Chapter 13- The Hassle

Tenryu was a company that swept the world with its advanced technology and its ability to produce and distribute equipment's best suited and compatible with various and unique quirks. They started in Japan and expanded their influence and reach, explosively. Expanding their reach even to most if not all countries, even the countries that had separated themselves from the world.

As the son of Tao, the only known owner of the Tenryu, Internationally, Aito's political value was quite high. Although Aito didn't know for certain, even in the supernatural world, Tao's influence was on the higher spectrum, making Aito a politically sensitive target.

Merlin was quite thorough when he nagged about this fact to Aito's ear whenever he tried to interact with the 'customers' at the underground trade centre. As such, Aito was no stranger to this fact.

Even then, he was surprised to see Ron's hand flying.

He didn't have any time to contemplate on his surprise as he was yeeted from the ground with enough momentum to tear him a new one.

His surprise faded when Youhara rammed into the invisible wall, although Youhara protected Aito with his body, he still felt the impact clearly.

Aito took a moment to catch his breath as Ciel blasted Aito's Qi sense to the fullest, observing the surroundings.

Aito's Qi sensory ability was being used in full force to keep up with the event's going on, even then, she couldn't accurately sense what was going on. Kimi, Watsuchi and the imposter disguised as Ron was releasing their respective energy/Qi into the atmosphere, disrupting Aito's own Qi sense.

The man's Qi/energy was Yoki, but since each Youkai race held its own signature Yoki, Ciel and Aito couldn't quite pinpoint which race the man was.

[An assassination, Kidnapping?] Ciel analysed, her mind racing at full speed, figuring out contingencies.

Aito wasn't new to kidnapping or assassination attempts. Imitating a certain playboy and venturing through war-thorn 3rd world countries wasn't a surefire way to keep someone safe. Although these attempts were never successful, Aito had one of the most efficient security.

Ciel sounded quite indifferent as she analysed the various events going on in the surroundings, mapping the area and potentially looking for an escape route, unfortunately, the park and the portion of the river were covered in an invisible barrier, which trapped their qi sense, and any exit points.

All of Aito's escort group was trapped in this dome, along with the children he was playing with and the casual bystanders who were enjoying the view of the fully bloomed Sakura trees.

Ciel Actively relayed all this information to Aito, and their mind worked like a single mind. Although there wasn't much they could do in this situation, being vigilant of everything going on would certainly help, no matter how little.

Honestly, Aito was surprised by the fact that Kuwa(the archer) and Akio(the wizard guy) were even doing the bare minimum to protect the mortals. Kuwa was assisting Kimi and Watsuchi, while Aiko did something.

[I think he's setting up a formation to protect the mortals.]

'You think so Ciel?'

[Yes.]

'Good to know, we can definitely use this information to get ourselves out of this situation.'

[…Really?]

'…' Aito couldn't get himself to be angry at this point.

[For your information, I wasn't even using .001% of my processing power to relay that information to you.]

'…' Aito opted to stay silent, instead he tried to focus on the important bits.

Aito could feel Youhara multitasking as he sent incessant amounts of Qi into the T-shirt Aito was wearing, He knew there was a rune placed onto it by Tao, which served as something that monitored his location and as a protection, should something unforeseen happen, but it clearly wasn't working at the moment.

Youhara was mildly panicking, Aito could feel the wolfman's heart beating a thousand miles per minute in his heart. But he was doing what he could to salvage the situation.

Youhara, who was sending waves of claws at the wall in an attempt to break it halted for a brief second as he looked back, to see the imposter charging at him from a considerable distance. As if it wasn't even a concern in his mind, he looked at the corner, where the kids were huddled together, at Akio, their squad's formation master.

They were quite a distance apart that Aito couldn't see, and he couldn't use his Qi sense because of all the chaotic Qi ravaging the area. But he was sure that the wolfman's eyes were picking up everything.

Aito looked at the imposter who was charging at him with his killing intent flaring.

The man's killing intent was flaring, but none of them were targeted at Aito, instead, it was targeted at Youhara, and his other escort squad members.

