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CHAPTER START---
---April 20th…
"Were you worried at all about your first tournament back home after continuing your Olympic winning streak?" a reporter asks, before moving the mic closer to Taiyo.
They were both standing in front of a camera with a large field behind them, and targets down the field, along with many people moving around packing up everything after the tournament.
Taiyo had three gold medals around his neck, and a trophy for overall points, having won every event he could sign up for.
"Honestly, I was just hoping not to disappoint everyone watching," Taiyo says. "I'll be leaving for a shooting competition over in Europe in a few months, so that will be my aim then too."
"Ah, and about your competition. Are you at all worried about someone overtaking you?"
Taiyo raises a brow at this and thinks for a moment, "Hmm, that's not really how I think about it."
"Oh, what do you mean by that?"
"Well, I don't view being the best as something to hold on to in such a precious way. I see it as an honor, and all the people training and working to reach me are showing me the highest form of love they can in any realm of competition," Taiyo says. "I'll meet their love with gratitude, and to do that, I won't stop training either."
"Ah, so you encourage the competition," the reporter says. "So fearless."
"I wouldn't call myself fearless, but I would say I'm selfish. After all, I want to see them at their best," Taiyo says with a soft smile.
"Well, that's a strange way to put it," the reporter says. "Will we be seeing you at any more tournaments soon?"
"I'll be commentating on an 'Under 15' tournament in Kyoto next month, but that will be traditional archery, so it will be a bit different."
"Ohh, well if I'm there I'll be sure to ask what you think about the showing there as well," the reporter says before Taiyo politely excuses himself, feeling his phone vibrating.
Gathering his equipment, Taiyo answers the phone, immediately greeted by Principal Yaga's voice.
"Taiyo, I have a mission for you," the man says.
"You do remember I'm not in Tokyo right now, right?" Taiyo asks. "I won't be back until tonight."
"I remember. The Windows in your area reported some unusual activity from an apartment complex. They found some bodies in the basement, and Cursed Spirits moved in soon after."
"What Grade?"
"Grade 2, you can handle that solo, right?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Send me the location."
"Good, Kyoto is sending one of their Managers from that area to assist you, be careful," Principal Yaga says before he hangs up.
"Kyoto," Taiyo mutters as he puts away his phone. "I always thought the schools were more divided than that…"
---1 Hour Later…
Approaching a massive apartment complex blocked off by police tape, Taiyo sees an older woman in a black suit standing at the main gate, leaning against a black car with heavily tinted windows.
The woman nervously plays with her hair while tapping her foot, but he thinks nothing of it while approaching her.
"I'm here," he says, having sensed a small amount of Cursed Energy from here.
"Oh, Mr. Duburu," she bows respectfully, and is surprised when he doesn't return the gesture.
"Nice to meet you, so what do I need to know?"
She turns to face the building while he puts his equipment in the trunk.
"Fifteen bodies of young children were found in the large basement. All residents are currently in police custody, so the building is empty," she says.
"So I'm going to the basement, got it," he begins walking forward, casually hopping over the large gate.
"Would you like me to set up the Curtain?" she asks.
"No, I've got it," he turns and raises his hand. "Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
A massive Curtain descends over the building, allowing him to move freely and stirring a few Cursed Spirits to rise.
Taiyo sees a few smaller Cursed Spirits between him and the entrance to this 15-story building.
"Sending me here really is overkill," he mutters while rushing forward.
Raising his hands, he fires short blasts of heat, punching holes through the Cursed Spirits without destroying the property behind them.
The fruits of these past few weeks of training.
Destroying the basic Cursed Spirits, he charges into the building, finding some Cursed Spirits that look eerily similar to human children.
"Mom?" the Cursed Spirits say as they wandered about, eventually looking at him. "MOM!" they shriek, and in response Taiyo waves his hand, releasing a beam of heat that slices through all of them and the wall behind them.
"Tch, Kusakabe won't like that," Taiyo says as he sees the damage he caused. "But…who cares about crap like that, anyway?"
Taiyo smiles as he moves toward the basement, sensing a decent amount of Cursed Energy below him.
"So boring," he says while descending the stairs, pleasantly surprised that the building still has power.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he finds a Cursed Spirit, a grotesque worm creature with dozens of human limbs sprouting from all over its body and only a large mouth of jagged teeth at its 'head'.
