29
After a while and a few judgmental looks directed at Leonardo, the trio shifted their focus towards the task at hand: safely returning the unconscious children and adults to the city. They huddled together, their voices low but filled with determination.
Xiang Him, taking on the role of the group's elder, began the discussion. "Our priority is to ensure the well-being and safety of these individuals. We cannot leave them here vulnerable to any further harm. We must devise a plan to transport them back to the city without drawing unwanted attention, as you two know the supernatural world should not be revealed to normal people."
Nero nodded in agreement, his gaze sweeping over the unconscious bodies scattered throughout the room. "I suggest we split the group into smaller, manageable numbers. It will be easier to carry and transport them without attracting unnecessary attention. We can use any available materials in this village to fashion stretchers or makeshift carriers."
Leonardo, his voice filled with determination, chimed in. "I can use my sacred gear to create creatures that can assist us in carrying the unconscious individuals."
Xiang Him regarded Leonardo with a mix of curiosity and concern. "Are you certain your sacred gear can handle such a task, Leonardo? You only found out about the existence of your sacred gear yesterday when I taught you the basics about it, we cannot afford any mishaps or further injuries."
Leonardo nodded confidently. "I might have not trained with my sacred gear extensively, but I can control its power to create creatures capable of carrying the weight of a normal person. I assure you, they will be reliable, if my subconscious is capable of creating creatures to protect me, I am capable of creating them to carry weight."
With the plan in place, they set to work. He, Xiang Him and Leonardo gathered materials from the surrounding area, crafting stretchers and other improvised carrying devices.
Leonardo focused his energy, his sacred gear manifesting in a burst of shadows. He channeled his power into creating strong, sturdy creatures with the ability to carry the unconscious individuals without straining themselves, the desired creatures emerged from the ground as if they were shadows and prepared to carry the makeshift stretchers.
As the creatures took shape, Nero and Xiang Him worked together to carefully place the unconscious children and adults onto the stretchers and carriers. They secured them tightly, ensuring their safety during the journey.
With everyone and everything prepared, they began their trek back to the city. The journey was slow and arduous, but their determination pushed them forward. They navigated through the village, sticking to the shadows and avoiding any potential threats or unwanted attention in the forest. The creatures created by Leonardo moved with precision, their steps steady and careful, ensuring the unconscious individuals remained safe throughout the journey.
Finally, after hours of careful navigation, they arrived at the outskirts of the city. They chose a secluded spot where they could safely deliver the unconscious individuals without drawing attention from the public.
One by one, they gently lowered the stretchers and carriers to the ground, carefully waking the unconscious individuals and ensuring their well-being.
Relief washed over the rescued people as they saw the first signs of consciousness and the realization that they were back in a familiar and safer environment.
They noticed the presence of Priest Xiang with two young men in front of them. One of the adults said.
"Priest Xiang, where are we?"
"You are all back in your homes." Xiang Him speak opening his arms receptively.
"That's clear, but what happened to us, I vaguely remember being in an abandoned village." An adult woman commented.
"Don't worry my dear, I brought you back to our dear city. You were under the influence of evil forces and I along with my two students rescued you all." Xiang Him said with a wise tone as if he was preaching, which earned him two judgmental glances.
"Thank you, priest." The woman says.
"I'll finally be able to see my family." Says a man.
"I'll be able to see my girlfriend." Says another man crying from happiness.
"I'll be able to see his girlfriend." Says a third guy, who earned a murderous look from the previous man.
"Shut up idiots, there are children here. I'm taking the kids back to their parents, they must be worried about the disappearances." Says a younger woman in a police uniform. "All of you come to the police station to report what you remember about this incident. Priest Xiang Him, would you come with us to clear up the incident?" She says in a threatening tone.
"Of course I can go my dear child." Xiang Him have a strain smile on his face.
"Another thing, who are these two you're treating as students? I've never seen them in our town." The female cop insist making Xiang Him sweat nervously.
"She is right priest, I don't remember those kids." An older man comments.
"Oh, they are boys I found in a aciddent area and rescued them. They don't have a family so I took them in to teach the buddhist way."
