Gacha Gacha Hero

Ash, Luke, and Ave crouched down in an alley across from the tavern.

Ave peeked around the corner. “That was too close. There are at least fifteen more Capital Guards searching the town. It’s only a matter of time before someone spots us.”

“How did they know where to look? Are you sure you’re not here to capture Luke.” Ash said.

“The guards didn’t know exactly where the Royal Summoner went. His hometown was judged the most likely place. But scouts were also dispatched to all of the other towns between here and the Capital. There are hundreds of guards looking for him all over the kingdom.” said Ave.

Luke looked surprised. “I’ve never been this popular before.”

“You’re a guard too right? Can’t you just tell all of them to leave?” Ash looked up and down the street.

“I have the credentials. But convincing any of them to follow my orders will be… difficult. We need to find a safe place to hide out for the moment.” Ave followed his gaze.

Inspiration struck Luke. “We could go to my house.”

“You have a house in the city?” Ave asked.

“My parents house to be clear. But it’s perfect for what we need. After I was appointed Royal Summoner I made sure to send my parents plenty of money. I made sure that they were able to afford a mansion, and servants. They should have some place that we can hide while we’re in Star Town.” said Luke.

“Why didn’t you go there first?” Ave asked.

“I didn’t know where it was.”

“You don’t know where your own parents live?”

“Hey I remember where they used to live but I’ve been away from home for four years.” said Luke.

“Then what about your friend Ash?”

“That was a lucky chance. It’s been years but Ash here still lives in the same tiny shack on the edge of town with his mother. I was able to find him without any problems.” said Luke.

Ave turned to Ash. Ash tried his best to look less pathetic than he felt.

Ave turned back to Luke. “Anyway we still have the problem that we don’t know where your parents are. We don’t have time to search the whole town until we find their house.”

“That’s not a problem. We have Ash.”

Ash’s eyes widened. “Me?”

Luke turned to him. “That’s right. You never left town. That means you must know where my parents are. Even if you haven’t seen them in a while, the parents of the Royal Summoner must be pretty important people in town right?”

*Cough*

“You do know where my parents are, don’t you?” asked Luke.

Ash looked embarrassed. “Yeah. Sort of. I know where they were. I guess I better show you.”

#

The group of Ash, Luke, and Ave stood out in front of a mansion. The building was lavishly decorated with marble columns, dancing fountains, stained glass windows, and manicured shrubbery. There was also an enormous ‘Foreclosed’ sign on the front gate.

Luke pressed his face against the bars of the gate. “What is this? What happened to my parents?”

Ash scratched his neck. “Yeah you might want to sit down. There’s quite a bit to explain.”

“The sign says foreclosed. Are they all right? Did something happen to them?” asked Luke.

“Oh something happened alright.” Ash raised his hands. “But don’t worry they’re safe. At least they were safe the last time that anyone saw them.”

Luke slumped down by the entrance.

Ash took a deep breath. “Okay, so, here goes. You remember when the Royal Family came during that festival.”

“Yeah.” said Luke.

“And you gave them that gift that was the finest thing that anyone had ever seen.”

“Uh huh.”

“And then they started asking questions and they discovered that your summons were always the best possible result.”

“Of course. That was when the royal family asked me to come with them to the Capital.”

“Right. I was there. You were there. The whole town was there. It was a huge celebration. A Starter was being made the Royal Summoner. Everyone came out to see you off.” said Ash.

“Yes. That was the last time we saw each other wasn’t it.” Luke’s bangs feel in front of his face.

Ash looked sympathetic. “Yeah. So anyway. After you left your parents became some of the most popular people in Star Town. There were all kinds of parties. My mother was even invited to a few, before the guest list got out of her price range.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s not your fault. She told me she didn’t mind. Here, follow me.”

Ash led the other two around the side of the mansion’s entrance. An overgrown shrub had swallowed a part of the fence. Ash pulled some of the shrub’s branches back revealing a few bars of the fence bent just enough that someone could squeeze through.

