Pirating Divinity
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 3: First Blood
- Tet -
"And that's what we found out from our visit." Masaomi explained the information we had received from Cleria Belial.
Touji and the rest were quiet and I, who had no say in the matter, stayed behind, remaining quiet too.
"We shouldn't believe what they say blindly." One of the priests said, cautiously. "They are devils."
This did earn him nods from several others.
I would have agreed with it too had I not known the relationship between Cleria and Masaomi from the beginning.
She had no reason to betray him or give us any false information which would make Masaomi look bad in front of others.
"I think we should still check it for ourselves before deciding anything." Sure enough, Masaomi said, getting everyone's attention. "It would be stupid to not verify and risk unprepared attacks. After all, we have nothing to lose."
Touji nodded at this. "Yes. Verifying doesn't cause any problems for us. As for what to do after that… we will decide when the news is verified. For now, tighten the security around the town."
"Yes."
Touji assigned everyone their patrol charts which were increased and were now double the previous amount which meant more work.
After the meeting, Masaomi took me for training.
"We are going to have to increase the intensity of your training, Tet. The dangers around Kuoh have increased suddenly and every bit of strength might one day save your life."
"Yes, teacher."
What came after that was sparring… and more sparring. We sparred till I couldn't move any more after which he let me go for the day.
x_
One week had passed since that meeting with the other members of the church about the situation in the neighbouring town with the youkai.
Touji-san had sent people to enquire about that but we hadn't received any updates after that on the matter.
Our routine had changed a lot since that day.
Two times the usual patrols and then continuous spars till I was unable to move had been hard on even me but this did help me too.
Name: Tet
Physique: Level 3(0/3)
Spirit: Level 3(0/3)
Mind: Level 3 (0/3)
Magic Power: Level 2(0/2)
Swordsmanship: Level 2(1/2)
Martial Arts: Level 2(1/2)
Holy Magic: Level 1 (0/1)
Marksmanship: Level 2(0/2)
Points Remaining: 5
Devil Fruit Synthesizer
Gacha[1 Point per Roll]
Inventory
My physique broke through to Level 3.
It didn't happen during a fight or anything but rather when I was sleeping two days after my usual spar. I realised the difference when I woke up.
The change… it was more prominent than when I had attained Level 2 back in the orphanage. Even Masaomi was surprised during the spar yesterday. He did however quickly get over his surprise and then easily matched me. However he didn't proceed to beat me, but just kept his power slightly above me and forced me to the end of my stamina to see how long I could last.
As a result we discovered that not only could I fight for almost three times longer, even my strength and speed were now beyond normal human, reaching the entry point of supernatural beings.
Ever since Masaomi discovered this, he began pushing me even more.
Today however something different happened.
During evening prayers, Touji came in with an unusually serious look on his face.
He directly called a meeting of every member of the church, even an apprentice like me was asked to participate.
We all gathered in the room with Masaomi standing beside him, looking equally serious. Touji began. "Yushiro is dead."
…
Gasps and exclamations went through the room.
"What?!"
"How did that happen?"
"When did that happen?"
"Didn't he just go out to the neighbouring town to investigate the youkai causing trouble there?" Someone asked.
"Yes."
"We didn't get any contact with him for the last week so Masaomi went there to find him. On investigation we found out that three days ago, the local police had found the dead remains of a body. " With that he looked at Masaomi who continued.
"The body had been thrown in the gutter so there was a degree of decomposition so it was hard to identify the body. I checked the belongings found on the body. It had Yushiro's id's and a cross on the body. The marks on the body were clearly from the attack of an animal… a very large animal, most likely an animal type youkai."
There were murmurs in the room.
There are many types of youkai in the world and they are the main types of foes the exorcists of Japan encounter. That's why I was taught several things about youkai and how to fight them.
In Japan, youkai use Yojutsu, also called Fear or Osore in other parts of the country. Some youkai have the power to tap into the natural energy of the world and use Senjutsu… they were the more dangerous ones but even among youkai, they were quite rare.
A comparison would be comparing a normal person with a martial artist. Senjutsu using youkai are as rare as martial artists among normal humans.
Even among youkai, there were various kinds.
Some were benevolent ones who were actually worshipped in local shrines and were called Land Gods. They protected the people of the land and were actually considered very important among the youkai groups living in the area. Any attack on them is considered an act of an all out war with the youkai.
We were strictly instructed to stay away from such places.
There was a reason for that obviously.
The church always has many overzealous people, especially among the exorcists.
They treat anything not belonging to them as heretic and jump on them like hungry wolves.
As shameful as it is, there have been countless such incidents all over the world.
This however caused a massive war to erupt among the church and the youkai, to the extent that even the Shinto Gods themselves had to intervene and a strict warning was given to heaven as well as the church to keep their people in line.
