Chapter 21

"Over here."

I led us to a nice modern-looking café. My steps carried me to a table next to the window where a young Japanese man sat by himself. Without hesitation, I took the seat in front of him.

"Excuse me?" He looked at me with a frown.

Cori sat down next to me, trusting that I knew what I was doing. And I did. Nurarihyon had played fast and loose with the rules. He said he would only hide his aura and life force, but he didn't mention anything about illusions, so he technically wasn't cheating.

"Do I know you?" He asked, continuing with his act.

"I win," I simply declared with a victorious grin.

Nurarihyon kept the illusion for a bit longer, just staring at me with narrowed eyes. Then his appearance dissolved, returning to that of an old man with a weirdly shaped head.

"How did you find me?" He asked with clear annoyance in his voice. This was definitely not the outcome he expected.

Instead of verbally responding, I simply tapped my nose and continued grinning. As long as he was within a twenty mile radius of me, I could easily track him down, even in a city as big as Tokyo that was filled with all kinds of different scents.

Nurarihyon had a much better chance of winning if he kept teleporting all around the city without giving me the opportunity to even come close to him. That's what he probably did at the start to ensure that I lost his scent. 

However, he relaxed and let his guard down after noticing that I really was going on a date with Cori instead of focusing on tracking him down. I had to thank her for it later since I wasn't sure if I would've been capable of catching him if he constantly kept running away before I could even get near him.

"Bullshit," Nurarihyon spat out, refusing to believe that I had found him with my nose.

Again, I didn't verbally respond. Instead, I grinned toothily before revealing my fangs. Those things were pretty useless to me since I refused to bite enemies in combat, but they were quite good at tearing apart my food.

"You have Youkai blood?" Nurarihyon asked at first but quickly shook his head. "No, I would've sensed it if you did. Some kind of other monster then?"

"We're fairly sure I don't have any special blood," I said with a shrug. "My ancestry is documented pretty well, and there's nothing out of the ordinary there. Plus, those things started appearing after I started playing around with Ki."

This was my story, and I was sticking with it, especially since it was all technically true. I simply avoided mentioning that I gained them due to a Perk since I wished to keep the existence of the Grimoire a secret for as long as possible.

"Did you end up mutating yourself with your life force?" Nurarihyon looked horrified yet vaguely interested as well.

"As I said, I've been running in the dark when it comes to Senjutsu, which is why I came here searching for a teacher." I made sure to remind him of our little game by mentioning why I was here in the first place.

"I suppose you won," Nurarihyon relented despite how annoyed he looked, obviously feeling irked about losing our bet. He jumped to his feet and started walking away. "Come along then. I'll introduce you to Magari.

That's the moment the Grimoire activated. I was starting to understand how it worked at this point. I got a Perk when I achieved something of note, though it still seemed a bit random to me. Especially since I wasn't sure what the Grimoire considered as an achievement. This one made perfect sense, at least, since I won against Nurarihyon in a game of hide and seek.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: When on the Edge of Demise... - 600 CP

Like many of the villains of this world when pushed to the absolute edge of your ability you have a hidden ace. A monstrous form which enhances your ability to take and give damage by a wide margin. You could be a vast being up to twenty-five meters tall or it could just be a hyper focused version of yourself granting you a massive boost in overall performance through compressing your power into a small form. Magical Ability increases as well in this form. simultaneously. Further, any alternate forms you have gained over your Jumps may now have their abilities freely combined in this form; access any of your powers or racial traits from any form whilst in this one. This power activates automatically if you are about to be defeated in combat, supplying you with a full restoration of Health and (this world's) Magic.

'Fear me! For I have become Goku, Destroyer of Worlds!'

I wanted to scream and shout in happiness as I completed my set with this Perk! I could fly, fire lasers, use a makeshift Kaiken, and now I had a Super Sayan form! I was finally a true Dragon Ball character since I checked all the boxes.

Jokes aside, this was big. Like really big. Depending on how much this form powered me up, that is. Since I could become as big as a baby kaiju, I assumed that it would be a substantial increase in power. By how much, remained to be seen.

Nevertheless, this certainly placed me in the big leagues. It was just the first step in becoming a true powerhouse, but I was now a true threat with this Perk. Especially since this wasn't just a form that only boosted my power, but it was also a full heal as well. This was an incredible trump card, if I say so myself.

