Curse Mall

"Yes, master," Emi replied, as another yellow paper talisman appeared in her hand, pinching it she uttered, "Transfrom." 

This time Ace was prepared, when he saw the talisman paper he immediately closed his eyes, and soon a bright golden flash filled the Buick and leaked through its windows. Opening his eyes, Ace saw Emi wearing a dark trucker hat under a loose-fitting black hoodie, gray sweatpants with sneakers, glasses, and a maroon half-face scarf mask concealing her features.

"Good enough," Ace nodded, Emi appeared less conspicuous compared to before. 

However, Ace felt that with her sinful body shape, regardless of how she dressed it was impossible for her not to attract attention. Even a khaki overcoat would not be able to hide that ample bosom and fat ass of hers simultaneously. But, they had to do good with what they had.

*Clunk* opening the passenger side car door, Ace instructed Emi, "Head into the mall without attracting attention. I will be with you the whole time using sense share. If anything goes wrong I will recall you into the toybox and skedaddle out of here." 

"Don't worry master infiltration and scouting are two of my strongest suits as a Kunoichi," Emi assured her master as she got out of the Buick and closed the door behind her heading out of the parking lot to the cursed mall. 

"Rose, I will be sharing Emi's senses now so you keep watch and do not hesitate to contact me through the status screen if anything seems out of place. When it's time for payment I will use the status screen to inform you, you complete the transaction remotely, got it?" Ace gave Dame Wasp her instructions as he prepared to use his sense share skill on Emi. 

"I will protect you with my life master," Dame Wasp replied. Feeling that she had become a lot more uptight because of the incident earlier, Ace shook his head and shared Emi's senses. He could not persuade Dame Wasp to let loose, it was up to her, in time.

…

'This is it,' Ace said soaking in the majesty of the curse mall through Emi's eyes as she stepped into it, and added, 'Rose was right, the cursed cores exchange stores are by the main door. Emi, head into the one with the red glass door, according to Rose it has good reviews.'

The gates of the cursed mall were enchanted such that mortal customers entering it would visit a regular mall while customers with cursed energy would be able to choose between entering the regular mall or the cursed mall. 

From inside, the cursed mall was just like any other big mall but a bit more luxurious and less crowded. The foot traffic here was the same as when one entered regular malls during working and school hours. 

'Mh,' Emi nodded and headed into the store with the red glass door to be welcomed by an enthusiastic and beautiful salesgirl, "Welcome, esteemed customer."

Stepping into the store, Emi mentally warned Ace, 'Master, the space here is locked. One cannot use space-related abilities here.' 

'It must be to avoid theft but still be on guard,' Ace immediately guessed why the store had locked its space. It was understandable as stopping someone with a space-type curse tool from stealing using regular means would be hard. 

However, what surprised Ace was that the beautiful salesgirl was only a year or two older than him and was a curse slave. He immediately smelled a tragic story surrounding her and could not help but wonder if Dame Wasp was right about this store having good reviews. Well, it was possible since most curse masters treated mortals as disposable trash but treated their fellow curse masters humanely. 

The sales girl led Emi inside asking, "Esteemed customer, I am Jo, your designated sales staff, how can I help you?" 

"I am here to buy some curse cores," Emi answered looking around the store. She noticed that every customer here was attended to by an ambiguously-dressed young salesgirl who was a curse slave. 

'No wonder it had good reviews,' Ace thought. 

However, what he saw here prompted him to suspect the store owner might be participating in human trafficking. Ace did not plan to poke his nose where it belonged but the same couldn't be said for Emi.

Recalling that Emi Nakamura's hero character profile highlighted that she could not stand injustice, Ace hurriedly instructed her, 'Emi, just buy the cores we need and walk away. How they do their business doesn't concern us.' 

"Are you looking for rare curse cores for curse tool refining or just simple ones for practice?" the salesgirl asked since Emi wasn't detailed with what kind of curse cores she needed. 

'Don't worry master, I know my mission takes priority,' Emi assured Ace and proceeded to answer the salesgirl, "Just the regular ones for practice." 

"And what tier of curse cores would you require, esteemed customer?" the salesgirl patiently asked Emi. 

"Give me ten mortal-tier curse cores and five knight-tier curse cores," Emi answered recalling what Dame Wasp had taught her in the briefing. 

As soon as Emi stated the tier of curse cores she would need for practice, she and Ace immediately felt multiple gazes on Emi. These people had been discreet earlier but now they dared to brazenly gaze at her body. Even without looking at them, Ace could tell they were undressing Emi with their eyes. 

Openly declaring that she needed mortal-tier and knight-tier curse cores for practice was the same as declaring to everyone that Emi was a knight-tier curse master at best as curse masters of higher-tier would order higher-tier curse cores for practice.

"One moment esteemed customer, I will be right back with your order," sitting Emi in the lounge at the center of the store, the salesgirl left to get Emi's order.

Despite her inconspicuous looks and loose-fitting clothes, all these gazes on Emi seem to have taken notice of Emi's unrealisticly curvy body. Pretending to be unaware of their gazes on her, Emi got comfortable on the single sofa picking up the store's brochure on the tea table. She went through it while waiting for the salesgirl Jo to bring her order.