It was one of the reasons Touji was hesitant to act when we got the information about the youkai attacks in the town.
Obviously I had no idea about this. The church hardly ever taught anything which can blemish their reputation, often resorting to branding the other side as heretical which automatically puts them in the right to all their exorcists.
Masaomi had explained the details to me later on as I could one day take on his position as the spokesperson of the church in Kuoh.
The next type of youkai were those who caused mischief. Most of them were harmless, resorting to petty mischief and pranks like hiding someone's shoes or pulling someone's hair when they were not looking. Only a rare few of them sometimes by some accident caused accidents which could sometimes escalate into something big.
Next came the youkai which haunted places, the kind we were mostly brought to deal with. They could be of varying quality.
Lastly were the youkai under different youkai factions who had their own management and rarely ever interfered with the human world nowadays.
But all these youkai can still be divided into two types.
Natural born youkai or those who are born from other youkai.
Youkai born from youkai parents are obvious but sometimes when humans or animals die or animals or objects with emotions related to them live for over a certain age, they can gain spirits and become youkai.
Among these natural born youkai, the most dangerous were those who were born from other animals… especially carnivorous animals. They were the most vicious types of youkai, especially for other humans. They don't have many rational thoughts at first and even when they do, they are mostly driven by their instincts to feed.
From what Masaomi said, we are more than likely dealing with such a being today.
He continued. "Not only that, I inspected five other bodies which had been discovered recently. There were three distinct claw sizes on the bodies. Which means it is not just one man eating youkai but at the very least three. Obviously there were more bodies which have not been found yet so we can never be sure of the number. It's safe to assume that we are dealing with a pack of man-eating youkai and proceed as expected."
"So… what are we going to do about Yushiro?" Agatha, one of the nuns asked. She was an older woman who took care of the cooking and cleaning in the church quarters.
Touji looked serious but the anger and sadness on his face could be seen as clear as day. "First we give him a proper funeral." He then looked at Masaomi. "What did the onmyoji of the town tell you?" He asked.
Masaomi winced. "They told us to mind our own business and not interfere in theirs. We can only interfere when there are deaths on our side of the town."
"Those bastards!" One of the younger exorcists shouted but Touji raised his hands and stopped him.
"Are they protecting those monsters? They clearly killed Yushiro." He asked.
"The thing is… Yushiro had interfered without permission. They had told him to leave, the same as others but he had secretly hid and tried to investigate. Now the onmyoji are angrier because of that, blaming him for ruining their plans to capture the youkai."
"He died!" The younger exorcist, Glenn shouted again, looking distraught.
"Be quiet, Glenn. We are all just as upset about his death but shouting and acting on impulse will not solve anything." Touji said, with an unnerving amount of calm.
The man was truly upset by the turn of events.
Masaomi continued. "They have also sent a message that if we interfere any further, they will have to take formal actions against us."
…
…
…
…
Formal action or a short of warning to take the matters up to the Shinto Pantheon to escalate the matter.
"What do you think?" He asked Masaomi.
"I… I personally think they are also mad because they have no clues about the youkai group and even after working for so long they haven't been able to do anything. Now they are just blaming Yushiro. Still… he did act out of line, against the agreement we have with them so I couldn't even argue with them." Masaomi shook his head, tired.
"Do you think they might…"
"No. It is unlikely. Their group was initially of young onmyoji because the Principal Clans thought of this as a minor matter. They have however sent some older, more experienced onmyoji from the Byakko Clan and the Himejima Clan to take over the matter. They might be stuck up but they won't do such a thing. It is more likely a matter of pride, saving face if you will. You know how those people are."
The rest of the meeting was just discussions about what we should do next.
Everyone was angry but as bad as it was, Yushiro did break the agreement and snooped in their territory secretly. That made the church look bad and in turn gave the onmyoji extra ammunition against us, as well as pushing us on the backfoot.
In the end, it was decided that we would first give Yushiro a proper funeral and then increase the security of our own territory.
Touji did send a report to the headquarters requesting orders for further actions.
We gave Yushiro a proper funeral the next day.
It was a sombre affair.
The job of an exorcist was a dangerous job. Deaths… deaths were quite common.
Older exorcists were quite rare and it wasn't rare for them to be missing limbs or having some other type of injury.
Even Yushiro was just in his early twenties. People were mostly hotblooded at such an age and often impulsive, eager to prove themselves.
Later through some gossip, I heard that Yushiro had failed the last two promotion assessments and was planning to gain some kind of achievement and apply for a promotion once more.
One of the reasons for his actions was probably me too. He had seen my progress and heard from Touji and Masaomi that I was some kind of a genius who could probably become a senior exorcist before reaching eighteen.
I didn't know they had that kind of expectation of me but apparently, this also drove Yushiro to push himself more.
Unfortunately that resulted in his bane.
