Ito Takeru's POV:
"Miss Nox, can I help you?"
"Yes, you can help me, help you, help me, help somebody else, which helps you so you can help me! You follow me so far?"
"No?" I replied, feeling confused.
I had merely come here to pay my dear friend a visit after hearing his mind and body had recovered, but suddenly while conversing in his art room containing an excessive quantity of family portraits that in this specific lighting is beginning to unnerve me, he suddenly twitched and jumped through the door. Next thing I knew, I was locked inside this dimly lit and increasingly unsettling room, alongside his daughter who is currently stopping me from leaving by blocking the only exit.
"I believe Xi-! Your father has already gone downstairs! There is no need to block off the door anymore!"
"Oh, I know, but let's not get sidetracked! I am here to see you!" She said as she got up close to my face.
"See me about what?"
"The mud-lady!"
"Hm? Thank you for your concern, but as you probably saw on your way here, Hikari is perfectly safe thanks to that talisman of yours! You have my gratitude!"
Though I find her to be a rather bad influence on my young daughter as Hikari still utters curses and vulgarities from time to time, it warms my heart to know despite her less than morally high character, she still has some kindness inside her heart to worry for my little girl.
"Not sure what you're thanking me for, but just so you know, the talisman I gave you is running out of juice!"
"What?"
"That restraining order I handed you was a consumable item you know! It was never going to last forever!"
"If that is the case, then can you not just make a new one?"
"Yeah, but I won't!"
"What?"
"I don't work for free man! I gave you that as a bribe last time remember?"
"*Sigh* …! Okay, what do you want?" I asked, knowing that the answer would no doubt give me another headache.
Last time I let her do what she wanted, she fueled the fire that was the resentment towards her own family, and when I told some of my men to go help her cousin shut her down, she blew them all up. Nobody died fortunately, but none of them came out unscathed and neither did my reputation as I had to personally step in to shield the girl from the law, due to that idiot alchemist who had openly declared her a demonic cultivator, not realizing she was both a mortal and his cousin until it was too late. I had to practically push the alchemy tournament on her just to keep her from making the situation worse by staying and actively fanning the flames when the inquisitor came to investigate the rumors of me sheltering an unlawful demonic cultivator.
"I want your soul!"
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, become my slave for all time, and in exchange, I'll not just give you a temporary solution, but you will never need to worry about the mud-lady harming your kid again! Do we have a deal?" She said, as she held out her hand.
"Are you saying, you can exorcise that evil spirit?"
"I mean, I could exercise her too, but I don't really have the time for a training montage right now, so let's try to focus on you becoming my slave for the sake of your family life, m' kay!"
"Sure fine, but what do you mean by slave?"
"Seriously? I thought you would know what a slave is, seeing as you used to be one!"
"I know what a slave is! I mean, in what sense? You have a history of being rather loose with your wordings! If you just need my help with something, then you cou-!"
"Well, a slave is someone who has no freedom! Someone who has placed their own fate in the hands of another. A person who has become another's property. An object to be owned, a tool to be used, without the right to refuse, and I want you to become mine!" She spoke, getting uncomfortably close as she staired deep into my eyes.
She couldn't be implying what I think she is? I mean, she has always been a bit odd and prone to the unexpected, but I didn't think that-! No, that can't be it. She is probably just being misleading again.
"I-If you just need my help with something then you cou-!"
"Nope! You are the only thing I'll accept!"
"Th-this is a joke, right? Haha, ver-!" I said nervously as I backed away.
There is no way, she is really-!
"Nope! I'm being completely serious, but you already knew that. Unlike like some dumbass I know, your observant-ass can actually read a room. Now do we have a deal?" She said, backing me up against the wall, pressing one hand against the portrait of her father next to my head while grabbing my chin to make me face her.
"*Gulp* Wh-Why me?" I stuttered out, trying my hardest to remain calm.
"Why? Because I like you! Ever since we first met, no, even before that! From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I knew I would make you mine! Of course, I wasn't expecting to move this fast, but oh well!"
OH MY GOD! SHE IS SERIOUS! No, wait, wait. Calm yourself Takeru and think. She never gave any indications hinting at this in the past, or did she? Applying to work as Hikari's bodyguard, coming to see me personally for a permit to open a shop in the redlight district, come to think of it, what did she mean by before we met? If she was spying on me before that night, then that might explain how she knew where Hikari was back then. The bandit hideout was a rather obscure cave, far from any roads and not easily spotted from the sky above due to the dense forestry. It took quite a bit of investigating and a number of tracking methods to discover its location as quickly as we did, but if she was trailing us there. Wait, that would mean she has been stalking me without my notice. For how long? No, no! I am sure there is a logical and less creepy explanation for all this. I did hear she and Xing had a rather strained relationship, so maybe this is part of some ploy to provoke him using me, his friend. Yeah, that has to be it, and besides, I heard she recently got hitched, so she couldn't possibly be in love with me for real.
"Eh, hehe! I'm flattered, really, I am, but I am not that kind of man?"
"What?"
"In truth, even though she is no longer with us, my heart still belongs to my late wife! I know it's hard to accept but come on! I already have a child, and I am old enough to be your father! You could do so much better than that!" I said, carefully removing her hand from my face while trying to let her down gently.
