Chapter 23: Father Freed (2)
Night had slowly begun its descent over Kuoh Town's sky, but Takauji's investigation was nowhere near concluded.
Freed had arrived at the front door of someone's apartment, the unnerving smile on his face unchanged, as he leaned down towards Asia.
"Since you're going to be my assistant from now on, I think it's only right that I quiz you on your know-how every now and then, wouldn't you agree?" He folded his hands behind his back, his upper eyelids drooping ever so slightly.
"Of course." Asia nodded innocently, failing to pick up on the ominous intent radiating from Freed's figure.
One that Takauji was able to sense clearly, thanks to his Ki Sense, which made Freed's malicious intent stand out like a sore thumb.
'I don't understand, all I'm sensing is a regular human in there—what business could someone from the Church have with them?'
If he had gone after Takauji's household, taking his relationship to Sona into account, then there were definitely some grounds for the Church to take a less-than-favorable interest in him.
But from what he knew, there weren't any other Contracted Magicians in Kuoh aside from him, or Magicians in general, for that matter.
"Excellent!" Freed clapped, "Tell me, Asia. When a human is offered a chance to shake a Devil's hand in exchange for something they want, how should they respond?"
Takauji's feline eyes widened, quickly realizing how the situation was about to develop.
'I didn't think the Church would be so direct in their approach to dealing with something like this. Aren't they worried about getting caught? Unless there's something at play I'm still missing.'
"You tell them no!" She replied with fierce, indoctrinated determination.
"Correct! That's one point for Asia-chan! Well done!" Freed cheered, the hostile aura around him starting to intensify. "But you see, Asia-chan, not everyone is as smart as you are. Which is why we must come and inform people about that little tidbit of common knowledge."
"Inform?"
"Yeah, inform." Freed knocked on the door, maintaining his eerie eye contact with Asia all the while. "You've done missionary work before, haven't you?"
She nodded.
"This is pretty much the same, the only difference being that I like to use a little more oomph when I work. Hehe, I'm passionate like that."
The apartment door eventually opened, revealing the sight of a fairly pudgy, short-looking man with a noticeable amount of acne on his face and rounded glasses.
"Ah? Why the hell are there foreign cosplayers at my front door?" He adjusted his spectacles, "Don't you know that I was in the midst of writing a strongly worded essay on why Goku's stronger than—"
"Shut up."
Thud!
Freed didn't waste a second, swiftly kicking the rounded man in the abdomen as he went tumbling onto the ground rear-first.
"Father Freed!" Asia yelped, entirely taken off guard by the abruptly violent gesture.
"H-Hey! What do you think you're—"
"I thought I told you to shut up." Freed slowly started to pace towards the fallen civilian, his figure towering over him, illuminated by the fading sunlight hitting his back. "You put yourself into this situation, so the least you could do is have some class while you receive your appropriate punishment."
Sweat started to build up on the fallen individual's skin profusely, the sight of Freed's glistening crimson eyes looking down on him being nothing short of horrifying.
"Or were you under the impression that you could strike a deal with such a despicable species and get away scot-free? Honestly, the foolishness of you people never ceases to surprise me."
He reached into his clerical coat, pulling out what looked to be a bladeless hilt with an intricate, holy design inscribed into its metal.
Zzzzzrrrttt!
But all of a sudden, a streak of white light erupted from the empty space in the hilt, assuming the shape of what one could only assume was a blade as if it were right out of a sci-fi movie.
"However, I am quite grateful for your eagerness to go ahead and get roped in with the Devils. It's the only reason I'm able to come out here and hunt till my heart's content after all."
Freed turned around, facing Asia, who had found herself trapped in stunned silence.
But for some reason, his focus wasn't attached to her.
His pupils widened in shock as he was greeted with a sight he wasn't expecting to see, nor one that he understood.
Someone was standing behind his newfound assistant.
"That's quite an interesting toy you're holding."
Asia swiftly turned around, stumbling backwards from the shock of the figure creeping up on her.
Now that Freed had decided to reveal his intent fully, Takauji concluded that now was a good time for him to show himself.
Granted, any concern for the person the priest was about to attack didn't even begin to rival his intrigue regarding the tool Freed was holding—as someone whose specialty was Artificing, he was pretty keen on getting his hands on the light-sword.