I didn't know how to feel about that. He had never behaved improperly with me so I didn't have any bad impression of him but I guess I could understand his situation a bit too. Seeing those younger than him surpassing him… obviously any hot blooded young man would feel bad about it. That said, the man had instead tried to prove himself and didn't take it out on me, for that I respected him. In my past life, I have seen plenty of such people resorting to bullying or downright sabotaging others in jealousy. It was ugly but it was more normal than most people would like to believe.
Acting impulsive in such a death world is nothing short of foolishness. To do such a thing, I needed strength. Enough power to make people hesitate about even thinking of fighting me.
Only that way can I be completely free.
Thus I increased my training once more.
Masaomi thought that I was affected by Yushiro's death and the man himself was sad too so he accompanied me in training too.
Two more weeks passed just like that.
News came from the headquarters too.
It was quite succinct and… infuriating. The first part was basically scolding Touji to keep his nose out of matters outside his territory.
The second bit was about Yushiro. They had declared that Yushiro had gone rogue and acted on his own when snooping around in the onmyoji controlled town. We were ordered to follow the same statement when asked by anyone else.
To say everyone was angry was to say that the sun is warm.
That very night, Touji called the headquarters and argued for an hour or so but in the end, he was scolded himself, blaming him for not being able to control his subordinates and cause trouble for the church. Apparently, those bastards had complained to the church that Yushiro's interference had caused their carefully laid trap to fail and let the youkai escape which was complete and utter bullshit from what Masaomi had investigated. That said, since Yushiro was acting without permission and orders and wasn't exactly present to clear his name… it was easier to blame him.
No matter or argument would make them agree otherwise.
The church also gave up the matter, washing their hands of the case by declaring him a rogue so that they don't have to pay any compensation.
In all this, the worst part was that we were ordered to not add Yushiro's name to the stone memorial where the names of fallen exorcists are added.
That was the final nail in the coffin.
No one spoke anything anymore but the mood of everyone was down in the dumps for anyone to see. Even Masaomi, a person who was always mild mannered and composed, had a scowl for an entire week on his face.
As for me… I won't lie but even with my persistent tries to remain disconnected with these people… I felt an intense anger at the church headquarters.
Perhaps Masaomi saw this or something but he sat down with me after one of our usual training sessions and discussed things.
"Do you feel angry?" He started by asking.
"Yes." I replied.
He just looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to explain further.
"Yushiro, he might have stayed there without permission but… he wanted to help the people there. Isn't that what we were taught in the church? To help the weak, to help the ones in need. He never betrayed anyone… then why… why was he shamed like this?… even after his death. Was dying not enough of a punishment?"
He let out a sigh and explained. "In relationships between factions, individual lives are not worth much. In this case, Yushiro did stay there, without permission. Sure his intention might have been to help the people but him being in the territory of another faction, despite being told to leave made the matters completely different. It's like the army of a country entering another country despite explicitly being told not to do so. Even if they do so to catch a criminal in that country, they are violating the rights of that country and will be declared wrong. From their perspective, they aren't wrong either. We had no right to interfere in the affairs of their territory. We might have had some leeway had the youkai caused some damage on our side. Then we might have had some excuse of pursuing the criminals there but they didn't. That's why we had no ground to defend Yushiro. If the church did so, they would risk straining their relationship with other factions. The needs of the many over the needs of a few… that's how organisations work."
The argument was more sensible and I understood it too.
After all, the church would surely not allow other factions to intrude in their territory without permission to solve problems. They had done so on multiple occasions already.
But damn if their way of handling things wasn't shitty. They just threw away someone who had worked his entire life, loyally for the church at the slightest inconvenience and declared him a traitor just to keep their hands clean.
In fact there wasn't even a need to do so but they still did.
That's what made me angry.
At the end of the day, it all came to power.
Had Yushiro been someone strong or related to someone strong, things wouldn't have ended up like that.
"I understand." I nodded lightly.
"Good." Masaomi patted my shoulder with a slight smile on his face and got up.
I was tired and left to rest too.
x_
Another two weeks have passed since my talk with Masaomi.
In these two weeks my Holy Magic Stat finally reached Level 2.
Apparently I was quite talented in that field.
With no news of the youkai in the nearby territory being subdued, both Masaomi and Touji had pushed me to learn Holy Magic, a type of magic which was the bane of youkai and similar beings.
Just learning enough to bless my sword with it would help me wound youkai much stronger than me.
Name: Tet
Physique: Level 3(0/3)
Spirit: Level 3(0/3)
Mind: Level 3 (0/3)
Magic Power: Level 2(0/2)
Swordsmanship: Level 2(1/2)
Martial Arts: Level 2(1/2)
Holy Magic: Level 2 (0/2)
Marksmanship: Level 2(0/2)
Points Remaining: 5
Devil Fruit Synthesizer
Gacha[1 Point per Roll]
Inventory
The spells I had learned were the bare basics that any normal exorcist knew. Creating Holy Water, blessing an object to give it a minor holy attribute temporarily, using verses from the Bible to cause damage to dark beings, although this one was not that strong, not to mention required multiple people to put up a fight against a strong youkai and last but not the least, the Holy Light spell which could only be done in a group.
