Akuma and Hannya

A woman lay bleeding on a summoning formation she drew with her bleeding fingers on the forest floor. She just pierced her heart to offer her lifeblood as offering to summon an Akuma. She was desperate and had no other choice. As she lay dying, a ghastly presence appeared.

<State thy request summoner, It shall be fulfilled, for, the payment has been made.> The Akuma that was summoned by her stood in the summoning formation and spoke in an indifferent tone.

The Akuma had a slender frame akin to a woman, pale, almost ghastly-white, complexion, a jet-black mask with golden engraving covering the upper part of the face. It was an androgynous beauty in a butler uniform with a jet-black knee-length hooded robe covering its body.

" Pl ... Please save my child from those beasts, please. " The woman stated her last wish.

<It shall be done.>

With a satisfied smile on her face, the woman breathed her last, peacefully.

Expressionless, the Akuma consumed her body as the price for the job and obtained the information of the woman's child from the memories she carried. It disappeared.

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" Man, it is such a pain to be a guard. We have to be on constant alert. " A man complained to his companion while guarding an inconspicuous shack in the shadows.

" Anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Be sharp. "

" Yes. Sure. "

A sweet smell suffused out of nowhere. The guards immediately got alert but couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary. But just after a few whiffs, their eyes turned lifeless as their bodies collapsed one after the other. After a while, all that was left were rotting skeletons.

Inside the shack was a small trap door that leads to an antechamber which further led to two places, a laboratory, and a prison. Inside the laboratory were several people standing around a fully dissected corpse of a small child while discussing something in a low voice.

In the prison, there were several children hiding in the corners, trembling in fear. They didn't even dare make a sound. They were dressed in shabby clothes and underfed, their bones jutting out.

A pleasant fragrance made its way into their noses putting them to sleep. The scene was entirely different in the laboratory where more than half of them were dead, with melted gas masks on their faces. The others, covered in severe burns, ran around like headless chickens.

" Who dares!! " A bellow rang like a deep gong, clearing the chaos in the minds of those running, stopping them in place and dissipating the fragrance. A muscular man, with the build of a bear, walked into the light from the darkest corner of the laboratory while grumbling.

" Not answering huh!? I guess I have to force you out. " Pulling the broad sword strapped on his waist into a horizontal stance, he slashed with a force that created a tailwind.

His sword strike literally cut the darkness looming around them, sending tremors that shook the very chamber they were in, causing dust from the ceiling to rain on their heads.

Standing in front of them was a hooded androgynous person holding a heavy sword in its hands.

The person's expression hidden under the mask was hard to perceive.

" So this is the insect that dared infiltrate our stronghold. " The man glared at the person.

With a barely visible flicker, the two crossed swords. In the next instant, they were once again in their original positions, as if their previous clash was just a figment of the imagination.

The person's hooded robe was torn in half revealing his(?) butler-like clothes. Meanwhile, the man lost his entire dominant arm, cleanly severed at the shoulder joint, leaving a sharp stump.

" So you do ... ~cough~ ... have skills huh!? " the man spoke in a nonchalant tone as if the arm that now lay on the ground isn't his at all. He wielded the sword with his other hand and got ready.

With a quick step, the Akuma bypassed the man and stood behind him, his head falling off his shoulders after a slight delay. The body collapsed like a marionette without strings.

" Sa ... save us. "

Those were the last words spoken by the scientists in the lab before they were slaughtered.

The Akuma, finishing its job, teleported all the children to the nearby village gates, thereby ensuring their safety. With its mission accomplished, it was sent back to its home, the gates of Hell.

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<Hannya, I summon thee.> A chant so short, it wouldn't be called one by most of the mages, was successful in summoning a Hannya.

She was a tall, beautiful woman with flowy black hair, black mist like clothes that sort of faded off rather than possessing sharp edges. Her face was covered in a Noh mask.

<State thy purpose and the payment, summoner.>

<My entire mana shall serve as the payment. Find the person responsible for the annihilation of my team of scientists and the soldiers guarding them.>

The Hannya calmly floated over to the debris and examined it. She sunk in her thoughts for a while before replying;

<The person responsible for this was a woman who summoned an Akuma to do all this. The traces of the said Akuma along with the scent of the pact are present here.>

<Very well. I pronounce the end of the job for thee.>

With a grunt, the man collapsed. All of his mana was absorbed/devoured by the Hannya. She disappeared to her realm after finishing her job.

" Tch, no mercy at all. She literally consumed all of my mana. " The man grumbled as he left.

<Stupid, Idiot, Dumb. Why did you have to leave your traces behind like a stupid? I wasn't able to hide that info at all. That stupid sibling of mine deserves a good lashing.>

The Hannya, which the man thought disappeared, was still hovering around, hiding, looking for the traces of the Akuma that caused the tragedy, her sibling.