crack wood if he tried hard enough (he tried hard enough) and an appreciation for all things normal in this not so normal city.
Ren wasn't one of those masochists who sought adventure, excitement or anything else. He just wanted to graduate from college, get a decent job, maybe get married to a nice girl (human preferably, though in Shai Feng, that's damn near impossible unless you're into polygamy), and die as an old man and not a super-hot incubus man slave. He was a virgin, which was a miracle, since most boys in Ming Hua often lost their virginity before they reached nineteen. He didn't want to become a mage or adventurer, he was perfectly fine working at the city library and in the national archives (though he wasn't too hype about the looks his hakutaku boss was giving him).
So you can imagine how unfortunate he was to be born into a family of Taoist mages who practices naturalistic magic and had dealings with monsters of the undead variety. It was even more infuriating when he was sent a massive coffin on his birthday that held something that definitely wasn't a super awesome antique jade sword (just something to hold over the haughty salamander bitch down the hall).
"Mom, what the hell is this?" Ren yelled into the phone. "I told you I don't want grandpa's stuff!"
"I'm sorry, Ren, but it was in his will that you inherit all of his research materials."
His mother said, totally unconcerned with her son's anger.
"You two always got along best, even next to your sisters."
"But did you have to send me a jiangshi?" He exclaimed, glaring at the open coffin.
Inside the coffin was a beautiful, curvaceous woman with pale blue skin, short black hair and a figure that would make most men jizz in their pants. She wore a tight fitting red and black qipao dress common among Oriental fashion, with a diamond cut-out over her ample cleavage and left her soft, but firm looking legs bare. This was a jiangshi, a special breed of undead monster unique to Orience, animated female corpses that were brought to life via infusion of large amounts of demonic energy.
His grandfather was the last in a long line of Taoists on his father's side of the family, having maintained a tradition of performing magic through the use of the elements and often had jiangshi servants. Ren's father wasn't a Taoist, having gone down a more mundane route, and there weren't any successors lining up to be the least known type of Oriental mage in East Orience. Ren didn't even know his grandfather had a jiangshi just sitting around in his house. Was that why his marriage to his grandmother was so smooth?!
"Your grandfather wanted to take care of her if anything happened to him. Her name is Pailin, she's a new jiangshi that he was saving for you before he died."
She explained. "
And weren't you complaining about not having a girlfriend the other day? She's perfect for-"
Ren angrily hung up and threw the phone onto his couch. He grumpily sat down and pouted as he glared down at the jiang shi. He didn't want to become a Taoist mage. He was just fine being his normal self without all the craziness monsters brought with them. What the hell was he going to do with her anyway?
"Damn it, gramps, you just had to have the last laugh." He grumbled and looked down at the woman in the coffin. She wasn't moving, not even a twitch of the finger, and he knew that she wasn't breathing. If it weren't for the fact that she was a monster with curves a model would kill for, he would've thought his grandpa was a grave robber. "At least she's cute."
Ren's gaze turned to the talisman on her forehead. Taoists used talismans to give jiangshi certain commands. The symbol on the talisman meant "rest", that much he remembered from the little lectures his grandpa would give him.
"This thing is so old and worn. How long did gramps have this in reserve?" Ren fingered the magical piece of paper. "I do at least know I'm not supposed to take the tag off-"
Ren's voice caught in his throat when he accidentally tugged the talisman too hard and pulled it off the jiangshi's forehead. A second later, Pailin's eyes shot open and even shorter than that her body shot up, hand thrust towards his face. He yelped as she leapt out of the coffin and her and went straight through his wall. Ren stumbled back as she straightened up, posture straighter than a man's erection at a succubus strip club, arms raised in front of her, her eyes stared blankly forward.
