AN: I've got a quick ask of people who have been enjoying my work! If you have the time and think my fiction deserves it, please leave a review. It really helps optics and promotes my work. But no matter what, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy! :)
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Standing in the alley's entrance, Kiniro dragged his gaze across the cramped pathway sandwiched between two nondescript two-story houses. Visually, there was nothing out of place or noteworthy about the passage. Spiritually, however, it was the exact opposite.
Even without using his eyes, Kiniro could feel the lingering taint that had soaked into the pavestones from the intense emotional discharge of the abduction. Invisible trails of fear, dread, and despair rose up from the ground like smoke from a hidden fire. And beneath it was a sickening undercurrent of immense joy and pleasure. Whoever had taken the girl enjoyed the thrill of it; there was no rhyme or reason other than pleasure and enjoyment.
'Judging by the time between each abduction, the curse user doesn't kill them right away. Probably a sadist who likes to play with his toys, until they break.' Kiniro thought impassively as he knelt down and dragged his finger through the faint residual of cursed energy, 'But if that's the case, I should have sensed their hideout when I was surveying the city earlier.
Kiniro's fingers came away stained with the cursed energy that he brought up to his lips and licked clean like honey.
Kiniro's eyes widened as a flavor unlike any he had sampled before coated his tongue, 'So much sin…'
Unable to help himself, Kiniro smiled as his eyes shifted, gaining a feverish pink hue, and his cursed energy exploded off his body, 'A truly despicable soul, unworthy of redemption.'
Standing up, Kiniro's head turned as he stared at the invisible trail of sin leading off through the rows of houses and into the heart of the city, 'You can hide your cursed energy, but no one is safe from absolution.'
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"Well, he was definitely here," Hakari muttered, as he stared at the heavy residual left behind in the alley, "And it looks like he left us a trail to follow…at least he's not completely careless."
"Well then, what are we waiting for?!" Kirara exclaimed, "We need to go after him, before he gets himself killed."
"Hmmm, I think the brat can handle himself," Hakari admitted, "His technique is pretty good."
"Yeah but-"
"But that alone isn't enough to make the Headquarters label him as a special grade," Hakari continued as he crossed his arms, "And why Gojo had to personally take him on as a student."
"So we just sit put?" Kirara asked clearly, not on board with the plan.
"Of course not, we should actually try and get there as soon as possible," Hakari replied with a grin, "Hopefully we'll be able to see this brat's fever."
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Kiniro stared at the old abandoned slaughterhouse that the trail of Sin had led him to. It was an old brick-and-mortar building with a faded, worn-out sign depicting a cow's body sectioned into its various cuts.
"An old slaughterhouse, how appropriate," Kiniro muttered under his breath as he stood exactly a hundred feet away from the building, on the very edge of the barrier surrounding the property. Unlike the barrier that had been used to entrap him only a week ago, the barrier around the slaughterhouse was completely transparent. Instead of acting as a physical obstacle, Kiniro could feel that the barrier was designed only to keep cursed energy from escaping.
'A permanent barrier,' Kiniro scratched his chin, 'It has to be drawing cursed energy from somewhere.'
It took Kiniro only a moment to find them: the metal stakes wrapped in talismans forming a perimeter around the slaughterhouse and fueling the barrier. 'Looks like everything about this formation was speced into its ability to contain cursed energy. Because all I should have to do is…'
With a swift kick, Kiniro knocked over one of the stakes and watched as the barrier burst like a bubble and revealed the slaughterhouse's true nature.
A foul aura rolled off the building, one that spoke of untold horrors and anguished cries. Just from a glance, Kiniro could tell that the victims he had been sent to investigate weren't the only ones to meet their fate inside the slaughterhouse.
'Looks like I hit the jackpot,' Kiniro thought with a grin as he dropped his bag on the ground before walking towards the building.
Reaching the front door, Kiniro found it bolted shut, but a reinforced kick blasted the metal door off its hinges and sent it flying across the room. "Knock, knock, anyone home?"
