41 Sacred Gear Hunting (2)

"So the first question is, who are you two?" Otto used a question-and-answer method of stealing ability, writing all the information he got in response to the book.

"I am Tobio Ikuse."

"Vali." He didn't say his full name as he wasn't ready to reveal it to anyone just yet.

"Okay. What are your cool powers called? Any edgy phrases like from an anime?"

"Mines is a Longinus independent avatar called Canis Lykaon, I named it Jin. And no there really aren't any cliche chants."

While Tobio was answering Otto's question... Vali felt something wrong about this, but couldn't figure it why.

"It's your turn Vali-san."

"The Wings of Divine Dividing and... Maybe there is a special chant..." He did not say it fully, but Otto already knew about that information. As it counted as a condition to his Stand.

"Oh, can I get an example?"

"Afraid not... It's a forbidden form of power."

"Ohhhh, that sounds edgy that compliments your appearance." Otto sounded as sarcastic as possible, to hide the fact that he was in the process of stealing their gifts.

"Tsk."

"Anyways, can you answer how your ability works?" Otto asked the final question to them.

"That..." Tobio thinks about it for a moment, before nodding... What bad could happen right?

"My Jin can create blades from itself or can even transform into a sword. He could also use darkness manipulation. And as for further information... Sorry, but it's, classified information." Tobio politely apologizes to him.

"Oh no, it's interesting enough." Secretly smirking, the only thing that Tobio needed to do was to place his hand on the handprint on the cover.

"Then thank you." Tobio sighed in relief.

Of course, Vali could see Tobio's unease from Otto's question.

"It's your turn Vali-San."

"Hmph, my Divine Wings can divide the power of my opponents by half after making physical contact with them. As I also use that halved power for myself." Not explaining even further as he thought the question was suspicious.

"Okay... Then before we part ways, could you perhaps place your hand over the handprint of my book as an autograph?"

'Heh hehe.'

"Sure, no problem." Tobio didn't find any suspicious about the book other than its unique cover.

Otto's stand didn't possess any sort of magical signatures or ki to be detected as people might just mistook it for just an ordinary book.

Tobio happily placed his hand on the cover.

Unbeknownst to Tobio, his power was slowly and unknowingly getting transferred to a page of the book.

'This process feels shady... Albion is there some kind of change from Tobio?' Vali asked his dragon inside him.

'There is no partner... I don't sense any sort of magical activities during his questions.' Albion the Vanishing White Dragon, replied.

"Can I have yours too?" Otto asked Vali who was giving him a suspicious look.

"Fine." Not wanting to waste time, he immediately got on with it, before grumpily walking away.

"Thank you two for the interview. And hope you two have fun~." Otto cheerfully succeeded in his Longinus heist, which took no longer than 15 minutes not adding the fight that lasted 20 minutes.

"Alright, then Mr. Akefu." Tobio respectfully bowed, thinking that Otto was older than him, judging from his voice.

"Hahaha, you're a polite young man. I'm sure you'll be able to get far in the future." Otto didn't feel any guilt for saying it after stealing his Longinus from him.

"Have a good night Mr!" Tobio waved his hand before catching up with Vali.

Alone in the abandoned factory, Otto had the urge to laugh. Like a scammer who succeeded in scamming people and earned a lot.

"You sure do feel happy stealing Canis Lykaon and the Divine Dividing." Brynhildr sighed waiting for Otto to try the stolen goods.

After a few hours, the page of the book which he faked write, was starting to be filled with the info of Tobio and Vali's abilities that they've explained during the interview.

"Pfffff, Hahahah haha." Otto looked at the contents as his stand worked like Chrollo's Skill Hunter.

"So I can only use the ability that is recorded in this..."

'This is like a grimoire from Black Clover now that I think about it... Shame I can't use the Longinus itself, but only a part of their powers.'

"Beggars can't be choosers now, can we? If we only stole it like a thief." He still felt satisfied after stealing two Longinus abilities in just one night.

Still Unknown to Otto, his ability broke the rivalry between both heavenly dragons.

"The question remains, if the original user would die, would that stolen ability be removed?" Brynhildr reminded.

"Yes, I'm aware of that..."

'That situation is unlikely to happen to the two of them, since one is a protagonist, and the other is a rival of a protagonist. I expect the two of them to have some kind of plot armor that would keep them alive for long enough if that is the case.'

"It would be a shame if the two of them would die." Looking at the bright full moon.

...

Happily returning to back to the bar where he met Azazel just to now look suspicious.

*Knock* *knock*

"Ah that's him, he's back." Azazel could be heard from inside.

"Hahahah, nice meeting you again Vali." He happily greeted.

"Hmph, are you here now to look for a fight?" He sounded pumped for action.

"No, no. I'm not here for any kind of trouble. I'm just here to do business with Azazel with you present since I'm interested in the Longinus'." Otto's tone was like that of a merchant.

"Oh..." Hearing his response he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Oh, didn't you only want to see his longinus?" Azazel said.

"I did?" He acted dumb.

"Yeah—"

"I don't recall that... Forgive me." He dismissed it.

"So why do you want to see it?" Vali raised his eyebrow, as this was the second time someone wanted to see it.

