Chapter 22: Sin In The Shadows

[This chapter is a rewritten version of Chapter 22: Sin-eaters. The Sin-eaters attack of Class 1-A will be delayed in this version as from your guy's feedback I noticed how rushed and toneless it was. This upcoming rewritten arc will focus on Garridan training his padawans and getting to know the ladies better (wink, wink). Anyway, thanks for reading!]

(Unknown POV):

"You're late," I spoke from under my mask as the four-armed freak entered the room. The dingy little thing had been someone's apartment once, but now it acted as our impromptu meeting room. The former owner was currently bleeding out in the bathroom shower, his skin flayed like it had been shredded by razor blades. The smell of blood had only been suppressed by a god-awful amount of bleach and other cleaners I poured over the body. Even now the shower ran down as pink-colored water swirled down the mildew-covered drain.

"Sorry, I got distracted!" As he spoke he bowed with both sets of hands clasped together like he was praying, the clatter of wood in his pockets told me he had added another one. The way the man wriggled underneath his beige trenchcoat like a worm after a night's rain made my skin crawl. His face was frozen in a perfect rictus of a smile, the thing was way too wide to be entirely human.

"I told you this bastard would slow us down, he and his damn dolls aren't gonna do shit!" Ōishi Yoshinaka was loud and boisterous, just like the fiery red kimono he wore. His right shoulder was left uncovered and exposed his rippling muscles marred with scars. A Golden eye of fire glared at me and the Hinnagami (doll spirit) maker while an eye patch covered the scarred remains of his other eye. The amount of ectoplasm the man radiated was massive, and the killing intent laced into it had the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight.

"Then how do you expect us to break through the school's barrier?" I asked trying to prevent any contempt from leaking into my voice. From underneath the sleeves of my robe, hundreds of red paper shreds began rattling to life. Their sharp edges were like razor blades and I'd have them lodged in Yoshinaka's throat before he could even draw his sword. A tense silence filled the room as both sides prepped for a clash, our tenuous alliance already unraveling with our first meeting.

"Simple, we don't." My urge to slit his throat grew as the man's smug smile widened. "For all of us to get what we want we don't need to break in." He wanted his daughter or more specifically her special Eukrasia. I didn't even want to imagine how the sick bastard intended on stealing her affinity, but by the lascivious grin he always had when mentioning her I knew it wasn't good.

"I agree-agree, ambushing them outside will be easier on me-me. Wasting our one wish breaking the barrier will leave us vulnerable-vulnerable!" Ikkiryo's trump card was [Hinnagami] a technique by which he could grant any wish he desires at the cost of his 'dolls'. The souls trapped inside fueled the thing and when I asked him to calculate the number of them it would take to break the school's barrier he said 100.

His goal much like Yoshinaka was to find his 'perfect' doll. We had been reliably tipped off by an informant inside of Hyakki Yagyō that Chihara Yuzuki the fabled phantom human hybrid was a first-year student at the school. For Ikkiryo the girl was the perfect material for [Cursed Doll] as she could reliably produce sin without the need for her soul's destruction, and wasn't fully phantom so that her soul would remain tethered to the doll. A doll that could grant multiple wishes without breaking would make for a powerful weapon.

"Do you have a plan to lure them out?" Neither of them knew my goal, and I preferred it be kept that way. If I told them I planned on upsetting the balance of the spiritual world as we knew it I'm sure I'd be laughed at like I'm crazy. I wanted to kill the future generation of exorcists and ensure a world free from them.

"We cause chaos, show the world that nightmares are real." The bloodthirsty grin on the man's face told me his intentions weren't entirely for the mission like he made it sound. The man reveled in slaughter, and the blood of thousands on his hands was proof of that.

"But how will we be sure we draw out our targets?" Any number of exorcists could respond to our attack as revealing ourselves in the mundane world would constitute blasphemy under their strict secrecy rule. Tokyo was the crown jewel of exorcist society and if it came under threat the [Executives] would get involved. Those old monsters could kill us without effort and only abstained from doing so because of their main duty, maintaining the seal of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto.

"Hahaha, my daughter will come running to me when she hears her old man is in town! You guys will have to lure the others out by yourselves." I gritted my teeth at his words, our alliance meant absolutely nothing to him and he was all too happy to point it out. I should have never invited him to join us!

"Don't worry-worry Aka-manto-kun, we can use [Hinnagami] to wish them to us-us!" Ikkiryo's arms wrapped around his chest as he wiggled back and forth, his smile had grown even wider as the sound of his jaw cracking filled the room. It looks like our attack will be two-pronged with Ikkiryo and me going after the rest of Class 1-A, and Yoshinaka luring his daughter to attack him.