The only issue was that I couldn't use this ability on demand at the moment, and it would only activate when I was about to lose. Thankfully, I felt like I could train it somehow and figure out how to enter my super form whenever I wanted. The obvious method was to get beaten half to death, but surely there was a better way, right?

Either way, I was extremely excited. What a great fucking day! I found myself a Senjutsu teacher, and I even got an awesome power as well!

"Hey," I called out to Nurarihyon. I was over the moon, and I wished to celebrate this. "What about that feast I promised?"

The old man stopped and turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "You were being serious about that?"

"Yep!" I nodded eagerly. "Trust me, my cooking is out of this world. You can ask Cori."

"It is," she confirmed. "I've been trying to learn as of late, but his food is… truly special."

"I'll provide the ingredients," Nurarihyon said after thinking it over. It seemed he didn't quite trust me, but that was okay with me. "And I'll have someone watch while you cook."

"That's fine," I replied, not too bothered by that. I was then struck with an idea and asked, "I don't suppose you have some fancy magical ingredients? I can make something really special if I have a few to work with."

Of course, I had no plans to make the food that promotes growth or anything similar. No, I just wanted to add some more variety to my ingredients that my weird pocket space produced ex nihilo. Saiborg and his peerage might've provided me with hundreds of different types, but they didn't have access to absolutely every magical ingredient in this world.

"We'll see about that…"

"Don't touch anything and wait here," Nurarihyon warned as he threw us in a large kitchen, filled with everything that I needed. I even saw some ingredients I definitely hadn't used before.

His base of operation was a massive and ancient compound, filled to the brim with Youkai. All of them were dressed in sleek black suits and respectfully greeted him with, "Boss!" while bowing deeply.

"I'm gonna need your help," I said, looking at Cori who was inspecting the equipment.

"You can count on me," she replied and offered me a confident smile.

"I'll take care of the cooking." There was no other way around it since she couldn't infuse the food with her energy like I did. "And I'll leave the rest to you."

The door opened before Cori could reply, and a beautiful white-haired woman with slitted amber eyes and fluffy cat ears walked in. Magari, the leader of the Nekomata and one of the strongest Youkai working for Nurarihyon, grinned like a cat that caught the mouse as she approached with inhuman grace in her movements.

Magari Image. 

"You know… even if the Boss hadn't offered you that bet, I would've sought you out," she said as she stopped in front of me, staring up at me with that predatory grin on her face.

"You would've?" I asked idly before tilting my head. "And what's with that Boss thing? All the Youkai I saw on the way here were dressed in black suits and greeted him the same way… You guys aren't role-playing as Yakuza, are you?"

An awkward silence followed my words as Magari stared at me with pursed lips.

"Oh, shit, you are? Where do I sign up?" I asked with a laugh as fond memories of playing Yakuza games came to my mind. Kazuma Kiryu was a fucking badass.

"Join our… family, that's all you need to do," Magari replied with a teasing smile.

Well, damn. That was tempting. I really wanted to play around as a Yakuza for a bit, but it wasn't meant to be.

"Maybe in the future once my contract ends," I lied without even blinking an eye, the words smoothly flowing out of my mouth. "So… I can start cooking now?"

"Go ahead," Magari replied with a wave of her hand.

"I'm assuming you'll be the one teaching me Senjutsu?" I asked as I started taking out the available ingredients, my Cooking Magic Perk feeding me with all the recipes I could make with them.

"Yes," she confirmed. "And I'm quite interested to hear what you've come up with on your own. Like how you're carrying so much life force, for example."

I hummed as I wordlessly handed some ingredients to Cori, and she started processing them for me while I picked another batch for myself.

"How about a little lesson before that, so I can better explain what I've done?" I asked, deflecting her question for the time being.

"Not a bad idea," Magari agreed as she plopped down on a chair and got comfortable. "Let's start with something simple, eh? What is Senjutsu?"

"A type of technique that manipulates life force."

"A textbook answer, huh? Alright, then what's life force?"

"A type of energy found in any living being."

"Is that all you know about it? Give me something more. Like where does it come from?"

"The soul," I answered without hesitation. I knew that for a fact since I didn't have any special organ in my body that could produce it.

Life force also wasn't directly tied to someone's body or even their lifespan. Otherwise, I would've killed myself the first time I ran out of Ki. Not to mention that people like Saiborg would have an endless amount due to their long lived nature.

"Not quite," Magari replied, and I snapped in her direction, seeing her stare at me with a grin.