In the large basement, Taiyo gives the Cursed Spirit a disgusted look as he raises his hand. "You're just too ugly to live."
Firing a massive heat beam, Taiyo punches a meter-wide hole through the Cursed Spirit, instantly killing it, and leaving a spot of molten concrete and stone in the basement wall.
'Really hope that doesn't start a fire,' he thinks while watching the molten rock leak out of the wall.
Taking a moment to look around, he focuses his mind, and senses no Cursed Spirits or Cursed Energy around him.
'I wonder how long that took,' Taiyo thinks as he climbs back up the stairs, taking out his phone to check the time.
Looking at his phone as he reaches the top of the stairs, he sees that only a few minutes have passed, giving him more than enough time to get back to Tokyo and stop for dinner along the way.
While at the final few steps, Taiyo stops, seeing that the cell service on his phone hasn't returned.
'That's weird, the Curtain should have dropped after the last Cursed Spirit was killed.'
He focused once more, sensing a Curtain above him, but the Cursed Energy signature on it felt strange.
Different from his own.
Taiyo walks up the last few steps, ready to check on what's going on, assuming he missed a Cursed Spirit and another Curtain was created to contain it.
Yet as he leaves the stairwell and walks down the hallway into the lobby.
He feels a sharp spike of Cursed Energy directly beside him, having focused so much on sensing before seeing, it completely caught him off guard as his confidence in his sense of Cursed Energy grew.
And because of this, he barely reacted in time, looking over his right shoulder to see the shiny silver head of a large ornate battleaxe racing toward his neck.
Taiyo's eyes widen as the blade is mere inches away, and he only just lifts his right arm enough to take the hit with his shoulder, reinforcing his body and getting launched through multiple walls, all the way to the edge of the Curtain at the front of the building.
"Well, this is becoming a very annoying day," Taiyo says as he gets up, looking at his bleeding shoulder through the cut on his jacket sleeve, seeing the flesh quickly healing, releasing steaming Cursed Energy.
Looking at his phone, he makes sure it's fine, then puts it in his pocket and turns to the Curtain, resting his hand on it while sensing her approaching behind him.
Walking through the many holes in the walls, Mei Mei holds her large battle axe on her shoulder and struts over to him.
She stops a dozen meters from him, raising a brow at his confidence, or inexperience.
"Really? I'm standing here giving you my best, yet you're more interested in that simple Curtain. I'm almost insulted."
Not turning to look at her, he gently taps the Curtain a few times.
"Going to break it and hope that stops me?" Mei Mei asks.
"Nah, surviving is all losers think about," he says before turning around to face her. "The Cursed Energy signature on it, that's not yours."
"I was waiting inside, so the Manager had to do it so you wouldn't detect me."
"Ah," Taiyo nods. "So, Gakuganji, or the higher-ups?"
Mei Mei motions a zipper across her lips.
"Binding Vow?"
She shrugs, "Standard procedure."
"Well, at least I know it's not just because you want that poster to be worth more."
"Oh, that's certainly a bonus," Mei Mei says. "Now, will you be a good boy and let me kill you? That's what a gentleman would do."
"Nope, you'll have to work for this." Taiyo stretches his arms and takes off his jacket, revealing his short-sleeved t-shirt below, and his healed shoulder.
Mei Mei immediately noticed this, and understood that she needed to either cut his head off in one go or cut him in half.
Raising her axe, she crouches slightly, ready to launch forward, but he only looks at her as if slightly confused.
"What? Nervous?"
"What's your Innate Technique?" Taiyo asks. "I know revealing it makes it stronger, but…I really don't care. And you already know what mine does."
Mei Mei relaxes slightly. "I knew you were a gentleman. My Innate Technique is Black Bird Manipulation," she points above.
Taiyo glances up for just a moment, seeing five crows circling above before landing on the roof.
"I can control them with my Cursed Energy, sharing our senses and such. I can also use a Binding Vow to raise their pathetic attacking power by having them perform suicide attacks. In exchange for their life, I can overload them with Cursed Energy to do immense damage."
"That's…pretty boring," Taiyo says.
"Which is why I have this," she gestures to the axe and returns to a full combat stance.
"Well then, shall we?" Taiyo raises his fists, which begin glowing blood red.
And a moment later they both rush toward each other, Mei Mei with her battle axe ready to chop his head off, and a broad smile on his face, finally getting a real test for his training.
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
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