"Uuuhh? You lost me there?" She said, confusion filling her eyes.
I tried to leave it like this as I tried to move towards the door, only for her to move in front of me again, blocking the door.
"Hold up! We were not done here! I am not bluffing you know! The talisman will stop working soon, and if you walk out of this deal, you can forget about getting more! Your kid's gonna be locked away inside her squeaky-clean tower until she rots away! You do understand that, right?"
"*Sigh* Okay, let's be honest here! It's not really me you want, is it?"
"No, I'm pretty sure it's you! Unless you have an exact clone of yourself running around somewhere!"
"Come now! You are not fooling anyone! I already heard you found a man of your own, congratulations by the way! Anyways, be honest with yourself! This isn't about me! It's about you and Xi-! It's about your father!"
"…? Are you gaslighting me? I feel like you're gaslighting me!"
"I am a close friend of your father! That is why you want me, not because you find me attractive, or dashingly handsome, but because you want to get a rise out of Xing, right?"
"…? Okay, so I may have given you too much credit when I called you observant!"
"Can't accept it, huh. *Sigh* I know that one day, you will look back on this and laugh! I won't tell anyone about this, not even your father! So, rest easy!" I said, as I pushed past her to reach the door.
Miss Nox, seemingly pretending not to be bothered, nor having given up, followed behind me as we headed towards the stairs.
"Yeah, I don't really rest anymore! Too many souls of the damned and too unproductive! I'm constantly in a rush to get everything done on time! It's why I had to push this deal ahead of schedule instead of squeezing you dry using the talisman scam first, like I was originally planning!"
"Miss Nox! Please, stop following me! I already said no! You will only embarrass yourself further should you continue!"
"Speaking of! If I got the time right! 5 minutes from now, you are gonna feel embarrassed, in 4 you will have a change of heart about our deal, and you will be shaken to your core by the sound of your kids high-pitched scream in about 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and! …! Hm? That's strange? Hold up, let me check my clock! I think it's a little fast!" She spoke, before pulling a clock on a chain out of her sleeve.
*Scream*
"Ah, there it is! Hey, wait up! I haven't finished recalibrating my clock yet!"
The moment I heard the scream, the anxiety struck me like a lightning bolt and my legs just moved on their own as I ran straight through the wall to reach the source of the voice faster. As I left the building, floating half a floor above the ground, I saw it. On the ground below, I saw a squirming mass of mud trying to mimic the shape of a human only for its unstable body mass to continuously dribble off its form before being reabsorbed. Its face was three droopy and elongated circles, devoid of any eyes, teeth, tongue, or even mud, just three hollow black voids from which nothing can be observed. It was the undead that has been haunting my daughter, and currently, the only thing standing between it and her, was the young man slowly sinking into the muddy ground while he and his small fairies try to slow it's movements by freezing the creature with ice magic.
"GOD DAMN IT! Of course, OF COURSE, THIS HAPPENS!? OF COURSE I'LL BE ATTACKT BY A NIGHTMARE CREATURE! WHY DID I EVER THINK IT WOULD STOP WITH JUST BEING DROPPED OFF A BUILDING?! OF COURSE THE BOSS'S FAMILY ESTATE HAS A VIOLENT NIGHTMARISH MUD MONSTER WONDERING AROUND! WHY DID I EVER EXPECT OTHERWISE!" The boy shouted as his hips were already half-submerged, and what little of the creature's body that had been frozen had already flaked off.
'M-M-y *squish**splash* ba-a-booourg!'
"HIKARI!" I shouted as I hurried down to my scared daughter to make sure she was not hurt.
"DADDY?! I'M SCARED! *Sob*" She shouted as she hugged me with a terrified expression.
"Shinji! Ugh! Sorry, but I can't move it! Th-there is something strange about this mud!" the little earth spirit spoke.
"Yeah, no shit there is somethin strange! It's trying to bury him! Don't worry Shin! We'll get you out somehow!" the other spirit said.
"Thanks, but I'm more concerned with what that guy is doing!" the young man spoke, pointing towards the massive void before him.
The creature was already pretty close to the poor boy and had already started stretching out its droopy and empty mouth until it was inhumanly large as it prepared to swallow him whole, as I had seen it do many times before.
"He-hey! So, you must be my master's father, or something, right?"
*Gurgle*
"Sir, I don't know if you know this, but I am actually the disciple of your daughter. Niece? Cousin? Sister? NO PLEASE!" He said, about to be devoured whole.
*Boom**Splat**Splish**Splash*
"AAAAAHH!"
After putting down Hikari, I raised my fist and punched the air, creating a shockwave that splattered the creature across the ground and in the process, uprooting the young man about to be swallowed by it from the earth. Unfortunately, I seem to have used a little too much force while trying to ensure the vile creature was blown to pieces, and the youngster was also sent flying through the air before crashing into a tree. I am so used to people being a lot more durable due to most people this boy's size being nascent souls or at least golden cores whose skulls would be tuff enough to shatter stone, so I was a little worried when I saw blood trickling down his face. Though, he seems not to be bothered much by it as he got up on his feet with ease with relief on his face moments after.