“Wow. How did you know about this?” Luke asked.

“I used to come here all the time.” Ash said. He looked Luke in the eye. “To steal stuff.”

Ash climbed through the gap. Luke and Ave followed him.

Ash started walking across the mansion’s yard. “After that things somehow got even more exciting. There were carriage races.” He pointed to a carriage with broken wheels that was flipped over on its side. “Topiary displays.” He pointed to a series of giant overgrown bushes that had once been shaped like tarpans, elephants, and giraffes. “Then there was their infamous Cheese Party.” He pointed to a fountain filled to the brim with thick gorgonzola. A layer of mold covered the fountain almost making it look like the other bushes in the yard. “They’re still finding blockages in the town sewers to this day.”

“It certainly does look like they enjoyed themselves.” said Luke.

“Oh yeah. Thanks to you your parents had more money than they know what to do with. They had nothing but time, money, and love.”

“At least they had each other.”

*Wince* “Actually. The love part wasn’t between… them.” Ash tugged at his collar.

Ash waved the others over to the mansion itself. He looked in through the large windows at the furnished interior. The room was filled with dusty velvet curtains, greasy silver candlesticks, and stained mahogany tables. Moth-eaten dust cloths had been thrown over the furniture.

“I don’t want to alarm you but your father and mother were, indiscreet.” said Ash.

“You don’t have to spare my feelings.” said Luke.

“Okay.” *Deep breath* “Your father and mother participated in a string of carnal affairs that stretched across the city. Every beautiful young man and woman that craved money more than self respect shared their bed at one point or another. The brothels had to hire prostitutes from out of the county just to keep up with demand. They renamed the Red District in their honor.”

“To what?”

“The Lucky Luke district.” Ash winced.

*Gulp*

Luke needed a moment to catch his breath.

Ave looked at Ash. “How did you know about all of this?”

“There were a lot of rumors. I also saw a little of what happened while it was going on. I used to sneak up here. So I could throw bricks at the windows.” Ash looked back at the mansion’s many broken windows.

#

The group walked through the crumbling ruins of the mansion interior. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and a layer of dust covered everything.

Luke looked around. “Then what happened? After all of the partying and… other stuff, where are they now?”

Ash kicked a loose piece of molding. “Well after they burned through the bedsheets of every brothel in town they started drinking. And then they started gambling. Lascivious gifts were given. Promises were made. They borrowed so much credit that they were briefly classified as a Dutchey for tax purposes. It was all… never enough.”

A gust of wind whistled through the broken windows of the house.

*Avarice…* It seemed to whisper.

“But eventually all that spending came back to them. A group of debt collectors broke down the door to their estate one day and told them they had just a week to pay back what they owed.”

Luke looked shocked. “They’re not hurt are they?”

“No no, they’re fine. Your parents never had the chance that you did. No matter what gifts they tried to summon there was no way to pay off the huge amount of money they owed in so short a time. So they finally stopped all their carousing around town and changed their ways.”

“They went back to work?”

“Nope. They fled town. The two of them stole a boat, paddled it down river and escaped out to sea. In some ways it’s kind of touching. The two of them working together to overcome their differences. Witnesses say that they were even holding hands as they rowed out into the ocean.”

“All the way to the ocean?” asked Ave.

“That part is unconfirmed.” admitted Ash.

“What happened to them after that?” asked Luke.

“Nobody knows. But hey, if they have even one tenth of the luck you do they’re probably not dead.” said Ash.

“What about Spins? Our family dog?”

“Your dog was hit by a horse cart. Two days after you left. I’m so sorry.” Ash didn’t make eye contact.

*Snap*Crash*

Ave spun around. “What was that?”

Ash and Ave moved to peek out the windows. Down in the courtyard Gloved Guard and Pauldron Wearing Guard were standing out in front of the gate with a team of tarpans.

