"Hah. Don't stand there pretending to be a harmless patch of glow-moss."
"This lord saw through your game a long time ago."
The young man slammed his fists together in front of his chest. Sparks flared across the gauntlets wrapping his forearms.
"Honestly. You really ought to break that habit of saying things that don't quite make sense."
Gojo's calm voice came from directly behind him.
The instant it registered, the hairs along the back of the young man's neck stood up in unison, like a cat puffing itself up.
No hesitation. No pause.
His reaction was instant. His body moved as if it had no bones in it at all, one leg snapping back with everything he had behind it.
A heavy strike. The air shrieked around his heel.
That sound alone would have convinced anyone that getting caught by it meant serious injury at minimum. Likely death.
And yet.
Faster than the boy was Gojo's hand.
His palm rose and came down in a clean chop aimed at the side of the young man's neck.
As for the kick coming at him, Gojo didn't so much as glance at it. Not a flicker of concern.
A muffled thud.
The blond figure crumpled limp toward the ground.
That lethal strike hadn't so much as grazed the hem of Gojo's clothes.
"Come on. I didn't even want to lay hands on you."
He shook his head at the unconscious boy with a rueful sigh.
The kid had shown decent strength. That was the ceiling, though. Nothing he did mattered if it couldn't land, and nothing ever would.
Leaving the boy where he lay, Gojo called softly toward the distant trees.
"Elsa."
A quiet beat.
A slender silhouette slipped through the darkness, bounding from branch to branch, and landed in front of him.
"Coming to find me alone this late at night. Some unspeakable desire you'd like to share?"
Elsa's sway was languid, every tilt of her expression suggestive.
"Look at me. If anything, that'd be me doing you a favor."
Gojo's mouth twisted, unamused.
"Any idea when your mother's going to show up?"
"No telling. But if she's already given word, then it shouldn't be more than a few days."
"In that case, go on in now. Once she arrives, hand off your crystal and let her through."
"Given the kind of people those lunatics are, she's not going to turn down that offer..."
"I knew it. You've been plotting against the village all along!"
Gojo wasn't done talking when the young man's voice cut him off from behind.
"Oh. You're already awake?"
He glanced at his own hand, genuinely puzzled. By any reasonable measure, that unguarded chop should've kept the kid down until sunrise.
No way he was back on his feet already.
"Go to hell!"
With a roar, the young man launched himself forward again, fist cocked.
"Want me to handle this one for you?"
"A lively one like him, I'd bet his intestines are a very healthy color."
"Though playing with intestines isn't the cleanest hobby. Especially if one tears by accident."
Gojo's face twitched.
One hot-headed meathead boy. One unhinged woman with a thing for guts.
Between the pair of these problem children, even he was starting to feel the strain.
The fist slammed into the air in front of Gojo with all the boy's weight behind it.
Gojo just watched him. No motion, no gesture of any kind. The strike simply stopped short of his face and refused to go any further.
"Look, can't you just go have a proper sleep?"
He had no urge to kill the kid who wanted to protect the village. He also couldn't let him get in the way of the plan.
His target was Roswaal and no one else. The villagers, whoever else lived inside these bounds, weren't part of any of this. Even when the Sin Archbishop of Lust came through, he and Reinhard would keep them safe.
If this idiot exposed his connection to Elsa right now, things would get awkward.
But the boy, seeing his attacks fail, only burned hotter.
A low growl ripped out of his throat. Under Gojo's watch, his body surged outward, swelling rapidly.
In a blink he'd become a "tiger-man" standing nearly three meters tall.
Stripes streaked across his hide. Slabs of muscle bulged along his arms. Fangs jutted from his jaw, sharp enough to terrify.
Everything about him announced lethal strength.
"RAAAGH!"
The transformation complete, the tiger-man lunged again.
"If you're going to make this much noise, you leave me no choice."
Gojo's mouth twitched. Index and middle finger crossed vertically in front of him.
"Domain Expansion."
"Unlimited Void."
One instant the tiger-man was roaring. The next, he'd been pulled wholesale into Gojo's domain.
It took no time at all.
The hulking creature that had been radiating raw brutality froze where he stood. Statue-still. Not a twitch.
Demi-human or not, the Unlimited Void worked every bit as well.
He had no capacity to resist. He simply drowned.
As the tiger-man sank into the infinite flood of information, his massive frame began shrinking rapidly. Muscle and fur pulled back in on themselves.
Within moments he was the blond young man again.
"This is exactly why I can't stand types like this."
Gojo scratched his head and shrugged toward Elsa.
"Fascinating ability, that one."
Her smile held, but the wariness in her eyes had deepened by several degrees.
An ability nothing could approach was already plenty to deal with.
This strange new power made defense flat-out impossible.
"It's all right."
Gojo waved it off, reached over, and hoisted the frozen boy onto his shoulder.
"For the next couple of days, just hang back near the boundary here."
"As long as you don't want to be found, no one else should notice you."
"And don't harm any of the villagers. Keep yourself hidden. That's all."
"I'll bring you food and water."
"Understood."
Elsa nodded, stepped through the barrier into the Sanctuary, and sprang up into a tree. Her outline melted into the branches.
