Utsusemi Agency III

After a brief cooking competition in which Jun crushed the fearsome Tobio, the group decided its first objective was to search for Kouki, Valia's charge and convince him to join the team.

Jin, the independent avatar of the Canis Lykaon sacred gear also came out, as did Griffon, the avatar of Qiongqi the Fiend of Deviousness with power to manipulate wind. The group did not leave the base before the two sacred gear holders had decided on pet names.

Getting rune communicators, courtesy of Jun, Lavinia teleported everyone into the general area of Samejima Kouki's activity and they split up to look for him. Lavinia and Natsume, Valia and Tobio and Jun by himself.

"Why is Jun-kun the one to go alone?" Natsume asked.

"I was wondering that too." Tobio followed.

"'Cause he's the strongest." Valia casually said, making the other three, Lavinia included change the way they looked at Jun.

"Stronger than me?" Lavinia asked, no ill intent behind her words, just curiosity.

"Well, if I got serious, sure, but Valia is talking about my resistance to magic making me a terrible opponent for mages like you and the trash from the Utsusemi Agency." Jun explained.

"Oh! Magic resistance, quite the rare ability, Juu-kun!" Lavinia praised.

"Thanks! Oh and by the way . . ." Jun turned to Natsume.

"Here Natsume, have this." He extended his hand forward and, from and Imaginary Space Pocket, a silver white modified version of an exorcist's light gun fell out.

"A gun?" She asked as she took the weapon from Jun's extended hand.

"Looks like the light guns exorcists use." Valia pointed out.

"It was but I stayed up last night modifying it." Jun revealed.

"Now, rather than light bullets, it will absorb Griffon's power and shoot air bullets. The dial on the left lets you alternate between firing modes. It has four." He added.

"So cool! Thanks Jun-kun!" Natsume loved the gift.

"Why don't I get something like that?" Tobio questioned with jealousy, making Jin bark to get his attention.

"Listen to Jin, him and his blades are all you need. Eventually Natsume will stop needing the gun to fire the bullets if you get myt meaning." Jun declared.

He then explained each of the firing modes.

"Concussive Wind is the first, it lacks destructive power but can be fired like a machine pistol, at a very high rate. The second is Piercing Wind, a focused shot with great speed and penetration. The third is Slashing Wind, the bullet becomes an air slash that tracks targets but is slower than the other bullets."

"Finally, Exploding Wind, the speed of the bullet is the same as Concussive Wind but it takes a lot more energy and explodes on impact or by will, with an area of effect and power correspondent to the time you spend holding the trigger."

Jun finished his explanation while Natsume looked enamored with her new toy. They then split up to find Samejima Kouki.

Finding almost immediately, Jun called the others.

'My EX rank Luck isn't just for show.' He smugly thought to himself.

Lavinia teleported herself and Natsume to Jun's position while Valia came Flying in with her Divine Dividing, dragging Tobio by his Grigori made combat uniform and tossing him to the ground on arrival.

"He's just around the corner." Jun pointed out, they were all in an alley for concealment.

Needless to say, poor Kouki got a shock when the group all appeared in front of him.

"Ikuse and Minagawa! The brat from the other day too!" Kohi exclaimed but a glare from Valia instantly shut him up.

"We've come to make you the offer once again." Jun said.

Kouki silently evaluated the whole group before speaking.

"I'll think about it if you help me out." He replied.

"Enlighten me." Jun inquired.

"There a location where I saw those things gather, I plan to hit it tonight, I could use the help." Kouki revealed.

"Sounds fair. Tobio-san and Natsume-san can go with you, It would do you well to build some teamwork and Samejima-san would be more at ease with his classmates as companions yes?" Jun proposed.

"Y-Yeah." Kouji agreed.

"Got it!" So did Tobio.

"In Jun-kun says so." Natsume reluctantly agreed as well.

The three set off and Lavinia asked Jun.

"Is that okay?"

"You two can head back, I'll shadow them and see how they handle themselves." Jun replied.

Put at ease the the response, Lavinia replied.