“Pull down the gates! In the name of his Majesty, open these gates!” shouted the Guard.

The team of tarpans leapt forward. The ropes that had been tied around their saddles snapped taunt and the gates were wrenched from their hinges.

*Ka-clang*

Ash turned to Ave. “I thought you said there were like fifteen guards in town.”

“I did.” said Ave.

“Then why do we keep running into the same ones?”

“How should I know?”

“Let me guess, you can’t tell them to just go away.”

“We’re hiding in the closed mansion that belongs to the family of a wanted fugitive. How would I explain that?” Ave hissed at him.

“We need to get out of here without being seen.” He looked back at Luke standing in the corner. “Luke. Luke! Can you hear me?” Ash waved his hand in front of Luke’s face. “This is bad. He’s cribbing really hard. We’re going to have to sneak him out of here somehow. Are those guards still trying to get in?”

Ave peeked out the window. “They’re heading towards the door.”

Ash tore a large chunk of wallpaper off of the wall and started rolling it up.

“Help me. Grab some of those curtains. I have an idea.”

#

“So this is the home of the Royal Summoner? Doesn’t look like much.” The Gloved Guard reached out a hand and traced his finger along the edge of the door.

“Ugh. Filthy.” he turned to the Pauldron Wearing Guard. “Open it up.”

*Frown* The Pauldron Wearing Guard walked to the door and turned the handle. As he tried to open the door there was a thumping noise.

*Thump*Thump*

“What’s wrong?” asked the Gloved Guard.

“I think there’s something on the other side blocking the door?”

“Beee gooone…” A warbled voice echoed from the other side of the door.

“And the house is also haunted I guess?” The Pauldron Wearing Guard tried to peek in the windows.

“Haunted? Don’t be absurd. There’s no such thing as ghosts. There is clearly someone on the other side of the door trying to keep us out.” The Gloved Guard planted his feet on the front porch. “You there! By order of the King! Come out now!”

“Gooo away. We’re deeead and don’t want to be distuuurbed.”

“Enough of this nonsense!” He turned to the Pauldron Wearing Guard. “Don’t just stand there. Break it down!”

The Pauldron Wearing Guard aimed one of his metal shoulder pads at the front doors. He crouched down and then charged the door.

*Slam*Crash*

The door buckled and burst open. The Gloved Guard hustled inside of the doors.

“Now listen here you…”

*Flump*

A heavy velvet curtain fell down from above and landed on top of the Gloved Guard. An irritating cloud of dust erupted from the drapery.

“Ahh! Who’s there?” *Sneeze* “What’s going on? *Sneeze* The Gloved Guard flailed about under the curtain.

The Pauldron Wearing Guard stepped into the entryway.

“Hold on. I’ll get you out of…”

*Flump*

A second heavy velvet curtain fell down from above.

*Sneeze* “The dust! It’s everywhere!” *Sneeze* The Gloved Guard yelled.

“I can taste it in my mouth!” The Pauldron Wearing Guard cried.

The two Guards flailed around under the curtains trying to find a way to escape.

“Who dares to disturb our slumber!” The echoing voice shouted out again.

Three figures in white sheets sidled out from the broken doors and shuffled towards the gate at the front of the mansion grounds. One of them was waving their arms back and forth over their head. The second one was gently shoving the third one along, leading them to the gate.

A group of Townsfolk watched this happen. “What is going on? What are you doing?”

“We were the ghooosts inhabiting that mansion. If you don’t want to be cuuursed you should get out of our waaay…” said the ‘ghost’.

“Listen, we're just here to help with the horses. We don’t want any part of… whatever this is.” The Townsfolk were trying their hardest not to get involved.

“Okay. We’ll just go back to the graveyard.” The ‘ghost’ said. “You can tell the guards that we vanished and that you never saw us.”

“Yeah. I think that would be best for everyone.”

“Booo…. bye.”

The three be-sheeted individuals turned and ran off down the street.