Mysterious Assailant

The day went by quickly and was less boring than Arai had expected. They went everywhere to shopping clothes, to restaurant. Most of the time it was Mai and Maki that spoke to each other but weirdly Arai didn't feel excluded. It was like siblings talking to each other and the parent simply enjoying watching them not feeling the need to be included.

Well that was exactly what was happening.

Arai walked out of the mall now that he looked outside, it was dark with only the street lights giving light. Though Arai couldn't see so it didn't affect him. On his back and shoulders was Mai sleeping comfortably giving her a piggyback and Maki beside him walking first.

"You tired?" Arai asked Maki.

"A bit. We went out for too long."

"That we did."

They soon arrived to the parking lot where his car was. Placing Mai gently in the back seat so that she wouldn't wake up. Maki entered the front passenger seat and yawned, it was currently 8:30 PM and they went to the mall at 4:00 PM so she was evidently exhausted but due to her unique body it was her mind that was exhausted not her body.

"It was fun." She muttered silently as if she didn't want anyone to hear it.

Arai heard her but decided to remain silent. If she didn't want to say it to him then he'd pretend to not have heard it. A single trip wouldn't completely change their relationship but at least she was a bit more open and did not completely ignore him.

And doing all of this, reminded Arai of when he went here with his parents. The sisters left their mother involuntarily and their father who knew of this did not care. The least he could do is try to be a father figure to them and if he could not do that then he'd be their guardian.

That's the least he could do as someone who adopted them.

But this sweet moment came to an end, Arai's sensed something enter his range.

His eyes narrowed down, a cursed spirit in the form of a blurry as if a fog covered it with yellow glowing eyes and hair flowing to the top and a man in black suit crawled out of his ear.

"Take care of them and bring them back to my house." Arai said before leaving the car.

"What's going on?" Maki was surprised seeing a man appear out of nowhere. Seeing Arai's serious face, she knew something was up.

Arai kneeled down and patted her head with a smile. "Nothing, just go back to sleep. I'll take care of everything."

"Wh-what?" The cursed spirit who was in the form of a fog let some of it into Maki making her fall asleep. Her eyes closed but not before seeing multiple figures appearing around their car surrounding it.

"Go." Arai commanded the unknown human who quickly drove off.

Arai's hands clenched, looking around himself there were multiple people wearing a black mask, their outfit was a traditional uniform consisting of a black shirt and dark blue pants. And outside of their encirclement, he could feel two barriers that was formed. One where connections are cut off and one for keeping him from escaping. That alone proved that these people were professionals.

"Now then, I hope you people have a good excuse to take my time." Arai took off the glasses, his white pupil turned into a glowing green. "If you don't, then I'm going to be pissed off."

The assailants did not speak and remained silent unsheathing their blades. They did not have any intention to talk and were here for one reason.

To kill Isao Arai.

"Fine." Arai put his hand into his ear pulling out a sword with a jet-black blade and white strings on the blades handle. Cursed energy flowed through the sword, his eyes closed and his hand was brought forth.

"Come at me."

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Somewhere close to here, there was a hooded cloaked figure on a rooftop. The clothes they wore were ragged and dirty with rips and tears everywhere but the little hair that it showed was long and bright red.

Under the cloak, one could see that the right side was a bit hunched as if their arm was abnormally longer and bigger than it should be. The left arm of the mysterious figure was shown as the figure brought it outside the cloak.

It seemed as if chainmail covered a part of her skin and the other was rotten with the black dead skin and flesh showing with cracks showing.

"It seems that they are present."

The voice was feminine yet held a chilling cold tone. The figure jumped roof to roof closing in on her destination. Her speed and movements showed how fast and skilled she was.

Around her was deadly silent, nothing could be heard. Not even the sound of cricket echoing through the night.

Facing Arai was a group of sorcerers, Arai had them all in the palm of his hand. They were mercilessly getting beaten, even when they planned and strike together all it did was make it so that they were beaten up together. His speed was unbelievably fast as every time he moved, the concrete under him would shatter.

Arai who was faced with trained assassins did not flinch nor sweat in face of his enemies. They were far too weak for him to try. They were already all down, grunting and gritting their teeth from the pain.

"Pathetic, here I thought you'd be better than that." Arai walked towards them with his blade covered in their blood. One of the assailants looked back in fear opening his mouth wide as he prepared to bite down on something.

But before he could, Arai appeared in front of him in a burst of speed. He pulled back his arm and shoved it inside the man's mouth. The assailant opened his eyes wide in shock and tried to take out the arm.

"There it is." Arai muttered before retracting his arm. His hand unclenched as he found a tooth in his palm but looking carefully one would notice a small plastic container holding a green liquid.