I had tried some ways to change the future but as I was right now, there wasn't much I could do so there were no additional points.
Early this morning today, Touji had to go to a church in a nearby city for some work and Masaomi was taking care of his duties.
Yushiro's passing had left a hole in our forces, making all of us work longer to cover his shifts. This was going to last till the church sent us backup… which didn't seem to be anytime soon, probably due to the argument they had with Touji. All these petty power plays were annoying but the weak had no right to complain.
As they say, beggars can't be choosers.
Still, the situation could deteriorate if one more person were to fall. Because of this, Touji went to a nearby city to request assistance until the matter was resolved.
We returned back to the church to find that Touji had returned.
The look on his face however told us or at least gave us a rough idea about what had happened there. Agatha who was beside him was also looking disappointed.
We didn't ask anything.
No need to force the man to say things out loud and make him feel worse.
Still, the man wasn't someone who would back away from his job.
He spoke without anyone asking. "They said that they had their hands full with their own territory and couldn't lend any hands to us either. Apparently, in the neighbouring city, the second head of the Eastern Youkai had just been assassinated. The youkai there are mad and looking for the killer so they need to keep a strict watch on their borders. They won't be able to lend a hand in this matter."
"The second head of the Eastern Youkai? Isn't that… Rihan Nura, the son of Nurarihyon?" Someone asked.
He nodded in response. "Yes. He was assassinated under mysterious circumstances recently and no one has found the killer. The youkai are rampaging around searching for the killer and there has been many skirmishes between them and the surrounding forces. Even the church there has had many injuries. They… were doing worse than us." Touji said, feeling defeated.
Rihan Nura… I remembered another show about the Nura Clan although I didn't remember the plot that well.
Wasn't he the father of the protagonist of that world?
Nurarihyon had made a guest appearance in the DxD novels but I didn't expect them to actually exist in this world.
Were there other shows merged in this world apart from DxD and Slash Dog?
If so then… how would my system react if I changed the plots of those series too?
Many thoughts went through my head and ultimately, there were two problems.
First was that I somehow needed to find out which other series were actually merged with this world and second… get strong enough to actually be able to intervene there.
"Do you think these youkai are also related to…" Agatha asked.
"I don't know but… the Nura Clan did keep the youkai under them in strict control. Especially Rihan Nura. He was a half-human so he has been quite protective of humans. With him at the helm, the youkai under the banner of the Nura Clan were actually forbidden from harming humans. At best they scared or pulled pranks on them. But now… with the leader gone and Nurarihyon being old… some people might have different ideas. To say that some might rebel is not a stretch so… there is a decent chance of this matter being an event related to that one. In fact, from what I have found out, this is not an isolated incident. There have been several other such incidents across the entire country. Even the onmyoji are stretched thin everywhere."
Guess that explains why even the Principal Clans didn't send stronger onmyoji to assist after so many deaths.
"So… we can only push through. The matter will calm down after a month or two more." Touji reassured us.
This was probably the first time I had seen how much the effect of a single bigshot can affect the lives of common people.
Original novels or anime or even manga never ever showed this aspect of the world.
For most people, what did the life and death of some supernatural matter to normal humans? And yet, when this became real… there were real consequences.
"Actually, not only these, there might be more youkai attacks in the entire country. We have to remain alert overall."
There were some more discussions after which we all left for our rooms.
As expected, the tense patrol routine went on for the next few weeks.
Everyone was working overtime during this period.
I did however notice that most of my patrol routes were those along the border of the devil territory and not the border with the other town.
It was easy to understand that Masaomi was probably behind this.
It was probably also due to the fact that I had a neutral views about Cleria and her peerage member
Other members of church… yeah, they hated them. And due to the constant stress for the last few months, they have been very irritable these days.
Sending them on the border of the devil territory was only asking for potential trouble.
My training went on as usual, with only one change, my swordsmanship level increased too. It went up to level 3.
Name: Tet
Physique: Level 3(0/3)
Spirit: Level 3(0/3)
Mind: Level 3 (0/3)
Magic Power: Level 2(0/2)
Swordsmanship: Level 3(0/3)
Martial Arts: Level 2(1/2)
Holy Magic: Level 2 (0/2)
Marksmanship: Level 2(0/2)
Points Remaining: 5
Devil Fruit Synthesizer
Gacha[1 Point per Roll]
Inventory
The change was noticed by Masaomi who praised my development too.
Due to his words, I was able to piece together an average understanding of what the levels meant.