"Okay! Good luck Juu-kun!"

"Not that you need it!" Valia added and the two left, while Jun just activated his Presence Concealment EX and hid, following the group from behind.

They entered the building Kouki had been scouting out and climbed the floors, they met with a few Utsusemi but succeeded in defeating them with some ease despite their lack of teamwork.

Natsume used her gun with gusto, taking out the most enemies but, due to it using her energy, she got slightly winded after the fight.

Tobio seemed to fall into his signature fighting style of manifesting a shadow scythe from Jin to fight, earlier than in the series, it made Jun wonder if getting in contact with Jin and removing the Ame no Ohabari influenced him more than expected.

Kouki carried a two tailed white cat he named Byakusa, the avatar of Taowu, on his shoulder, with one of the tails wrapping around his arm to create a spear while the other, Byakuya turned into a spear to attack independently.

'For beginners they are certainly good.' Jun evaluated from the shadows.

Things stopped going so well when they reached the fifth floor of the building though. There, a human awaited them.

"Hoh! To think you brats made it all the way up here. You being all together makes my job that much easier too." The man cockily clamored.

"Who the hell are you huh!?" Kouki demanded.

"Domon Kazuhisa. And I'm going to capture you three for our experiments." The man blatantly declared snapping his fingers which caused a bunch of utsusemi to attack the group.

Natsume charge up an Exploding Wind Bullet and fired it at the group of monsters, killing most and stunning the rest which were quickly dispatched by Kouki and Tobio.

"Not bad!" Kazuhisa exclaimed, still confident.

"Heh! Your minions bit the dust and now its your turn!" Kouki threatened.

"The how about this!" Kazuhisa pulled out some easter paper talismans and tossed them to the ground, creating two clay dolls.

"Go!" He shouted and the dolls charged towards the group.

Natsume fired a couple of Piercing Wind Bullets at them but, while they did go through, it did not damage the dolls and the holes filled right up.

She immediately switched to Slashing Wind bullets but the only left shallow marks and she was getting winded again.

Kouki jumped at one of the dolls and stabbed with his hand spear but became trapped by its hand and being bashed into the ground again and again, suffering quite a bit of damage.

Tobio tried to get him fee but cutting of the dolls arm fut he lacked the physical strength to do it despite the scythe's sharpness. JIn ran around the doll, slashing it with with its blade at opportune moments.

Natsume kept her doll at bay using barrages of Concussive Wind bullets while waiting for an opening to use her Explosive Wind bullet again but not getting the time to charge it.

As she continued to fire, she began to get tired out and at risk of breaking down before getting the final hit in.

'Natsume's sense for battle and awareness are quite good but she needs work on her basic parameters.' Jun began evaluating in his mind.

'Kouki as the basics down and good instincts as well as some fighting experience but is too much of a hothead.' He continued.

'Tobio as both talent as basic ability as well as awareness but lacks drive to be the best he can be . . . At least for now' Jun concluded.

The situation was very against the group of three but that was about to change . . . All because Kazuhisa was too much of a disposable character not to shut up and win.

"You're Ikuse Tobio right?" He asked, grabbing Tobio's attention.

"One of out test subjects, Toujou Sae . . . She kept screaming your name during our experiments you know, it was sweet to hear. Hahahahahaha!" He laughed with derision and sadistic glee.

Tobio froze in place and Kazuhisa commanded his doll to smash Kouki into Jin's blade to add injury to insult.

"Save me already." Kouki expressionlessly said to Tobio.

And suddenly, a dark aura enveloped Tobio as his scythe moved at blinding speed, chopping the clay doll into pieces.

This gave Kazuhisa pause, and let Natsume charge up her gun for a powerful Exploding Wind Bullet, finishing off her doll as well.

Now, all that was left was the main foe, Doumon Kazuhisa.

He hurriedly created three more dolls but Tobio just carved through them with ease in combination with a strengthened Jin, rage covering his face as he charged towards his enemy but, out of nowhere, a second man appeared.

"We'll end things here tonight."

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

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You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

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