"So kind, no wonder you are old You's son." The man looks proudly to have such a priest coming from his little town.
"Well, we're all going to the police station and we're going to clarify everything, whether it's disappearances or the priest illegally having custody of two minors."
Xiang Him approaches Nero and whispers in his ear. "You know how to do that thing? It would come in handy right now."
"What thing?" Nero questions him.
"Memory thing, we can call hypnosis." The priest winks at Nero.
"I've never tried it before, but it doesn't hurt to try." Nero shrugs and moves his hand in front of the female officer's face, this results in her glaring at him and grabbing his hand.
"What do you think you're doing boy?" The woman questions. Xiang Him also stares at him with a look that surely means 'Why didn't you make the devil thing?'
"Well I thought I was doing this right, let me try again." He again makes the gesture with the unrestrained hand, but this time he focuses his demonic power on the target to try to knock her unconscious and modify her short memory.
The policewoman's head is lowered as in the hypnosis shows, Nero puts his hand on her head and sighs extremely softly in her ear so that no one else can hear 'You won't remember anything that happened in the village. Or about the disappearances.'
The policewoman raises her head disoriented "Where are we? Where is the police station?"
"Wow."
"That's so cool, do you know hypnosis?" "Teach me."
"Me too."
"Big brother show again." ...
The children gets a twinkle in their eyes seeing something so unique.
"Yeah I know kids, allow me to show you all a hypnosis show for free." He does the same hand gesture and puts everyone in a trance, then suppresses their memories by altering them.
"Done, what do we do now?" Nero looks at the buddhist.
"We just need to send them back, but since you changed their memories they can return by themselves and will be unable to say what happened, if for some reason they remember something they will look crazy babbling insane things." Xiang Him smiles.
"Are you sure I'm the only devil here?" Nero gives a judgmental look.
"Oh please, I'm the kindest buddhist in this town." The priest smiles.
"But you're the only Buddhist here." Leonardo, who was silent, completes the adult's reasoning with information he heard during the period when Nero was unconscious and he was hearing from Xiang Him about his sacred gear.
"See, I didn't lie." He gives a smug smiles to the youngsters.
'He is definitely related to that old man.' It's the only thing Nero thinks about when he sees the man's action.
"Then we just have to take you back to your family's dojo after all I was asked to." Nero pats the priest sholder. "Remember your family jokes, just cooperate. That's all I ask of you."
"S-Sure, let's go." Xiang Him guides the way toward the dojo. Along the way he keeps trying to understand what the devil meant with those words only to get more confused.
After a few minutes, the three arrive at their destination. Upon entering, they find the old dojo master, his student and the bar owner sitting on the mats talking.
"Old man, I brought that person back to you."
"To me? Who?"
"Yes." The old man grandson responds the first question.
"No dad, I am still here." Says the barman while sipping his drink while answering the second question.
"Not you two, Him."
"Yes father, I am back. So who is receiving me?" The priest smiles as he understands what Nero wants to do.
"Son, I won't welcome you, you already know where things are." Xiang Who says looking at Xiang Me.
"No you idiot, you are receiving Him." The old man looks at his eldest son sterly while pointing to his second one.
"If you want to receive Him, I have nothing to do old man." Xiang Who keeps drinking.
"What's up old man?" Nero gives a smug smile to Xiang You. "It's nice when it's with You, isn't it?"
"Alright, enough with name puns." The old man talks seriusly putting pressure in his words that makes even Nero raise his guard.
"Boy, it's useless if I wanted to kill you I would have done it when you were looking around the village. By the way, good job eliminating that stray devil, that would have been my job so thanks for doing it." The old man smiles.
"So you admit that already knew from the start who I am?" Nero smiles. And introduce yourself formally since there's no point in hiding it. "I am Nero Lucifer, nice to meet you."
"Yes, I knew you were a devil. And no, I didn't know you were from the Lucifer family, at least not initially." He looks at Nero with a judgmental look. "Really, Morningstar? Is it the best you thought? A devil with that last name who would have thought to be connected to the Lucifer family."