Seeing the man charging, Watsuchi and Kimi took action, charging at him.

Aito noticed for a split second, the man's bloodied face taking on a grin as he turned around and sent waves of sharpened yet agile Yoki at Watsuchi and Kimi.

The imposter charging at Aito was a trap, a trap Watsuchi and Aito had no choice but to fall into.

'Whoa, ruthless! but something I would've thought of If I had to fight against 3 people with incredible coordination.'

[How does thinking about this help you in this situation?] Ciel lashed back, clearly not forgetting the previous exchange.

'Ahem.'

But before Aito could answer, he saw the wolfman nod to himself with a grim yet determined expression.

"Please retract your Qi sense," Youhara spoke for the first time since he yeeted Aito, his voice urgent as he took something out of the inner pocket of his suit. The situation was urgent enough for him to not use the usual honorifics. "Of course, you can keep it on if you don't mind doing the equivalent of looking at the centre of a nuclear explosion."

"Eh?" Aito questioned, but the piece of parchment Youhara took out made Aito retract his senses quicker than Yuuki ever managed to make him.

[What the fuck?!!!] Ciel was surprised enough to spout out a profanity, something she never did.

Youhara injected his Qi into the parchment, making the parchment glow in greyish golden light. A second later, he threw it and it stuck to the dome, around ten meters higher from the ground. Youhara quickly made a handsign, using the racial powers unique to his tribe to displace the ground beneath them and make an earthen dome covering Aito and Youhara.

Aito felt Youhara injecting an absurd amount of Qi into the dome, reinforcing it to untold levels, the sheer amount of Qi spent on reinforcing the dome was multiple times more than Aito had refined with his entire life, since he understood the process. Which was less than 2 years, but still.

Only when Youhara relaxed after injecting Qi did Aito ask the question.

"What the hell?! Is that necessary?" Aito could see the deep blue eyes of the wolfman staring at him as he answered, his heartbeat calming at an otherwise alarming degree.

"Akio couldn't undo the world prison, so we had no other choice." His voice sounded helpless but calmer than before. "Did you know young master? There's nothing in this world you can't do with enough force."

"And your solution is to blow up a fucking nuclear bomb in the middle of the city?" the harmless piece of parchment Youhara just used was a Talisman known as a nuclear talisman. Something some crazy Shinto God came up with after the humans detonated 'Little Boy' in Hiroshima. This talisman used the same principles as a nuclear bomb, but it emulated the effects using some supernatural mumbo jumbo.

What made them different from the regular nuclear bombs was the fact that their blast radius and effective range could be controlled to a certain degree. Aito learned of this fact by constantly pestering Merlin, but knowing these facts only made Aito's and Ciel's curiosity about the world of supernaturals skyrocket.

[Oh, So Akio trying to disassemble the barrier, not protect the children!]

'You're not helping Ciel.'

[…]

"Relax, it's controlled. And trust me those children won't be harmed in the slightest."

 Aito couldn't come up with the words to argue instead, he asked. his words solemn. 

"Is this really necessary?"

"Young master." Youhara held both of Aito's shoulders as he answered in a sombre tone. "You have no idea, the value your existence holds-"

Youhara was interrupted by the earthquake that followed the deafening explosion.

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the earthen dome created by Youhara was more than enough to hold the impact of a nuclear explosion.

…

Right after Youhara stuck the talisman, and covered themselves in the dome, the imposter, Nurarihyon looked at the talisman and muttered in a heavy and surprised tone.

"Your liege really is unhinged, to use restricted Military grade talismans so openly on earth. Does she not fear the wrath of Yggdrasil?"

"You can ask her that yourself in a minute, you motherfucking son of a bitch." Kimi wasn't the least bit restrained as she cursed the Nurarihyon. She had the right, after all, she had lost her tail and her left ear to the Nurarihyon.

Watsuchi's body was powerful enough to tank most of the Nurarihyon's attacks and with their coordination, Kimi managed to survive relatively unscathed. But relatively was a big word.

She fought as she counted the seconds in her mind, and as the window approached, she yelled.