"I'm curious if I can recreate it's ability to the best of my abilities."

"Huhahahaha—!" A loud laughter sounded from Vali.

"Albion?"

"Hello, child. I'm Albion the White Dragon Emperor."

"Hello, nice to meet you, White Dragon Emperor."

"So you think you can replicate my abilities?" Albion challenges Otto to go ahead and try.

"Are you going to give me a clue how your powers work?" Otto lied as he already knew how it worked.

"Hahaha, nope."

"Then how could I replicate it?" He sounded irritated trying to show he was impatient.

While the four of them were having an exchange. A fallen angel knocked on the door, as Azazel answered it.

...

"That conversation of yours with Baraqiel sounded serious Azazel," Vali said seeing his rare serious face.

"That's because some of Tobio's abilities can't be used. So he called us, hoping for a solution..." Azazel stated that the unease that Vali had been feeling was starting to act up once again.

"Albion, try using the Divide." He ordered.

Vali tried testing it against Azazel, hoping his hunch wasn't true.

"What's gotten into you?" Seeing Vali's sudden actions, Azazel was taken aback thinking that something could've happened to him as well since Vali and Tobio went on a mission together.

"I can't... Use it..." Vali's face turned in anger as he and Tobio had been fooled by the masked man.

"Gaaaaaahhhh!" He lashed out, kicking the table.

"What?" Otto feigned confusion, acting perfectly.

"It seems his ability was stolen or removed from him too," Azazel explained to Otto the situation.

"That's really bad isn't it?"

"Yeah, really bad news for them, since the ability that was lost was the base strength of their Longinus."

"Then would you say they'll be half weaker than originally?"

"In Tobio's case yes, his Longinus is severely weakened to the point he can't do anything with it. As for Vali..." The two looked over him.

"I can still use my armor... But I still can't use Divide." Vali replied as he gritted his teeth in anger.

"It's like the masked man, made a fool out of the two of us!" He slammed the table.

Not even suspect Otto as the culprit, who was hiding his grin so hard, a natural response to someone who sees his unsuspecting victim who was oblivious to the real culprit right in front of him.

"Tell us about this masked guy that you and Tobio met during the mission," Azazel asked curiously.

"It was 3 hours ago that we encountered that bastard who acted like an interviewer. He questioned us about our abilities at first before we placed our hand in his book, which was probably the reason our abilities were gone." Vali gradually calmed down as there was no point in throwing a tantrum.

"Why did you answer his question and listen to his instructions in the first place?" Azazel looked at Vali skeptically as he knew that the both of them knew better than to listen to a shady kind of person.

"It's sort of Tobio's fault who decided to entertain the bastard. If only I'd stopped him in the first place, those wouldn't have happened to the both of us." Vali regretted the fact that he didn't listen to his guts when he knew something was up the moment Satoru Akefu was questioning them about their abilities.

'Huhahahah, this might be late but... You've fallen to my trap card, you only realized when it was already too late! Sometimes my genius is almost frightening.' Otto thought like a third-rate villain.

"Is there any way I can help you with that?" Otto was the one who spoke up and wanted to "give a little hand" to him.

"No, this is our problem..." Vali and Azazel replied.

"Shame I couldn't give what you had asked." Vali sighed.

"No, I should give a little hand. I'm also interested in how the masked man manages to steal your ability." Otto now wanted to find someone who he could set as the scapegoat since it would make the perfect crime escape.

His daylight robbery session didn't leave any kind of magical signature that could be traced back to him, as he made sure to temporarily shut his mana circuits down and only relied on pure physical prowess to achieve it.

"Thank you for the offer. But we'll handle it ourselves." Azazel still wanting to be business partners with Otto, decided to keep him out of it as it most likely got him into trouble.

"Oh well... If you need something, don't be afraid to call me up."

Otto handed his phone number and email to Azazel who accepted it wholeheartedly, before sending him off back to Kyoto with some of his "Trusted" subordinates as escorts.

...

"So what's your type?" Kalawarna a fallen angel woman, dressed up like an office lady asked Otto.

"I can't answer that..." Otto can't be picky about any woman, as the only thing that matters to him is whether or not he finds them attractive.

"Fufufu—"

"Stopp playing around Kalawarna." Dohnaseek glared at her who was interacting with the human, who he could give little respect to due to him being stronger than them.

"Tsk, can't I play around for a bit?" She scoffed at the grey trench-coated man.

'Hmmm, they're the fallen angels with Raynare.' Otto looked at the two who were arguing with each other.

"I think this is the far as you two can escort me. I'm perfectly fine. And I feel like I'm wasting both of your times." Wanting to be alone, he decides to dismiss them.

"That would be unnecessary Otto, we were personally ordered by Governor General Azazel, to escort you safely back to your place," Dohnaseek replied.

"*sigh* I told you I'm fine going back alone, besides... I'm stronger than the two of you." Otto declared as bullets of sweat dripped down from their head.

"I—I see... Then so be it." They finally relented as they flew away.

"Honestly... Supernatural beings are hard and fun to play around, but mentally tiring." He could still feel Baraqiel observing from the distance, maybe making sure that the two listened to Azazel's orders.

...

-Chapter End-