Gojo turned back toward the lodgings with the young man slung over his shoulder.
A minor hiccup. Nothing serious.
If pressed, he'd say he'd been out for a walk, gotten jumped, and ended up having to restrain his attacker for a while. Give it time and he'd be fine.
By then the Sin Archbishop of Lust would probably have arrived anyway.
He carried the boy straight back to his room.
The original plan had been to find Roswaal or Ram, one of whom would know the kid. Too late for that now.
So instead he stood the young man up in his room like a display piece and went to sleep without a second thought.
Whether the boy might snap out of it in the middle of the night and try something didn't worry him. Not remotely.
Based on the strength the kid had shown, the Unlimited Void wouldn't hold him indefinitely. But the moment he woke, Gojo would feel it, and he could simply apply the technique again.
Matters played out more or less as expected.
A few hours into the night, the young man came back to himself.
Gojo caught the yawn before it finished, and without giving the kid a chance to speak or move, dragged him right back into the Unlimited Void. This time he didn't bother being stingy with it.
Conservative estimate, that would hold him for several days.
When Gojo opened his eyes again the next morning, the first thing he saw was a small girl standing beside the bed, looking up with open curiosity at the statue-like young man. Betty, of course.
"What brings you over? Have you finally decided to do something strange to your dashing contractor?"
He propped himself up on the edge of the bed.
"Your conceit leaves me entirely outclassed."
"But since when did you take up collecting? Sneaking out in the dead of night to drag this one home, I suppose."
As a "Cursed Spirit," Betty had a sharp feel for cursed energy.
The moment he'd opened the domain the night before, she'd picked up on it.
Once she'd confirmed there was no danger around him, she hadn't bothered going to check.
This morning she'd finally wandered into his room to see what was going on.
Only to find this statue parked in the middle of it.
"I don't have a hobby that tedious."
"When I went out to meet Elsa last night, this guy came charging in hollering something about protecting the village."
"I only meant to knock him out, but his constitution's a bit unusual, so this is what we got."
He shrugged it off.
"Demi-human bodies run stronger than human ones, sure. But that shouldn't make any difference to you."
Betty ran her eyes over the boy, frowning.
"Who knows. Maybe some other weird Divine Protection, too."
Gojo stood and stretched.
"Let me wash up. Then we'll take him over to Ram. She should know who he is."
A quick wash later, he hefted the young man and carried him to Roswaal's cottage.
When he and Betty stepped through the door, Roswaal and Ram both froze at the sight of him with the blond boy over his shoulder.
"Gojo. What... is this?"
Roswaal took a moment to find his voice, brows knit.
"Couldn't sleep last night, went for a walk, and this guy came flying out of nowhere."
"Yelling something about protecting the village, attacked me, and ended up like this."
He set the young man down in front of them.
"I figure you know him. Fill me in."
Ram stepped forward, poked at the statue-still boy experimentally, and when he didn't react, her tone went dry.
"His name is Garfiel. Frederica's younger brother."
"You've already met Frederica. The demi-human head maid currently at the mansion."
"Called it."
"When I saw him last night, I thought he looked familiar. First thing I said was that he must be Frederica's son. He got upset about that."
"What a shame."
Ram shook her head, the words arriving out of nowhere.
"Shame about what?"
"A shame Garfiel didn't manage to beat you to death."
She said it with her usual flat composure.
"That's cold for someone addressing a guest. We did escort Emilia back and keep her safe, you know."
"Oh. Ram extends her sincere gratitude for your efforts."
Listening to the empty courtesy, Gojo waved it aside and turned to Roswaal.
"He's stubborn, so for the moment this is the state he's in."
"Barring surprises, no danger. He'll come out of it in time."
"I see. Same as Bordeaux the Sage, yes?"
"Right. So refreshing, talking to someone sharp."
"If you don't mind, you can leave him with me. When he comes around, I'll explain things and clear up the misunderstanding."
"So Mr. Gojo means to do something strange to Garfiel?"
"Why is it that the two of you line up so perfectly on this particular point?"
He shot a look at Betty beside him.
"Because you're the suspicious one."
"No problem, Gojo. By all means, go ahead."
Roswaal nodded, perfectly composed.
"I should apologize for him, though."
"Garfiel's impulsive, but he isn't bad at heart. Once he's back on his feet, please don't hold it against him. Any issues, come to me."
"Well, if you're putting it that way, no complaint from me."
Gojo said it with easy magnanimity, then slung Garfiel back over his shoulder and sauntered out.
Watching the two of them leave, Ram said, "Garfiel's impulsive, but he wouldn't stir up trouble on purpose."
"None of that's the point right now, is it?"
Roswaal smiled faintly. "Besides, given their style, they wouldn't actually do anything serious to him."
He crossed to the desk and lifted a book from it.
Had Betty been in the room, she would have recognized it in an instant. Another Book of Wisdom crafted by her mother, the Witch of Greed, Echidna.
Roswaal opened it gently and drew his fingers across the page. Anticipation flickered in his narrow eyes, deep and patient.
"A few deviations from the original plan. But everything is essentially in place. Now all that's left is to wait."
...
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