On the other side of town, Kashimo patted his stomach with satisfaction and leaned back in his chair.
He hadn't slept in a day and a night, let alone stopped to eat. The yakitori and rice cakes from earlier had been a re distraction for a man who was starving. Now, with eight bowls of offal noodles sitting in his gut, he finally felt like his soul had returned to his body.
The waiter stood nearby, staring at the towering stack of empty bowls and swallowing hard.
"Sir, since you've finished, the bill..." He rubbed his hands together, a forced smile plastered on his face.
Kashimo glanced at him and shrugged. "Wait a second."
He felt through his robes and checked his sleeves before untying a small burlap pouch from his waist. He tossed it into the waiter's hands, stood up, and walked out without looking back.
The waiter opened the bag, and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "Gold! Real gold! Please co again, my lord!"
As Kashimo stepped over the threshold, his ears caught fragnts of a conversation nearby.
"Hey, did you hear? At the banquet tonight, the Three Clans..."
He glanced toward the corner of the building. Two n, one bald and one thin, were huddled together, whispering. Kashimo sized them up. They were sorcerers, not particularly strong, but they clearly had information.
He walked over and dropped a heavy hand on the bald man's shoulder.
"Who the hell—"
Before the man could finish, Kashimo flooded his legs with cursed energy and vanished, taking the man with him in a blur. A gust of wind swirled through the alley, kicking up a few dead leaves. The thin man was left standing alone, his mouth hanging open as he stared at the empty space where his companion had been.
Deep in a side alley, Kashimo slamd the man against a wall, gripping him tight by the collar.
"The banquet. Tell everything."
The man's legs went weak. He hung there, pale and trembling. He could tell just by looking into Kashimo's eyes that this wasn't soone he wanted to talk back to.
"The Three Clans. They invited the nobility and a dozen other sorcerer factions to a banquet. I don't know anything else, I swear!"
Kashimo ignored him, muttering to himself. "So the Zenin estate should be half-empty. Probably just the Hei and the Kukuru units left behind. Doesn't matter. The clans aren't what they used to be anyway."
The man stared at him, bewildered. "What?"
Kashimo snapped out of it and looked at the man as if he had forgotten he was still holding him. "Oh. You're done. Get lost."
He let go, and the man slumped to the ground. By the ti he looked up, Kashimo was gone.
***
The Zenin Estate.
"Good work, A."
The speaker had long hair trailing down his back. He stood under the eaves of a corridor, the torchlight flickering across half of his face. This was Zenin Taichi, the chief of the Hei.
"It's nothing." The short-haired Zenin A raised his torch, scanning the shadows. "The world is a ss right now. The Head of the House specifically told us to guard the vault before he left. He's worried about rogue sorcerers trying to help themselves."
Taichi nodded. "The Kukuru unit is patrolling the periter. No one is getting through them. Relax."
"He actually wanted to move the artifacts," A said. "But there are too many scrolls and tools to transport. That's why we—"
He was cut short by the sound of footsteps. A figure appeared at the end of the hall wearing the uniform of the Kukuru unit.
"What is it? Did you find sothing?" A asked.
The figure didn't speak.
"Answer him." Taichi's words died in his throat.
The guard fell forward, hitting the floor with a dull thud. Behind him stood a boy in white robes with light blue hair. Purple markings glowed at the corners of his eyes.
"Why so surprised?"
Kashimo's body crackled with sparks of electricity. A and Taichi moved instantly. As A activated his technique, Kashimo felt a sudden, crushing weight on his legs. Gravity manipulation. A normal person would have been flattened instantly, but Kashimo had spent seventeen years refining his body. In terms of sheer physical power, he had already surpassed even a man like Zenin Toji.
His cursed energy flared, forcing his way through the gravitational pressure. He moved like a bolt of lightning, closing the gap to A in a heartbeat. He drove a fist into the man's stomach. A doubled over, but before he could even scream, a flash of steel caught his eye.
Taichi's blade was out. His technique was called Delay. His slashes hit in three stacked intervals: the strike that was coming, the strike in progress, and the strike that had arrived. They all landed at once. It was a vicious technique that usually left an opponent with no escape.
But Kashimo was too fast.
Before the blade could descend, Kashimo vanished. A second later, his hand punched straight through Taichi's chest from behind. Kashimo withdrew his hand, his fingers dripping with blood. Taichi looked down at the hole in his chest, his lips moving but making no sound. Kashimo didn't give him a chance to use a Reverse Cursed Technique. He slamd two more punches into Taichi's head, ending the fight permanently.
A lay nearby, his strength completely spent. No matter how much he tried to manifest his technique, he couldn't focus through the heavy damage to his stomach. The internal damage was likely too severe.
"It won't work," he wheezed in pain. "You don't have the key. You can't open the vault."
Kashimo looked down at him. He bent over and picked up the sword Taichi had dropped.
"Maybe you can't open it," he said. The blade flashed once. "Idiot."
***
At the vault door, Kashimo stared at the heavy entrance for a long ti. He scratched his ear. Actually, he had spoken too soon. He really couldn't open it.
He considered his options before deciding on the simplest one: brute force. He would hamr it with cursed energy. The barrier would likely retaliate, but it shouldn't be too painful.
He slamd a massive wave of energy into the door. The barrier flared to life instantly, and a counter-strike of jagged lightning crashed down on him. Then, nothing.
Kashimo stood in the middle of the sparking energy without so much as blinking. It was almost laughable. Trying to use lightning against soone with his specific cursed energy was like trying to drown a fish. He kept up the bombardnt for several minutes until the door finally gave way, groaning as it swung open.
A cloud of stale, ancient dust billowed out. Kashimo coughed into his sleeve as he stepped inside, muttering under his breath. "You'd think the Zenin family could afford a maid. This place is a ss."
A few low-grade cursed tools were scattered near the entrance. He ignored them and pushed deeper. The further he went, the better the loot beca. Grade One and Special Grade tools were lined up on shelves, glowing with faint, rhythmic pulses of energy.
The Soul Splitter Katana wasn't here. He had expected that, so he wasn't disappointed.
A ring in the corner caught his attention. A Lightning Ring. It was designed to store and release electrical energy. Kashimo picked it up, inspected it against the light, and slid it onto his right index finger. The band tightened automatically for a perfect fit. He would have to figure out the specifics of its capacity later.
As he explored further, he found several scrolls, including the one for Falling Blossom Emotion. This was useful. He rolled it up and tucked it into his robes along with a few others related to barrier techniques.
Before leaving, he noticed a staff leaning against a far wall. It was a deep erald green with white caps at both ends. It felt warm in his hand, unlike the cold steel of a blade. Kashimo gave it a few experintal swings and found it surprisingly balanced. Anything kept this deep in the vault had to be a Special Grade tool.
He shouldered the staff and turned to leave.
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