Stepping inside, Kiniro expected to be attacked, but despite his explosive entrance, no one had come to investigate. Shrugging after a second, Kiniro started looking around the slaughterhouse and found it to be a serial killer's dream home.
Rusted hooks and chains hung down from the ceiling, and there were still bloodstained butcher's tables scattered around the factory floor, along with various tools and instruments designed to cut through bone and tissue like butter. And all of it was drenched in cursed energy.
But as Kiniro casually strolled through the cursed environment, he realized that some of the lingering energy was far older than the rest. 'This place has a history.'
Eventually, Kiniro reached the back of the factory and found himself face to face with another door leading to a sectioned-off part of the slaughterhouse. However, what gave him pause was the intense feeling of sin leaking out from behind the door.
'This is where the girls were taken, and played with.'
Grabbing the handle, Kiniro found the door unlocked and didn't hesitate to throw it open and look inside.
The smell hit Kiniro like a physical blow. It was pungent, metallic, and heavy in the air. Blood, both freshly spilled and old, and a lot of it.
"Fuck me," Kiniro muttered as he took in the nightmarish scene. In the very center of the room was a stainless-steel table, large enough to fit livestock, with several built-in tool racks, fully stocked with sharpened knives, saws, and hammers.
There wasn't anything currently on the table, but the room was decorated with morbid reminders of the fate that awaited anyone who found themselves a victim.
'Let's see, a leather chair, a table, and a hanger rack, all made from human bones and skin, of course.' Kiniro noted as he looked over the morbid decor, 'How quaint.'
Walking past the butcher's table, Kiniro found two other rooms; the first was sectioned off by a plastic partition that did a poor job of keeping out the freezing-cold air blowing in from the other side.
Pushing aside the thick plastic curtain, Kiniro peered inside the walk-in freezer and found several human bodies in various stages of dismemberment. Many were missing at least two or more limbs, patches of skin, and/or their heads. But the ones Kiniro could identify were all young women.
'Looks like they have a type.'
After a cursory inspection, Kiniro moved on and found the second and final room, which, compared to the last, was rather warm and contained no corpses. However, Kiniro found it far more interesting.
In the corner of the rectangular room sat a crucible along with several other smithing tools, including an anvil, a power hammer, and a large quenching bucket. However, the bucket wasn't normal; it was covered in talismans just like the stakes outside. And instead of being filled with water or oil, dark crimson blood sloshed around inside. Blood that was absolutely chock-full of cursed energy. The same cursed energy that infused the small arsenal of weapons proudly displayed on the wall.
'All of them are cursed tools,' Kiniro noted with a discerning eye as he felt the cursed energy pouring off the weapons, "So this is why you torture them, the more agonizing their death, the more cursed energy they produce, which is then concentrated in their lifeblood."
Kiniro glanced over at the door as he spoke, "There's no reason to hide. I sensed you the moment you entered three minutes ago. Figured tripping your barrier would get your attention if you weren't home to begin with."
A crazed laugh was Kiniro's only response as he watched a shadow fill the doorway, "The headquarters must be short on scorcerers if they sent a kid to track me down."
A second later, a dark-skinned, muscular man filled the doorway. He had a black marking across his eyes and the bridge of his nose, and wore nothing but a pair of black painted steel-toed boots and a rubber apron over his bare torso. "I'm almost offended. I was at least hoping they would send someone worth adding to my collection."
"Well, now you're offending me," Kiniro replied with a casual smile as he stared back at the man, "I'm much better looking than those girls you have strung up in your freezer."
The man grinned as a dangerous light appeared in his eyes, "Maybe, but I'm not looking for anything cute right now. I need something more robust. I can feel my creative juices bubbling; the next thing I make is going ot be some of my best work yet. I just need the right materials to bring out its full potential."
"Well then," Kiniro replied as a wave of cursed energy exploded off of his body, "I think I still might suffice."