"I don't know what you read online, but you can't just carry swords around here; it's against the law." He stepped inside, closing the door behind him while completely ignoring Asia's presence. "Of course, I might reconsider calling the police if you obediently hand it over."
Freed furrowed his brow, looking at him with a slowly heightening sense of recognition, one which had nothing to do with anything visually related.
"I'd recognize that smell anywhere." He straightened his posture, his hostility rising tenfold in comparison to when he had laid eyes upon the unfortunate civilian cowering behind him. "You've also made a deal with a Devil, haven't you?"
"Don't get it wrong, they made a deal with me." He continued to eye Freed's sword, part of him tempted to simply Shadow Step towards him and try to snatch it out of his clasp.
'That sword's presence reminds me of Raynare to an extent, could it also involve that "Light Magic" she was talking about?'
"I don't see a difference." Freed snickered inwardly, thanking Lady Luck for the opportunity he had presented him with.
To think he'd get to be killing not one, but two Devil-affiliated people in one day.
"You don't seem like a normal person to me, but you haven't reincarnated yourself as a Devil either." Freed scratched his chin, carefully scrutinizing him. "What exactly are you?"
"Like I said, I'm just someone who's interested in that weapon you're holding. As long as you hand it over, I'll probably let you live." He spoke with unwavering confidence, as if the concept of losing to the clerical man didn't even exist to him.
'If it really is Light Magic, and he, a human, is capable of wielding it. Then I absolutely have to obtain it, I could end up creating something truly special if I had it in my possession.'
"Is that so?" Freed pupils' glistened, the notion of getting involved in something more than a one-sided execution excited him. "Then why don't you come over here and take it yourself?" Much to Takauji's surprise, Freed deactivated his light-sword, holding it out towards him with his palm open.
"How courteous of you." And in a motion that returned the surprise right back to Freed, he stepped forward without an ounce of hesitation or concern present on his face.
"Kakaka! You're a lot more foolish than I anticipated!"
BANG!
Freed promptly reached for the back of his coat, brandishing a silver handgun and immediately firing a bright, illuminated round at Takauji's forehead.
But once he heard the sound of his bullet connecting, he immediately pieced together that something was awry.
The sound definitely wasn't that of a bullet piercing through flesh and bone; that much was clear to him from the sheer amount of experience he had in murdering.
Poof!
A cloud of smoke erupted from what was supposed to be Takauji's corpse, which quickly revealed itself to be a cardboard cut-out of some anime character that belonged to Freed's planned target.
'I guess it was a good thing I learned the basics after all.'
"First a sword, now a firearm?" He spoke from behind Freed, startling the priest as he hurriedly turned around to face him. "Good grief, you Gaijin really have no respect for Japanese law."
But Freed's shock didn't last for long.
From his perspective, all Takauji had done was convince Freed that he was enough for a delightful battle—and that was all that mattered to the Exorcist.
Or more specifically, the Stray Exorcist.
An Exorcist who had strayed from the Biblical God's teachings, and henceforth been exiled from the Church's rank, essentially making them an outlaw amongst their kind.
"This is gonna be fun!" Freed fired another round at Takauji before charging him.
'Mana Shield.'
Even though his reaction time wasn't on par with the speed of a bullet, the motion of Freed's moving handgun was more than enough of an indicator to tell him when to deflect.
But he wasn't done there.
He opened his palm, allowing his Dark Mana to build up before unleashing an attack of his own.
'Blind.'
A dark cloud of smoke erupted from his skin, causing Freed's perception to go haywire as he clumsily started to stumble around, his body unable to adjust to the sudden loss of vision.
"I'll be taking this." Instead of taking advantage of the window of opportunity to deliver a fatal blow, he walked forward and grabbed both the light-sword and silver handgun out of Freed's grasp.
'Uh, how do I work this thing?' He started shifting the hilt from side to side. 'Ah, a button.'
Upon igniting the sword, he immediately became entranced, the coursing energy running through its luminescent blade stimulating his curiosity to an all-time high.
"You…" Freed was left at a loss for words, staring at him with his eyes as wide as possible.
Takauji didn't strike him as an exceptionally experienced combatant, especially from the way he carried himself.