"What do you mean?" If not from the Soul, then where did it come from? The only other option was the body, but I was confident that wasn't the case.

"You are technically not wrong," she explained. "If you think of life force as water, then your soul is like a faucet, a tap that constantly pours water, or in this case, life force into your body."

This… explained some things. Souls could produce an infinite amount of energy, that was a fact. However, not all of them produced the same kind of energy. Humans had Magic Power, Devils had Demonic Power, Angels had Holy and Light energy, and so on and so on. The only constant between them was life force…

"But where does this faucet draw water from?"

"The life stream, of course."

"Yes, of course, why didn't I think of that?" I rolled my eyes at her.

"Because you're not very smart?" Magari said with a chuckle.

That wasn't true! Sure, wisdom was my dump stat, but my intelligence was high! I wasn't dumb, I swear!

"Just explain what this life stream is."

"It's a river that connects to all souls, be they living or dead."

"Huh, so it's like an endless source of energy…"

So many ideas popped in my head. If I could find a way to fully access this life stream, I could get myself a way to power all of my Magitech devices.

"You can think of it like that."

"I'm starting to understand," I said idly.

Now I knew why training my body increased my Ki reserves. Because I was enlarging my vessel, my container for life force. My soul adapted and grew alongside my improved physique, which allowed it to draw more Ki from the life stream.

This also explained why Senjutsu users were capable of manipulating the souls of others. After all, they were abusing the fact that every single soul was connected to this life stream.

Honestly, this information alone was enough for me to start working on Senjutsu by myself. However, having a competent teacher would vastly increase my progress.

"You seem to be unconsciously tapping into the life stream from what I've seen so far," Magari stated as she carefully observed me. "That's the first thing we'll have to work on and get you to do it consciously."

"Makes sense." I nodded along.

"Then we'll work on manipulating the life force of others. We'll start with plants before moving onto animals. Only then will you be allowed to try manipulating the life force of human beings and the like."

"I… kind of already learned the last part," I said and awkwardly scratched my head. "At least I think I did since I can heal others with my Ki. Haven't really tried it with plants or animals."

Magari threw her arms in the air. "What kind of stupid savant are you? How do you skip all the basic steps and jump straight to healing others? You know what? Don't answer that."

"Rude."

"I'll show you rude!"

Cori giggled and shook her head. "You'll get used to it."

"I'd rather not," Magari immediately replied, not even thinking about it.

A pleasant silence followed after that with only the sounds of chopping echoing out in the kitchen. That was fine with me since I had a lot to think about. Knowing about the life stream opened up a lot of doors to me, and I couldn't help but wonder if I could somehow use it to track others from across the planet, even if they were hidden in some secret dimension.

I believed it was possible. Though I wasn't completely sure since I still hadn't consciously connected to the life stream.

The silence continued on until we prepared all the ingredients, and it was time for me to start cooking. That's when Magari butted in again.

"What? How are you doing this?" She invaded my personal space, eyes completely focused on my hands as I infused the food with my Ki with the intent of making it taste better and nothing else.

"No, seriously, how are you doing this?" She asked before I could even formulate a response.

"I'm injecting the food with my life force to enhance its taste," I replied without really explaining anything.

"I can see that, you cheeky brat!" Magari rolled her eyes at me. "I'm asking you how you're doing it."

"I mean… like this?" I replied as I continued injecting the food with Ki while cooking it.

"You…" She seemed just about ready to hit me. However, she calmed down with a deep breath. "Move over and let me try."

"No way!" I refused without hesitation. "You're gonna ruin the food! Just grab some and try it on your own."

"Fine!" Magari grumbled and went to try doing it herself. I kept an eye on her, noticing that she was having a hard time making her life force stick to the food. I even knew why, but I kept it to myself.

"It's really simple to do, you just push out your Ki and make the food taste better," I helpfully explained. "It took me just a few minutes to learn."

"Bullshit!" Magari snapped towards me, staring at me with her amber eyes, daring me to say otherwise.

"Yep." Naturally, I dared. "It was one of the first things I learned to do with my Ki."

"Grr." She looked back at her food with a growl, trying and failing to make it work.

Sadly, she wasn't having any success since she wasn't infusing the food with her Ki while preparing it at the same time. I had no doubt that she would figure it out, but I would have my fun until that happened.

Magari finally had enough and asked, "Can you teach this technique?"

