3 A Problem Arises.

Zakuro was casually walking down the streets of Naruki City with his hands in his pocket. He had already confirmed that no one could see him so he didn't even bother keeping pace with the crowd.

'This city is pretty nice. But I wonder what this blue energy is that's coming into me? I've noticed that when someone berates someone else or people are being mean to each other, the energy is generated then it flows to me. This must be cursed energy. Hm, I'm glad that whoever sent me here at least gave me the basic knowledge about things.'

Zakuro continued swaggering through the streets taking in the sights as he enjoyed the influx of cursed energy. There was one more thing that he noticed he could see along with the cursed energy.

It was reishi. Spiritual particles.

He tried to manipulate it but because of a lack of training and knowledge, the effort failed.

'On the bright side though, at least I could see it. Whenever I learn to use it in the future, it'll be much easier for me. Now, I need to find somewhere I can stay. Maybe somewhere that's close to the poorer parts of the city but not that far away from the middle. That way, I can enjoy the cursed energy coming from both directions.'

Looking down at his palms, Zakuro continued thinking, 'Hm, I need to find a way to fly...I wonder if I can change the shape of my soul to develop wings? Could it be that easy?'

WHOOSH!

Large angelic black wings shot out of Zakuro's back as he tried using the technique on himself. The wings looked just like he had imagined it, confirming a few theories he was thinking about.

'Now to fly... let's see, if I move my back muscles like this...'

VROOM!

Zakuro shot up in the air with blinding speed and barely managed to stop himself while struggling to regain his balance. Controlling the power of flight for the first time wasn't an easy task.

But after being able to at least straighten up mid-air, Zakuro's attention was taken by the crowd of people on the ground. From the height he was at, they looked like moving dots.

There was only one thought running through his mind at the moment.

'This is surreal. I could get used to this. In fact, I should get used to this. Everyone just looks so small and weak when they stand under me. This feeling it's so....'

A wide sinister smile appeared on his face.

'Intoxicating!'

Zakuro was someone who liked being at the 'head' of everything. Whether it be a class at school, at his job, or even the country itself; if Zakuro wasn't in control of everyone's lives, he didn't feel right.

This habit came from a certain ideology he had adopted over the years. He believed that "the weak should be trampled by the strong." It was a simple ideology that shaped who he was over the years. His parents and careful observation of humans made him conclude that this was how the world really was.

Anyone who thought differently just couldn't see the truth of the world.

Regaining his composure, Zakuro slowly started guiding himself closer to the ground in an effort to land on a tall building. The reason was he felt a significant drain in his cursed energy only after a short moment in the air and he didn't want any unfortunate accidents to happen.

'I wonder though, what about my spiritual power? Every being should have it but I don't feel it. Maybe it's mixed in with my cursed energy? Sigh, there are so many things I'm ignorant about. It's making me uneasy....'

After a short while of trying to control himself in the air, Zakuro finally managed to find his way to a building that overlooked the entire city. There wasn't a section of it that he could miss from this height.

As soon as he deactivated his wings, Zakuro took a deep breath and thought, 'Phew, just simple flight is taxing for me right now. This is probably the only technique I could pull off currently. I need to hurry and find a place to train. And what is this weird feeling I've been getting since I killed that drunkard?'

Zakuro didn't think about it too much and put it at the back of his mind as he didn't have time to worry about that. He immediately then started looking. It didn't take too long for him to find a general area of where he wanted to search on foot. It was a residential area where most of the families there probably were middle-class earners and the rest lower class. Basically, a run-of-the-mill neighborhood that had its good and bad parts.

'Now I just need to figure out how to get there and make sure I don't alert any shinigami in the process.'

Coming to this conclusion, Zakuro gave it some thought and eventually came up with an idea. A rather simple one, really. He just planned to fly down from the building, blend in with the crowd, and walk towards his destination. That would make blending in much easier unless the Shinigami sense him.

Looking down at the streets below him as the wind blew his hair across his face, Zakuro clicked his tongue and murmured, "Tch! This walk is gonna be boring. I might as well get another drink to ease the boredom on my way there."

[30 minutes later.]

Clang!

The sound of a metal can hitting the insides of a trash bin reverberated throughout the empty streets of the neighborhood. The street lights were on and the only semblance of human life that could be seen was through the windows in their houses. After all, it was getting close to midnight.

Which meant that it was the perfect time for someone like him to lurk about. But on the flip side, this was the time that most Shinigami were on patrol. So his next few actions had to be carefully considered.

Zakuro walked through the more suburban parts of the neighborhood then after several twists and turns through multiple streets, he found himself in the part that resembled the 'slums.'

What he planned to do was find an empty or abandoned house, maybe even a store that's been closed down, and inhabit it. If that wasn't possible, he planned to make an empty one instead. By, of course, permanently removing the owners from their homes and the world of the living.

Zakuro smiled and thought to himself, 'Would be nice if I could find someone who lived by themselves at the end of the block so I can minimize how much I kill. And I need to do something about those...wait. Isn't that...'

He stopped. Zakuro's smile turned into a curious grin as he saw a familiar figure walking towards him. It was a man with a bloodied white dress shirt, black dress pants, and a severely injured head. Coupled together with that, the man also had an extremely long metal chain attached to his chest. When Zakuro saw who the chain was attached to, he almost laughed in disbelief.

It was the drunken man that Zakuro had killed earlier. More precisely, it was his soul. The man must have wanted revenge on Zakuro so much after being killed by him that he grew an attachment to him. It was quite a funny occurrence considering the difference in strength.

"How didn't I notice this before? Was I that distracted? Maybe it just materializes when he gets close? Heh, no matter. I'll just use...wait... how long has he been following me...?"

The smile instantly faded from Zakuro's face. If he thought about this strange occurrence logically, then it wouldn't make sense for the soul to be here. With all the Shinigami in town and his unusually long chain of fate, it would basically be impossible for one of them not to notice it.

'And if a Shinigami wanted to exorcise him but was stopped because of the chain of fate, they would need to find where it's connected to. So that would mean...'

SHWWINNG!

A speeding silver blade shot out of the darkness towards Zakuro's face in a downward's motion, causing his instincts to go on high alert. He immediately stepped back and barely managed to dodge the attack as it cut off a strand of his hair.

Suddenly, a voice sounded out from the shadows of some nearby bushes.

"Damn hollow, get away from that soul! Did you lead him here to eat him thinking that he wouldn't be noticed by us? You're not very smart, are you?"

Just by the words and tone used, Zakuro could tell that the person this voice belonged to was very condescending. Luckily for him, that was the type of person he enjoyed humiliating and killing the most.

A shinigami stepped out of the shadows with his blade drawn and had it pointed towards Zakuro. He had long bushy hair, thin eyebrows, and a very...forgettable face. The type of face one would forget seconds after seeing it. [Basically, he was a mob.]

Zakuro clicked his tongue in frustration and just took a deep breath as he focused his gaze on the Shinigami. Although he wasn't sure he could win, he knew that he would have to somehow find a way. No, he knew that he would find a way.

His angered expression was slowly replaced by one of absolute calm as he took his hands out of his pockets. He wasn't planning to talk to the Shinigami much as he wasn't the type to hold long conversations with those he planned to kill. But, it would've been rude for him to give no response at all.

Raising a hand sign, Zakuro calmly said with no change in expression, "I'll murder you."