Save for maybe his overbearing confidence.
But for some reason, his spells were capable of completely shutting him down, and the fact that Light Magic was only practical against Devils meant that his light-sword didn't give him much of an advantage.
Even so, handgundgun was supposed to be capable of blasting through most defensive spells, but that hadn't worked either.
The concept of a Magician wasn't foreign to him, but there was something—off-putting—about Takauji's Mana.
Something he wasn't sure he really wanted to continue to challenge, even though his nature was built on nothing more than blind violence.
"What… Are you?" The only conclusion to be made was that the man he was fighting was an anomaly.
"You can ask that question as many times as you like; the answer will remain constant." He stretched his neck from side to side. "Got any other gadgets I might be interested in?"
Freed gritted his teeth, infuriated by Takauji's indifferent response to stealing his weapons. Even if the fear of the unknown caused by the Magician's abilities was plaguing him, his pride as someone who had the label of genius attached to him from a young age was eating away at him.
"That's quite the glare you have." Takauji grinned, continuing to shock Freed by throwing both of his weapons back towards the Exorcist. "Since you still seem eager to fight, you might as well make yourself useful and demonstrate how these things are used. It'd help my research."
Of course, Takauji was well aware of his lack of martial ability. The only training he had was a single sparring session with Tomoe, where she taught him how to use a staff, but in the face of Freed, he wasn't too worried about that.
He had versatility on his side; the list of spells he had to pick from far exceeded that of most Magicians of his rank, and there were quite a few powerful ones included in his arsenal.
'What better way to learn than from an actual fight? Theory doesn't count for much without the required experience to reinforce it.'
"You're going to regret that, Magician." Freed's voice darkened, his posture indicating that he was going to take his second wind a lot more seriously.
"No, I don't think I will." When he had fought Alenth, his mind wasn't exactly clear-headed from the Mana-high he had received.
But this time, he was clear-headed, the only thing holding him back being the fatigue he had incurred from working on his Yin Release Technique.
Freed inhaled sharply, recalling the training he had undergone at the Sigurd Institution before lunging at Takauji and performing a horizontal swing towards his midsection.
'That's more like it.'
Takauji allowed him to come close, balling his fist and foolishly attempting to punch Freed's blade.
Or at least, that's what he appeared to be doing.
Seconds before his knuckles connected with the fiery-hot light-sword, a ball of compressed Mana swiftly gathered in front of his fist, greeting Freed with yet another spell he wasn't ready to respond to.
'Repulsion!'
A fierce shockwave erupted out of Takauji's hand, destroying most of the furniture in the entrance hallway and knocking Freed down to the opposite end of it, putting him right beside the apartment owner, who still couldn't wrap his head around what he was witnessing.
'Oh? Now that's impressive.'
Takauji looked down at his hand, observing the noticeable amount of bruising on the surface of his skin.
As it would appear, Freed had managed to deflect some of the impact back towards him—something Takauji didn't even know was possible until now.
'Giving him a second chance was worth it after all, I'm still learning new things about my spells.'
He started to pace forward as Freed quickly recomposed himself, stumbling to his feet for a brief moment as he vehemently shook his head, trying to shake off the dazed state the impact had inflicted upon him.
"Your body's tougher than I anticipated." He observed Freed's seemingly lackluster wounds, even though he hadn't charged up his Repulsion spell all that much—the Stray Exorcist was still supposed to be a human, meaning the skill should've at least caused a slight bleeding.
"Of course it is, I'm a genius, my body isn't as squishy as yours."
And in that moment, Takauji's face hardened to the point where even Asia was able to tell that his demeanor had changed.
"..."
He blinked repeatedly, taken aback by what he had just heard.
"What did you just say to me?"
"Are you deaf? I said my body isn't as—"
"Not that, the part before."
"Ah? The fact that I'm a genius?"
'Mhm, so I didn't mishear that after all.'
He paused for a moment, nodding to himself before breathing a deep exhale.
'Change of plan—Mana Reinforcement! Touki!'
━━━━
Freed really isn't that scary without his Excaliburs now, is he?
Unless you happen to be Yuuto "The King Of Holding Back On His Sacred Gear's Potential" Kiba.
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