"So this is why you were so confident, even if you fail you wouldn't give any info up since the poison would kill you." Arai crushed it in his hand letting out the liquid. "Unfortunately for you, I've got good a sense. A very good one in fact."

Before the man could talk, Arai grabbed him by the face as their eyes locked. His green eyes soon dimmed down as he let go of the man. He stood back up looking around as the other assailants woke back up.

"Now then, you're going to tell me everything. And I mean everything."

"Of course, sir." The assailants were now in Arai's control due to his technique taking over their control. The power he possessed now was incomparable to his previous self. Right now the difference between the two would be like comparing night and day.

His three Heavenly Pacts made sure of that.

Each of them gave him huge amounts of cursed energy.

The first was a heavenly pact that allowed him to have a danger sense originally from Nakayama Nao.

Everything within his range, Arai could determine how much an item or even a person is dangerous. Not necessarily how powerful it was but what danger it possessed be towards him. So even items that do not harm him but bind him can be categorized as dangerous in this sense.

And unlike its predecessor, Arai had been able to expand that range into a 150 meters diameter.

A 7th sense.

The second stored objects, people, anything inside his ears. Though the amount is limited to that of a normal sized house, it was an incredible ability but the consequences of that was his skin died fast making it susceptible to exposure from the outside. The pain he receives would be far worse than it should be.

The last one that he had taken was one where his cursed energy was hidden.

An invisible cursed energy!

This made it so that even outside of his control, his cursed energy would always be invisible. No remnants would be left of him and tracking him down was far more difficult.

The flow of cursed energy was important in battle as one could predict what their opponents next move would be.

But for Arai, his opponents would have to instinctively react. Not by distinction.

The cost of it; his mind was always in a tense state and loss of his two pinky toes.

And at this moment, his danger sensed warned him of an impending danger.

Objects at high speed flew down at him, but looking carefully with his senses he could tell that their target were the assailants. Arai reacted immediately as he used his blade to cut down all the projectiles. They were all carefully aimed and since he didn't know who it was. Looking down at the broken projectiles, they were made of wood and had a metal point to the front.

Arrows.

Arai concluded one thing after seeing their behavior, they were a last resort. To kill the assailants should they have failed.

The moment the bowman failed in dealing the final blow, he immediately ran away and tried to escape.

'Their escape route is unclear and since the barrier is blocking me then I have to destroy it which will take some time. That will be enough time to escape, not a bad plan but this is why I always plan ahead.' Arai smirked before snapping his fingers.

The bowman who was running away placed another arrow in his bow. "Damn it. That isn't what that old fuck told me!"

He gritted his teeth as he remembered what his contractor had told him.

"Isao Arai is the one that stole 'my' cursed tool. Find it and bring it back to me. Make sure he dies and spill everything out. I want everything from what ability he has and where he hid my cursed tool."

"His rank? Heh, probably a semi-first grade. Yeah I know you shouldn't look down on him, which is why you can take these 8 sorcerers. Though they aren't strong individually, together they should easily be able to stall him. Find an opening, and kill him."

Those were the words he told him. He trusted his words.

"That goddamn bastard!"

But he didn't have time to think of the past, he stopped in his tracks as he sensed multiple targets. They were all cursed spirits more specifically shikigamis. Though not powerful individually, they were too many for him to fight off.

Slaves of Isao Arai, having witnessed the sorcerers kneel to him, a man who had just beaten them up, he knew that if he was caught by him then he'd be enslaved. The failsafe and recon that he had made in place in case something like this would happen.

'If I can't live then I'm going to kill myself!'

Like the others, he had poison inside on of his tooth and biting down would let the poison out. He didn't want to die but being a slave one that completely obeyed their owner was far worse. But when dealing with Arai, one would always have to expect a backup team.

Just as he was about to bite down the poison, something unexpected happened.

The cursed spirits that were about to kill him were cut in half. Their body twitching as if it couldn't register what had just happened before exploding in a burst of black smoke and purple blood spilling everywhere.

His body unconsciously shook as a mysterious figure appeared before him. Their cloak covering their face had now been dyed with purple blood. Stretching out of the cloak was a golden prosthetic arm made out metal, in its palm was a long stretched curved blade similar to that of katana.

That presence alone was enough to install fear into him.

Unlike Arai who's fear he instilled was mysterious, incapable of knowing what he thought or was going to do. The fear of the unknown.

But this woman, the fear she gave off was like that of a wolf. Hunting its prey, not out of amusement, not out of joy but out of necessity. A hunter that hunts and only hunts to get what they need.

A hunter needs to make sure he doesn't in turn become the hunted.