Level 1 and Level 2 were mundane human levels. Even professional athletes are only at Level 2 at best.
Level 3 is where one enters the superhuman or rather the supernatural territory.
My best skill was at the Level 3(0/3) so I couldn't say anything about the levels beyond that but it was the level of a weak Low Class being according to Masaomi.
I was glad for his arrangements too as Kuoh had been attacked by stray youkai twice during this period.
Fortunately, those attacks were in the area near the city's borders and Touji and Masaomi were the ones who encountered the attackers.
There were five civilian casualties while some others lost their limbs from the attacks before the exorcists could respond to the threat. After all, Kuoh was a decent sized town. It was just impossible to immediately respond to the threats with our numbers.
It was similar how no matter how good the cops were, they couldn't always respond before the crime.
Both the youkai attacks were repelled and five youkai died in the attacks too.
Touji was hurt but got better after a few days of rest.
For us however, this incident lit a fire under our pants, pushing us even more. I mean no matter how much we hear about something it couldn't compare to the feeling of experiencing it first hand.
One day, I returned from my usual patrol duty to see Touji and the rest of the church members gathered together.
Masaomi had gone somewhere for official church business so he wasn't present.
In between them was another new face.
She was around my age, maybe a year or two older but I looked older than I was, probably due to my training.
White hair, blue eyes and sharp features… she looked almost… supernatural, and yet I could feel that she was a human.
"Tet, come on in." Touji noticed my arrival and called me.
He had a complicated expression on his face.
"Meet Lisa, a trainee exorcist sent by the Vatican." He introduced her.
Ah… so that was it.
During this time, Touji had never stopped requesting backup from the headquarters.
And now the backup was here… in the form of a kid…
Yeah, I didn't envy Touji right now.
"Hello. My name is Tet. Nice to meet you." I greeted the girl with a bow.
She nodded expressionlessly.
"Take her around the church and show her all the facilities Tet. She is around your age, maybe she will feel more comfortable if you did it." Touji said.
I nodded and accompanied the girl.
She was quiet the whole way and didn't look like she was going to say anything either so I started the conversation.
"Lisa."
"Hmm?"
"Where did you live before this?" I asked.
"I… I lived in the Church." She replied, slightly hesitating in between.
"Oh. Where?" I asked.
"Vatican."
"Oh! That's awesome. I have heard they have the best facilities being the headquarters of all churches in the world. I haven't seen the place but one of my friends from the same orphanage was taken there. You must be super talented or something, right?" I said with a smile but the girl winced in response. I noticed this and didn't continue further on that track. "By the way, when did you arrive? I was out on patrol duty so I didn't see you. Did Touji-san pick you up?" I asked, quickly changing the topic.
"Y-yes. I came around two hours ago. A priest from the Vatican was coming to Japan. He brought me here and Mr. Touji picked me from the airport and brought me here."
"I see. So… what do you think of this place? Very different from the Vatican. It can be a bit difficult to get used to it but you will like it when you get used to it. The people here are very friendly."
The girl just nodded lightly.
To be honest, she seemed like an introvert and was struggling to catch up with my extrovert personality, but to her credit, she was trying to keep up with me.
The fact that she wasn't getting annoyed was already a plus for her in my books. Still… she seemed like someone who seemed to lack confidence.
Which was quite odd considering she must have been the creme of the crop to be trained in the Vatican. Those people only took the very best among their ranks.
I showed her everywhere around the church while telling her about the rest of the town, before it was time for dinner.
- Masaomi -
He returned back to church and directly went to Touji's office.
The man was working on some paperwork, looking as tired as always.
"Masaomi." He noticed him and pointed at the chair in front of him to sit. "How was your mission?" He asked, getting back to the paperwork.
"Fruitful." he had heard about a big fight between the youkai who had infiltrated the neighboring town and local onmyoji from Cleria. Apparently, there were several deaths too. The aftermath of the whole thing however wasn't something she could verify.
He brought this news to Touji and was asked to go and talk to the onmyoji formally and verify the news.
"There was indeed a fight between them, a full scale battle in fact. There weren't just one or two youkai in that town but a total of twenty four. Our guess was correct. They were indeed animal type youkai, rat type to be precise." He said with a hint of disgust.
Even Touji had a similar expression on his face. Omnivores, especially ones who fed on the dead and decaying, were even worse than carnivorous animals when they became youkai.
They were wholly unpredictable and attacked anything and everything.
Rats especially… they increased their numbers very quickly and were hard to find if they hid.
"Over six of the onmyoji including the older one, the of the members of the Byakko Clan died in the battle.
A bunch of rats killed the cat…
He shook his head at the irony.
"They must be strong then."
"Hmm. Thirteen of them were low Class and rest Mid Class, with their leader being strong even among them."