"Oh? Not even an hour in, and the student has already become the master?" Of course, I continued being a little shit.

"How do you deal with his nonsense?" Magari looked at Cori in exasperation.

"He… grows on you. Like a very persistent fungus," Cori replied in amusement.

"Hey! I resent that!" Both of them ignored me.

"Right…" Magari took a deep breath. "Can you actually teach this?"

"I should be able to," I replied, finally getting serious.

"Good enough," she said, exhaling slowly. "Teach it to me and then… we're gonna go and extort the West with this technique. Hehehe."

"Wow… you're telling me they can't use such a simple technique?"

Magari walked out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind her. I… might've overdone it.

"Maybe you shouldn't antagonize her so much," Cori suggested, looking slightly worried. She was probably right.

"But it's so fun…"

-------------------

–Magari–

Everyone stared at her when she walked in, ignoring all of their gazes as she reached her seat and gracefully sat down. All of the annoyance she displayed moments ago disappeared as if it was never there in the first place.

"Aren't you supposed to be keeping watch of your new student?" Her Boss asked with a playful grin.

"As if you don't have a dozen more guards watching his every move," Magari grumbled back.

"Hehe," Nurarihyon cackled since he knew exactly what had happened. There was no way her Boss hadn't heard their entire conversation. "What are your thoughts on the brat?"

"He's a stupid savant," she repeated her comment from earlier since it perfectly described him. "Doing things just because they feel right to him. Honestly, it's a surprise he hadn't killed himself already."

"It really is," her Boss agreed. "His body shouldn't be capable of housing that much Ki without any side effects."

"Obviously he's cheating somehow," Magari replied, having noticed that his Ki was mostly concentrated on his back. "And who said there aren't any side effects?"

"His fangs and… beast-like senses?" Nurarihyon mused as he thoughtfully cupped his chin. "Could be possible, and I thought as much, but you'd know better than me."

"Ki is life energy, and life wants to grow and adapt. I wouldn't be surprised if his body had mutated due to the excessive amount of life force," she offered her own thoughts on the matter.

"So you're saying he's lucky."

"Very lucky," Magari confirmed.

So much life force could've transformed him in various ways. It could've turned his mind feral, making him no different than a simple beast. Or it could've mutated his body to the point where he wouldn't have even resembled a human.

There were so many ways this could've gone wrong for him, yet he looked perfectly normal despite all the possibilities. If he wasn't lucky, then Magari didn't know what lucky even was.

Of course, this wasn't the only explanation. Michael could also be a complete savant, with a body that was perfectly suited for practicing Senjutsu. She doubted this though, since he didn't even know about the life stream before she informed him about it.

"But other than that?" Nurarihyon asked with a shit-eating grin. "What do you think of him?"

"Don't ask what you already know," Magari grumbled. "He's a little shit."

"Hehehe… he's kind of fun. I think he'll get along with the rest as long as he can take a good beating."

"I wouldn't be surprised if his body had mutated far past the normal human limits." Magari couldn't tell yet if this was the case, but she suspected that it was.

"Well, then he'll fit perfectly with the rest, right boys?" Nurarihyon looked at those gathered there.

"I'll give him a chance."

"As long as he can punch and take a punch, he'll find a place here."

"If he tries that shit on me, I'll beat his ass."

"He seems tough."

Most seemed to be fine with Michael. Not that she expected anything else from those battle hungry idiots. If he could keep up with them, they would accept him as one of their own. Though… Michael might earn that with his cooking alone, as long as it was as good as she thought it would be.

Magari had her answer soon enough as Michael and his Devil girlfriend brought out the dishes, serving them to all the present Youkai. She took a bite and… it was better than she imagined it would be. Taking a look around, she saw that the rest were stuffing their faces with the food, acting as if they had been starving all their lives.

Nurarihyon was the only one that was taking it slow, though she noticed that he was deep in thought as he stared in the distance. He looked at her and gave her a nod. "Yes, we can definitely extort the West with this technique."

It seemed like the little shit was here to stay. Magari inhaled slowly. At least she was used to dealing with mischievous kids, and since she was his master, it was only right that she disciplined him. Her mood drastically improved as she imagined how she would punish him when he misbehaved.

------------------------------------------

Beta'ed by Gerald of Revea.

A/N 

This is the last Perk from the old Grimoire. Now I'm switching to the new one. 

Also, yes, the life stream is canon. Sadly, it wasn't explored at all and only mentioned offhandedly.