Apparition

As the shadows' eyes looked at him he saw that they were different from before. What were once empty eye sockets, were now a normal pair of eyes that were light brown in colour. A completely different set of eyes compared to Akumus' black eyes which he found strange.

The shadow then spoke out to him, "Since my last possession of this body, I have been able to establish more of a connection. Every time I take over, I gain more of a hold over this vessel, I can now drag you into this realm whenever you fall asleep."

Akumu was slightly shocked, which the shadow could sense. He quickly responded,

"If you're bothered about me taking over this body then you shouldn't worry. I don't have that much power yet."

Akumu then asked him, "Then what is it that you want?"

The shadow then paused for a moment before responding, "That isn't the only ability that I have gained. I can also see the actions and the experiences that you go through in the outside world. Thanks to this I have come to learn more about myself, and you."

"What exactly are you trying to say?", Akumu asked.

The shadow then responded, "I guess what Im saying is, that I am developing my own individual identity. A state of existence that isn't just your shadow anymore."

"But why? I thought that I was starting to somewhat understand you now.", Akumu asked.

But the shadow frustratingly shouted at him, "Watching you is unbearable. You always think about how others felt but never once did you think about what you wanted. You are too selfless, and that is why you're weak. We have the potential to become the apex of this world, but it's your desire to protect your friends that holds back my power. And now as a consequence, my desire to take this body is greater than ever."

As he said that the white world began to violently shake, this had never happened before. As it did so Akumu felt a strange sensation on his neck restrain him, as he slowly fell asleep. Before he passed out the shadow told him,

"It appears that this intruder has cut our time short. Even you should be able to take care of this small fry right?"

As he woke up to reality, he saw a man covered in bandages preparing to pierce a scimitar through his neck. Just before he did, Akumu released a powerful kick, sending him flying through the door into a nearby wall. Akumu then shouted at the intruder,

"Who are you?!?"

The intruder then said, "Um, the first rule of assassination was uhhh. To never tell the Target Uhhhhh. Whatever just die."

He quickly pulled out his other scimitar before jumping towards Akumu. To counter he quickly fired a piercing black attack in his direction, which unusually phases through him, and instead hits a wall behind him.

As the man drew closer, Akumu threw the first punch which went straight through him once again. The man then pierced his stomach surprising Akumu. He tried to finish Akumu off with a slash to the neck but Akumu dodged it while reflexively bouncing back. 

The man in bandages then explained, "My Cursed Technique is spectre yah hear?? It allows me to turn my body into that of a ghost, letting me phase through everything! It's because of this that I gained the title of Nagato, the wraith ya hear??"

Akumu looked at him confused while he quickly wrapped up his injury with his black whip. He asked him, "I thought the first rule of assassination was to never tell the target your Identity or abilities."

As Nagato paused for a moment he began to throw a heavy tantrum like a child, "Don't look at me like I'm stupid! I will kill you I swear on it yah hear??!"

This assassin wasn't very assassin-like with the loud noises that he was making. There was one thing that Akumu found unusual in all of this, despite all the noise the two were making no one had come to check on them yet.

That was when Nagato suddenly dashed towards Akumu one more time while performing a flying kick. Seeing that he was going to attack Akumu, created a solid wall of black whips to defend with which the man instantly phased through. 

Akumu thinking he was safe since the man was still phasing, prepared to attack him with a black slicer for when he eventually became solid again. But that was when he felt the force of a heavy kick press against his chest, sending him flying through the balcony, and just over the pool.

Akumu barely avoids falling into the pool with his black flight and instead just, slightly pushes himself so that he lands next to it.

The bandaged man, on the other hand, jumps off the balcony landing in front of Akumu. He then shouted, "See?? You're the stupid one for thinking that I couldn't turn parts of my body back to normal!"

Akumu thought to himself, "I can't damage this guy normally. I need Yumenos' help, but where the hell is she?? They should be able to hear all this destruction."

As he looked up towards the sky he then noticed a strange blanket of cursed energy, that surrounded the whole hotel.

Nagato then began to speak, "You finally noticed, the barrier haven't you? This is my signature barrier technique that only I can create! It's a barrier that separates the user and the target in an independent subspace that resembles that of the present world. I created it so that I could execute assassination missions more easily. So don't underestimate me ya hear?!?"

Nagato Jumps towards Akumu once again, but instead of going for a confrontation, Akumu uses his black flight and escapes to the hotel's roof.

Nagato then shouted at him, "Don't run away from me ya hear?!?! Just come here and die peacefully!"

As Akumu ran away he eventually, came upon the barrier's edge. Then Charging up an attack he releases, a fist attack from his Titan's right arm. But the barrier didn't even crack.

Nagato who had then caught up to him then said, "It's pointless to try break the barrier ya know? I made it with a binding vow that makes the outside suuuuper fragile to make the inside suuuuper tough to break. And since the outside is neigh indetectable, the chances of that happening are basically 0!"

Akumu then realized his hopeless situation, this was the first time in a long while that his life was in danger since, the Mozu incident. But unlike then he was completely alone, with no one to help or save him.

As the sense of despair began to settle in he could hear words from his shadow whispering in his ear,

"There is no way you're about to die to a small fry like this? You have already survived a situation like this before, back when Senjuro almost killed you. Sure it was Gojo Owari that saved you but this guy is way weaker then Senjuro. Why are you only getting cold feet now?"

As heard those taunting words, Akumu began to calm down and steel himself. He took a large breath before analyzing the movements of his foe up to now. And that was when he finally saw his Cursed Technique's weakness.

Nagato then asked him, "Finally given up on running?"

Akumu responded, "I understand now... I need to also use my head when I fight!"

In anger, Nagato shouted at him, "You think you're smarter than me huh?? Im gonna kill you ya hear?!?!"

He jumped towards Akumu at great speeds this time preparing to finish him off. However this time instead of attacking or running away, Akumu uses his black flight to accelerate into him, allowing him to use Nagatos' spectre ability against himself by going right through him.

As Nagato lands on the spot that Akumu once stood on, a multitude of black whips emerge from the ground restraining Nagato from the floor.

"LET ME GO YA HEAR!?!?", Nagato shouted at him.

But Akumu started to dissect his ability in his explanation, "Every time you used Spectre to attack you always jumped towards me weirdly. This told me that you couldn't fly."

Nagato asked him, "And what's that supposed to imply??"

Akumu then continued, "It means that every time, you use spectre you risked phasing through the floor which will result in your death. In that moment where you inevitably make contact with the ground, I just have to restrain you somehow."

Shocked that Akumu had discovered this fact Nagato who was strapped to the ground began to plead for his life. However, Akumu didn't care about his begging, as he started to kick the life out of him like a footballer, playing with a soccer ball.