"Watsuchi! Now."

Watsuchi, who just delivered another blow to the Nurarihyon, retreated with a swiftness not fit for his build. As soon as she caught up with Kimi, a light green dome covered them both, with flickering light blue runes dancing across its surface, courtesy of Akio. Akio and Kuwa, huddled themselves together with the children and tourists, covered by a barrier.

Everyone retracted their senses so as to not get blinded spiritually, and the Nurarihyon wasn't an exception.

The Nurarihyon too used his own means to defend himself against the explosion, only after deflecting another round of arrows the bastard of an archer aimed at him.

…

The explosion made an earthquake that shook the surface, but not much of the shockwave and effects escaped the world prison made by the Nurarihyon, save for the shockwave that escaped through the gap made in the world prison.

Kimi's and Watsuchi's barrier withstood the impact, only light blue runes reducing in radiance. They didn't release their long-held breath however, as they didn't get the confirmation of their objective achieving. Before they could spread their senses out and reconnect the cut spiritual matrix, a blade tore through the barrier using the dust and smoke created by the explosion as a cover.

It was the Nurarihyon, making full use of the gap in senses presented during the explosion. He aimed to cut through Kimi, the one who was easy to cut among the duo.

Kimi tried to block using her sword, but the Nurarihyon was a tad bit faster and powerful. She couldn't parry, and at that angle, the nurarihyon's blade cut through Kimi's own and cut through her biceps.

Before the blade could cut any further, Watsuchi, without hesitation, punched the blade.

His hardened body and the Qi he haphazardly formed gathered around his fist weren't enough to completely block the blade's momentum however, as it completely cut off Kimi's right arm and cleaved through Watsuchi's hand through to the wrist.

The Nurarihyon made a nasty grin as he delivered a kick to Kimi's midsection. He twisted his blade as he separated half of Watsuchi's cleaved fist. Without wasting the gained proximity, he plunged the blade through Watsuchi's right chest.

…

"Son of a bitch." Akio muttered as he bit his fingernails, working to dispel the barrier so his archer friend could assist Watsuchi from certain death.

"What is it?" Kuwa asked, continuously aiming the arrows, she couldn't fire yet as the barrier was still up. But she was forced to fire as Watsuchi was impaled through the chest. Her arrow pierced the barrier that protected them. It lost momentum. But the arrow that followed charged right at the Nurarihyon.

The Nurarihyon used Watusuhi's massive frame to block the arrow and grinned. But he was forced to let go of his blade to dodge the arrow that flew at him with a different trajectory.

"Sorry!" Kuwa muttered under her breath as the spiritual matrix with Kimi and Watsuchi was re-established.

"What is it now?" She asked Akio, as Akio bit onto his fingernail in nervousness.

"That bastard is still somehow blocking the spiritual transmission in and out of the world prison. We need to implement plan C."

[Guy's, I need at least 30 seconds to implement plan C.] Watsuchi said through the matrix, and Kuwa nodded with a grim expression.

"I'll head out," Kuwa said simply as she dashed forward, still firing the arrows, as the Nurarihyon was hard-pressed to defend with only his hands.

Akio, wiped his sweat with his mucus-covered hands as he multitasked to disrupt the illusion spells the Nurarihyon was trying to cast on his friends. His head was burning with all the effort his poor brain was making to disrupt the Nurarihyon's efforts. The moment Akio slipped would be the moment this mission would fail.

"Fucking bastard." Akio couldn't help but curse out loud, the Nurarihyon was casting illusion spells nonstop all the while fighting off his friends. The skill and experience needed to do this was simply astronomical. He couldn't help but think that even the original Ron would have a hard time defeating this man.

He tried pressing his fingers against his temples to concentrate and sneak in an attack spell against the Nurarihyon. This was a myth among the junior mages when he was still studying in Azerath.

"Of course, it doesn't work."

"Thank God he doesn't have a backup weapon-" Akio's muttering was interrupted when the man in question threw a dagger from who knows where at Kimi who was trying to get up after patching her stub with her Qi. "Oh, fuck he does."