"That's… a very disturbing number. No wonder there were so many deaths."
It also explained how Yushiro had died.
Escaping a Mid Class youkai was difficult for him but escaping two or more of them… yeah, there was no way.
"So, what was the end result?" Touji asked.
"The onmyoji claim that they ambushed the youkai and took down all of them. There are no more youkai in their area." Masaomi replied.
"Claim?"
"Hey, I would take anything they say with a grain of salt. If they actually knew about the enemy forces, they wouldn't have faced them with their current numbers. Losing that many onmyoji, especially a senior member of the Byakko Clan is dumb. I don't see them doing such a thing. My guess is that they found the location and charged in headfirst and got stuck in a situation where they couldn't run away. That's how the battle started and ended. As for the end result… they should be speaking the truth. After all, if they lie and there is even one more death in the town, they would be shamed everywhere. These Principal Clan members fear that more than anything else."
"Right."
"So, has the new exorcist arrived?" He asked.
He had heard that the church had finally responded to Touji's request after their fight with the invading youkai when he had gotten injured. They agreed to send an exorcist for support soon. Today was the day Touji was supposed to go and receive the person.
Touji let out a sigh and picked up a file from the side and passed it over to him.
Masaomi raised an eyebrow and looked at the file.
Lisa, eleven years old, a trainee exorcist… a member of the Siegfried Project.
"A member of the Siegfried Project? She must be good then?" He asked.
Touji however shook his head. "Keep looking."
Masaomi did and Touji kept on explaining from the side.
"I won't lie but the reply that the headquarters were sending backup as a reward for our good work… that had sounded off to me when I heard it the first time. How did they change their tone so quickly… so I pulled in some strings and through my connections in the Vatican, found out more information about the new recruit."
Masaomi looked at the man who continued.
"Lisa was a member of the second batch of the Siegfried Project recruits, one of the only surviving members." He said with some distaste.
The first batch of recruits had all failed to survive the procedure.
Even Masaomi knew of this.
After that, the project was stopped… at least for the public while it was continued in secret in the laps at the Vatican where the second batch finally yielded results and then the whole thing was disclosed.
Touji continued.
"She was however… deemed a failure."
"Eh?"
"Look at the performance sheet." Touji asked and Masaomi did.
The results were… below average.
In fact, Tet's results were leagues better than hers.
Then again, after knowing the kid for so many days, Masaomi knew that the kid was seriously talented, not something any random person can compare to.
But still… for a product of the Siegfried Project experimentations… these results… they were just not right.
"These reports are things I have collected from my source at the Vatican. Apparently, she had just survived the experimentation. She did have the outward features of the rest of the experiment results like white hair and blue eyes but she didn't inherit any of the power. She is just like any normal human in that regard. You should notice that unlike the other members of the project, she doesn't have the last name Sellzen. She wasn't given that name because she didn't pass the tests. The Vatican however didn't show her results to anyone publicly during the presentation as they wanted to show a stellar result. After the project, they kept her on the side and now…"
"Sent her here, away from all eyes, probably hoping she would get caught in the whole youkai debacle. With her strength… even common youkai would be deadly for her." Masaomi commented.
Touji nodded, with a bad look on her face. "And then they can use that to pressure us and deny any further request for reinforcements."
"Why would they do such a thing? Is this really a place to be playing power games?" Masaomi asked, feeling the weight of stress once more.
"Why else? They are still angry about the Yushiro matter. They were called out by the onmyoji of the Principal Clans. Those people made sure to toss this matter up as much as possible to divert attention from their own shortcomings of protecting their people and catching the responsible. And then Yushiro came… and they blamed everything on him. It's nothing new. The Church has done this several times too. Aren't they doing something similar right now with us through Lisa?"
"What can we do about that? The best we can do is keep the girl safe. Hopefully with the youkai from the neighbouring town gone, things will calm down a bit. I have heard that Nurarihyon himself has returned back as the Supreme Commander of the Nura Clan and the Eastern Youkai. With him back at the helm, things should calm down in a while. All we need to do is survive through this time."
"Hmm." Youji nodded after some thought. "Actually… I was wondering about how to assign her patrolling routes. She is after all an exorcist. Others don't know about her results or what the higher ups intend. We have to make sure she is protected."
Masaomi thought of something and spoke with some hesitation. "Send her with Tet. That route is… relatively safe." He added after some thought.
"They are still near the devil area, Masaomi."
"It's mainly patrolled by Cleria Belial's knight, Miyabi Miyamoto. She is a samurai through and through. She will never attack kids."
"But she is still a devil. It's best not to let our guards down against them." Touji argued.
"I trust Tet. You haven't seen his progress recently. He is already stronger than official exorcists, possessing the brute strength of a Low Class being. I don't know if he has any heroic bloodlines or not but I wouldn't be surprised if he did. His progress has been nothing but phenomenal these days."