"...poor girl," I muttered under my breath at the fate that awaited her. Even if I wanted her dead I would never agree to carve her up like a turkey to harvest her [geist nodes]. The pain of having your subtle body ripped apart is the combination of damage both your soul and body take when destroyed.

"Enough chit-chat, let's do this!" Before the impatient man could run off I grabbed him by the shoulder, his golden eye narrowing at me as he looked at my gloved hand clamping down on him. The amount of ectoplasm radiating from the man was intense, his killing intent boring down on me with the force of a tidal wave.

Ikkiryo cowered in the corner of the room, his four hands trying to shield his body from the potential fallout if we clashed. From under my cloak, the sound of fluttering paper filled the air as I prepared to fight, the crimson paper folding in on itself multiple times formed into a layer of armor on my body. Several paper dolls poured from the crack in the windowsill, their arms, and single leg were sharpened into razor-sharp points. Before he could even swing his sword a hundred of my shikigami would pierce his throat, a smile of confidence grew under my mask as I knew I'd win.

"Now's not the time, after all, we don't know what their instructor is capable of." Loose lips sink ships, and if your vessel is manned by a bunch of teenagers who just went through a near-death experience you can count on a few rumors escaping from the school. Garridan Wraith, former Captain of the Berlin Exorcist Squad had allegedly defeated three Tier-3 phantoms.

Normally the threat of one Tier-3 would demand the response of all available exorcists within a 100-mile radius of it to bring it down. Three phantoms of this caliber would bring every exorcist in Japan toward them. Even if the rumor was only partially true, Garridan Wraith would warrant a level of caution only one would reserve for an Executive.

"Come on, don't tell me you really believe that load of bullshit do you?"

"It's not a matter of belief, it's basic risk assessment. If even a sliver of the rumors are true Garridan would be capable of going toe-to-toe with at least two of us, his Lieutenant is also a capable exorcist in her own right. These two alone would give us a headache by themselves, and if the school faculty provide them backup they would kill us." I watched in real-time as the man's bubbling rage was snuffed out like a burning candle. He pulled his shoulder away from my arm before sitting back down on the living room sofa.

"Then what do we do?" Yoshinaka grumbled and when Ikkiryo came to sit back on the couch with him the man growled before leveling his sword at the shaking man. The puppeteer seemed to get the hint as he backed off and returned to his corner of the apartment, the ever-smiling face of the man seemed to dim a little.

"We gauge his skill level. Ikkiryo you said you could make more powerful puppets right?" My words had the man back to his usual energetic self, his smile growing at the prospect of talking about his dolls.

"Yeah-yeah, but I need more materials to build them-them." His ever-wide grin took on a sheepish look, and one of his four arms began rubbing the back of his neck. His wide eyes and their tiny black pupils began looking everywhere but me.

"What are the materials needed?" I groaned, if he was acting this nervous then the material cost must be massive—

"Souls-souls, ten-thousand of them to be precise-precise." I was right, ten thousand humans disappearing would definitely draw attention to us. When ectoplasm is used it leaves behind a residue, all of the disappearances would be quickly linked to either phantom or Sin-eater activity. Sensor Exorcists would be given a trace amount of ectoplasm to memorize and before long we'd be tracked down by them.

"Hmm, it'll be tough getting them, but I think I know someone who can help. Ikkiryo how powerful will these puppets be?" Souls like any object can be traded for the right price, but given the large amount of them I need and the short notice I'm unsure if he'd be willing to help without it costing me an arm and a leg (literally).

"Three Tier-3's just like the rumor." Never mind, any price that slimy bastard gives me I'll agree to it. In the hierarchy of phantoms, tiers have a wide rift between them.

From Tier-0 to Tier-1 the increase in a phantom's power is around ten times greater. Tier-1 to Tier-2 is an increase of at least 100 times the power of the strongest Tier-1 vs the weakest Tier-2. Tier-3's are capable of destroying nations and are by that metric alone stronger than Tier-2's by around one hundred times the power. If Garridan really did kill three Tier-3's we could prove it by sending our own trio of Tier-3's. If he is killed then we win, and if he defeats them we will know his level of strength and can prepare countermeasures.

"Then we'll wait until I've gathered the materials, the school year has just started and the Exorcist Academy Goodwill Tournament in June will be the perfect time to test just how strong Garridan Wraith is." I smiled underneath my mask as Ikkiryo began jumping for joy. Yoshinaka still wasn't happy, he hardly ever was unless he was killing some poor sod, but at least he wasn't frothing at the mouth with rage at my wait-and-see approach. It would be better to probe Garridan Wraith and his defenses before engaging him head-on.