Thankfully, Kuwa aimed her arrow at the dagger and disrupted the dagger mid-flight. It turned out that was the trap as not even a split second later, the Nurarihyon aimed another dagger at the archer. Thankfully, the archer with her incredible reflexes dodged the dagger, but the window created by the archer not firing the arrow was enough for the man to dash at Watsuchi, who was trying to dislodge the blade stuck in his Chest. The mana in the blade was slowly corrupting Watsuchi's inside, and it was in his best interest to dislodge it sooner.

Watsuchi was met with a dagger to his chest, which he promptly blocked with his left arm. But the Nurarihyon got hold of his blade and twisted it inside Watsuchi, and instead of pulling out the blade, he cleaved it through Watsuchi's shoulder with a grunt.

Akio strained his mind to construct another barrier infront of him so as to not be another liability to his friends.

"Fucking millennial old bastards and their ridiculous skillset."

Things were getting increasingly grim, and the thirty seconds they promised Youhara were getting increasingly hard to acquire. He looked around as he tried looking for a solution.

The commotion had already reached the authorities and some of the heroes and police were already surrounding the world prison dome. There weren't much people however, as the fight hadn't even been going on for more than 2 minutes.

As Akio's nervousness was hitting the zenith, he found the rabbit-eared girl from before staring at the fight with focus, and a bit of...

'It's the mutant from before.' The girl and her friends had done as Kimi said as she had gathered the mortals in one place so that Akio and Kuwa didn't have a hard time protecting the mortals from the aftereffects of the battle. A literal light bulb lit up in Akio's mind as he understood the gaze of Rumi. The eyes of a battle maniac.

"Hey, mortal girl! Ah sorry, Rabbit mutant."

Rumi looked at Akio and pointed at herself. "Me?"

"Yes you, Wanna help a six-year-old and potentially save all of our lives?"

The grin made by Rumi as she registered the question in her mind was more than enough confirmation for Akio.

Naturally, they both ignored the cries and the worried remarks by the children, Rumi's friends, casual bystanders and Mizuki.

Actually, Akio didn't ignore Mizuki. He haphazardly formed a mental connection with Mizuki and said, startling the poor woman.

[Sorry Miss Mizuki, but young master Aito's life is at risk. I have no choice.]

…

Aito stared blankly at the sealing as Youhara worked extra hard to dispel the earthen shell Youhara just created to shield themselves from the nuclear equivalent blast. As it turned out, it took time to dispel a non-mana construct, especially one as sturdy as the one Youhara created by nearly depleting his Qi reserves.

"So, what is this plan C?"

Youhara seemed to be concentrating extremely hard, as such, Aito didn't expect a response. But the wolfman answered him.

"Our original plan was to crack the world prison enough to send a message to Lady Tao. But that bastard just sealed the communication in and out of the dome somehow."

"As for plan B, it is to send you outside the dome, even if only for a second."

"Eh?" Aito was even more confused.

"You know you have a rune placed on your T-shirt right, you have one such rune in each and every one of your accessories, those are powerful enough to send a direct message to Lady Tao."

"Eh, but what if whoever that has an accomplice waiting on the outside, wouldn't you be directly handing me over if that is the case?" Aito asked a bit of worry leaking from his voice as the chaos started overwhelming his mind.

At that second, Youhara completed disassembling the earthen dome. He jumped out of the hole with Aito in his hand, taking in the sight of a devastated battlefield. The nuclear blast gauged out the earth as the river was blocked by the world prison, flooding the nearby area. the water trapped inside was evaporated along with the explosion, making a steam cloud overhead. 

On the dome was a crack, which was slowly yet steadily repairing itself. To the side of the crack floated a crystal containing all the radiation created by the explosion, yet another device by the crazy Shinto God who created the Nuclear talisman.

Youhara wasn't proficient enough to create a mana platform, so he landed on the ground, bending his knees to the limit as he launched himself onto the crack with Aito still held tight in his hands. He whispered to Aito, so only he could hear.

"Don't underestimate the reaction time of a God, young master."