Obviously he couldn't say that Cleria would never do such a thing, especially to his own apprentice. At this point, he could only praise Tet, not that any of his praise was wrong.
Tet's progress has been nothing but astonishing.
In fact, he has even tried to investigate to see if he had some kind of heroic heritage so that he could train him better to utilise it but hadn't found anything yet.
"Really? At Low Class level?"
"Hmm. The kid has a good head on his shoulders. Trust me. He would know what to expect and when to retreat in a fight."
"Well… if you say so then… alright. I will assign her patrol duty with him. Seriously, he came at the right time. Yushiro's absence is being felt even more now. Maybe Tet would be able to lighten the burden a bit."
"Hmm."
- Tet -
"Lisa, you will follow Tet on his patrol route. Tet, show her around. She doesn't know the language here and could get lost if you leave her alone. Keep her close." Touji ordered.
"Yes." I nodded.
Lisa also nodded.
We left on the patrol.
"Today we have to go to the Kuoh Park area. From there, we need to visit the sewage treatment plant and then follow the border with the devil territory and return back to the Church. Come, I will show you the route."
Lisa nodded and followed me.
A week had passed since Lisa had joined the church. She was given a week to get used to the new environment before being called for work.
Normally, this time period is not given but just like me, Lisa was also an apprentice exorcist so Touji gave her a bit of a leeway.
I had seen Touji fighting her to see her level… and the results were quite disappointing. I had honestly expected a lot better from someone who has trained in Vatican Headquarters. She was… normal.
Yeah, she was just like the normal exorcist trainees back in the orphanage.
Not to say she was weak compared to normal humans. She could probably fight a full grown adult easily but when it came to the supernatural… she lacked power.
Maybe that's why she was assigned to the relatively safer route with me.
Still, no one disliked Lisa.
The girl was quite soft spoken and it looked like she had been bullied or something because she had no confidence in herself.
But her weakness and confidence aside, she was a hard worker. That was not something I would blame her for. Everyday, she got up at four and completed her chores. Then went on for usual training till it was time for the morning prayers.
After prayers, she ate breakfast and helped Agatha out with work around the church.
Every moment she wasn't working or helping someone out, she was training.
Still… the world was cruel.
Not everything can be solved by hard work here.
After all, almost ninety percent of the exorcists remain stuck at trained human level to Low Class level all their lives. I remember Kiba and Koneko beating up dozens of stray exorcists when raiding Raynare's base in the anime. Most of them were full grown adults and had been exorcists for a while and yet, they were all beaten to a pulp by two barely Mid Class devils.
Only Freed Sellzen showed some resistance and he was considered a prodigy in the church with the experience of hunting many supernatural creatures.
And from the looks of it, Lisa's talent was similar to those fodder groups.
To be honest, the best path for her would be to give up this profession and become a nun, maybe if she wanted to remain associated with the church or join some other profession. But the girl… she was rather stubborn at this point.
We took the normal route to Kuoh park.
It was late in the evening but the park was quite empty.
Normally there would be more people around at this time but after the deaths from the youkai attack, people were afraid to come out.
Sure, it was disguised as an attack by a serial killer and that the killer was caught already. The people were wary. After all, the string of deaths from the nearby town had reached Kuoh. It was only normal that people would keep alert.
I checked the surrounding area and the park was safe so we left for the Sewage Treatment Plant.
The area was away from the population as one would expect. There were outgrowths around the area.
A few years ago there used to be a factory around this area and it was quite well maintained back then but the place closed down and the place fell into decline since then. Now, only a few people who managed the Sewage Treatment plan came here.
We reached the plant and checked the area.
It was quite as usual.
"This… place looks fine too." Lisa said.
I looked around.
The sun had set. The sky was cloudy and it was hiding the moon and the street lights were the only source of light in the area. The sound of nature was heard everywhere, be it rustling of leaves or the crickets in the woods. The place was quiet.
No…
It was too quiet.
Moreover, the guard who usually stayed outside the sewage treatment plant was absent. Sure he could have gone to the toilet or for a break but my instincts were telling me that it was not that simple. So I looked at Lisa and smiled. "I forgot to bring the water bottle. Give me a minute. I know the guard here. I will go and get some water for us."
"Umm… alright." She nodded, taking my word for it.
I walked forward with a casual pace, with a hand in my pocket… which was gripping the Holy Light Crystal Touji had given me.
Should anything jump me, I was fully prepared to throw it at their faces and either stab them or make a run for it with Lisa.
On reaching the gate, I knocked at it.
There was… an unusual scent around the place. As if some food was rotting.
"Sahashi-san? Are you there?" I called out.
I wasn't lying when I said that I knew the guy here.
The guy was almost sixty and a very nice old man. He had noticed me during my patrols and often offered me candies or other sweets when I passed by.