"I didn't expect there to be people who knew the supernatural world in the area, so the name wouldn't make much difference." Nero scratch the back of the neck. "Well, I already fulfilled the task that Buddha gave me, who would have thought that there would be cultivators around here wouldn't you."
"Let it be, boy. Remember, you should be more careful in the future. Not everyone will be friendly to you." The old man begins to berate the boy in a long speech about the dangers of the world. "Since he was sent by a god, then I see no reason to trouble you anymore, you are free to wander in this area."
"I see. Well I've done my part of the request to bring your son, so I'm leaving." Nero gets up and starts to leave. Only to be interrupted by the old man saying. "Hang on." This causes the young man to sweat a lot in panic, but it does not externalize in his face.
The old man goes to get something inside his dojo and he puts it in Nero's hand. "Here it is." In Nero's hand is a compass with a pointer pointing the wrong way, since it doesn't point north.
"This is the Compass of Magic Fields. It points to the area with the highest magical energy density in the nearby area, be it a separated realm or just the Ley Lines, as in the case of now that I'm pulling energy from one of them to cause the pressure you felt before. The compass is pointing west because there is a Ley Line that I use to strengthen myself and fight against the dangers against the city, this compass can be useful if you go to Kyoto from what I know the youkais there are led by a kitsune that also uses the power of Ley Lines to strengthen herself."
"T-thanks I guess, thanks for the compass." Nero is surprised by the present smiling happy with the acquisition.
"It's just a small retribution for bringing my son back and solving the problem I had to solve."
"I would have saved him anyway, it was my job. But thanks for the gift." Nero smiles happily. "I just have a question."
"What would it be?" The old man scratches his beard.
"According to the monkey king, Sun Wukong, you cultivators use a copy of senjutsu used by youkai, is that correct?"
"That damned naughty monkey, my ancestor Bodhi was his teacher and he still spreads that nonsense around. Well, it was written in my family's tomes that a monkey youkai should never be trusted." The old man sighs and looks seriously at Nero. "Yes, we use senjutsu, but we don't copy from anyone."
"I just wanted to know, you don't have to take it so seriously. I think I'm going to leave, goodbye." He gets up from where he sat earlier and nods to the bartender, he also puts a hand on the priest's shoulder giving him a pitying look before turning away. "So a broken compass that guides me to magic areas, cool." Nero puts the compass in the pocket and leaves. With a young figure following him.
"Dad, are you sure it's a good idea to give this type of item to a devil?" Xiang Who questions.
"If he was evil, your brother would have already tried to exorcise him as soon as they entered the dojo." The old man takes a sip of his tea.
"The boy is good, he's not bad from what I've seen of him." Xiang Him says taking a cup of tea. "By the way, the child following him is the bearer of one of the most powerful longinus.
"I know all my sons very well." The old man talks in a very proud tone.
"Dad, you only have two kids." The bartender, Xiang Who, remains expressionless with his father's usual lack of shame.
"See, I wasn't lying." The old man laughs out loud. Then he realizes that he overlooked something important. "Did you say longinus? Which one?"
"Annihilation Maker." Xiang Him answers him. Earning a shocked expression from his father, brother and nephew.
Xiang You calmly picks up the teapot, fills the cup, puts the liquid in his mouth and spits it in his second son's face. "WHY DID YOU NOT WARN BEFORE THAT ONE OF THE SACRED GEARS CAPABLE OF KILLING GODS WAS FOLLOWING ONE OF THE OLD DEVIL KING FACTION'S DEVILS!"
"You didn't ask." Xiang Him wipes his face with a handkerchief. "No need to worry, I don't think the boy will do anything bad after all he serves Lord Buddha."
"The angel Lucifer served the biblical god and look what happened, just read the bibble and you will know it." Xiang You stares at his son.
"Don't blame the new generation for the sins of the previous one, besides, even if there's a problem it won't be any of our business, we just have to take care of this country town." Xiang Him smiles.
"Indeed, good boy thanks for reminding me." Xiang You pats his son head happily.
Meanwhile outside the dojo...