I in turn blessed him or gave him holy water or anything I had on myself.
I peeked through the small window into the guard's cabin and found no one.
I did spot some food spilled on the floor of the cabin though. The bread had moss over it and some rats were eating it. The smell was coming from the food.
There was no way Sahashi-san would just leave the cabin in such a situation. Something happened here.
But should I go in to investigate or not.
No.
Better to call for some backup than take a risk.
The path to a healthy future was to be prepared for every eventuality.
After all, the youkai last time had even managed to injure Touji.
If I encountered something like that, I would be dead meat.
No… they would eat everything and I wouldn't even be dead meat.
I would be crap.
With that in mind, I quietly backed down and turned towards the place Lisa was standing. She was looking the other way, probably keeping a lookout.
At that moment, two things happened. First, the clouds had moved away revealing the moon… and second, in the moonlight's shadow, I saw a figure pouncing on me from behind. Almost on instinct, I grabbed the crystal and threw it behind me and dove forward, as a bright flash of holy light brightened the area.
Whatever it was behind me howled in pain.
The sound was like a shriek, sharp… unpleasant. It was like someone clawing at a chalkboard, hurting the ears.
On getting some distance from it, I turned around and got a look at the figure.
It had a humanoid figure.
The reason I called it humanoid and not human was because of its face… it was that of a rat, sharp fangs protruding out of it. There was even some red on the side of the face, indicating blood.
Its hands had large and sharp claws and were currently morphing, ripping its shirt as they did. Its figure was changing to a large, muscular one.
One thing I did notice however was the missing chunk of flesh on its right leg and waist.
It was injured. And it was a large injury too.
Currently, it was grabbing its eyes and shrieking but from the power I was feeling from it, it would soon get over the feeling and chase us… and with the difference in power between us, we would get caught and killed before we could get any help.
I had to take it down… or at least wound it enough for us to escape.
With that in mind, I didn't hesitate one moment, and pulled out my sword. This was my first real battle. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous or scared. The beast in front of me was beyond anything I was prepared to face.
The best option I had now was to escape.
I recited the Holy Prayers to bless my sword to boost the holy power while I rushed towards it, and slashed at its left leg, with all my power. The sword cut almost a third of the leg before it struck the bone, stopping there. A sound of flesh sizzling sounded. The holy element was burning the youkai. It howled once more and waved its hand around aimlessly to strike anything it could hit.
The speed of its arm was fast so I quickly held my sword in front of me. The attack came almost immediately afterwards.
It felt like… I was back in the orphanage training and was hit by that exorcist again… only worse.
My bones were rattled. Had it not been for the sword in front of it, I would probably have fractured a couple of my rips and maybe even punctured my lungs.
The difference in strength was too great…
Dammit.
"Lisa! Get out… get out and call for backup." I shouted… but what I got in reply was a shriek. I quickly looked back to see that another rat youkai was now facing Lisa.
It seemed weaker than this one but was still stronger than Lisa.
Dammit.
There were multiple of them.
Why!
In that moment I made a quick decision and opened my status menu.
"To think I had saved it for so long, only to use it like this." I put all the remaining points into the Gacha.
It was the only thing I could think of at this moment to change the outcome of this encounter. I needed that extra bit of power.
As for the Devil Fruit… that will have to wait for now.
Immediately, several things happened.
1 to Physique
1 to Martial Arts
Skill: Soru
1 to Physique
1 to Swordsmanship
Five messages flashed in front of my eyes and I felt a surge of strength in my body again. The sword in my hand felt sharper too, and finally the knowledge of the Skill: Soru flashed in my mind.
Without any wait, I used the skill and rushed towards Lisa.
My feet kicked the ground ten times and before I knew it, I was right in front of the other youkai, slashing my sword towards it. Apparently, it didn't expect the sudden attack and raised one of its hands to protect itself but the Blessed Sword effortlessly sliced through the youkai's hand.
It howled in pain and tried to back away but I didn't give it the chance. I used Soru again and thrust the blade right at its chest, hitting right at its heart.
The strike was true, but it had also reduced the distance between us.
It tried to slash my face with one of its claws so I left the sword right there and backed away, beside Lisa.
"Give me your sword." I quickly asked and Lisa, although frightened, quickly gave me her blade.
I rushed in for another attack. The holy element must be weakening the beast because it didn't put up much resistance as my next strike made a deep cut on his other hand.
After that I used Soru once more to rush behind it, swinging at its neck, finishing it off with my next strike finally.
With the beast dead, I pulled out my sword from its chest and tossed Lisa's sword back to her.
The danger however wasn't over.
No… it had just begun.
The effect of the Holy Light Crystal was now gone and the three meters tall wererat kind of monster was looking especially frightening in the moonlight night.
And worst of all… it was glaring at us with rage.
x_x_