Megumi knocked on the door, letting out a small breath as he mentally prepared himself. He had waited about five minutes after the previous group had entered, and took the opportunity to not make it look too suspicious.
'Is this the stereotypical 'Adventurer's Guild' I hear Yuji talking about?' Megumi mused to himself, finding a comparison to this and the mangas his best friend would always talk to him in their free time, 'though, it seems more grim than that...'
Slide
Megumi turned to see an opening in the door that had opened up, just like the last time.
"What's the occasion?" A voice came out, the same as the one person.
The black haired man felt a bit nervous, seeing how the response was different from the previous one of 'what's your need?' But Megumi decided to take the leap of faith. "Any services, I'll pay for the price, how about you?"
A brief silence loomed over, a sense of nervousness akin to butterflies fluttering in his stomach became apparent. Thankfully, the sound of a few locks being processed made its way, and the door was opened.
"Come in," there was a wolf eared man who greeted him, dressed spectacularly in a black suit. He had his eyes closed when he presented the way for Megumi, who simply nodded and stepped him.
As he entered through, the formally dressed Lupo opened his eyes, before being assaulted by a wave of Cursed Energy, a great presence bearing down on his shoulders. 'W-what is this?!' His eyes widened, all the fancy decorum drilled in his mannerisms broke as he watched him enter.
'A-a Highashin noble? A Higashin crime boss?! Who is he?' He saw his back, dressed in a haori that spoke of elegance and regality, the way it fluttered in the air seemed as if the world was carrying it in the wind out of pure respect for the black haired man.
The way his hair wildly spiked in the air in multiple directions as he held what he could only call a prideful gait, one that spoke the confidence in his power and malevolence, a neutral expression which cared not for who stood in his way.
'D-divine! Absolutely divine!' The air of malevolence emitting itself in the building felt like a gift of a being whose only care was what pleasantries the world would have to offer him. The fine Lupo man's senses as a wolf told him that the Higashin man was an apex predator, one whose whims were the only reason why those who stood around him were even alive.
When he entered, Megumi was given a sight of what looked like a tavern, a well decorated one with multiple discussions at tables going on, ranging from well dressed individuals and well equipped soldiers.
All of the conversations immediately halted, their attention turning to him as he stood in the epicenter of it all, hands moving to grasp at the hilt of concealed weapons and an air of tension had grown.
Megumi watched in silence, internally panicking at the reaction everybody gave, 'w-why are they like this?' He kept his stoic expression, knowing that he couldn't show a modicum of weakness in this dire situation. 'Do they do this with everybody who enters?'
He walked silently to the counter, where there was an empty seat with a well dressed barista woman who had frozen in her process of pouring a drink in a cup, the water already spilling at the brim.
Fushiguro Megumi halted at the empty seat in front of him, staring down at the woman who was frozen from a primal fear developed by her senses as a Vulpo. 'Fox ears? No... There is a much more serious situation happening, focus...'
Megumi still felt the multiple gazes and way expressions of the people all across the tavern, as he opened his mouth, "you're spilling the drink."
The barista woman immediately jolted, bowing her head in an apology as she whimpered out an apology. He tried to appear casual, hoping his voice would diffuse the situation and show himself off as a person not to be afraid of.
Everybody immediately misinterpreted the meaning, thinking that the ungodly man had been referring to everybody. They had taken 'you're spilling the drink,' as a way for him to refer to how the residents had posed an unsightly scene for him by reaching out for their weapons and freezing at his entrance. The residents felt as if their efforts would all be worthless against him, even if they were all to charge him at once.
Megumi kept silent after that, moving to sit on the tall stool at the front of the bar, placing his bent right leg on top of it with his right hand over the knee, a sitting posture he developed on these types of chairs.
The people who were frozen from his presence immediately resumed their conversations, speaking in lower voices and more hushed tones than before, majority of them covering the sides of their mouth and sending wary glances his way.
"I-is he a..."
"What was..."
"He's a monster..!"
"Holy sh..."
The man could hear them whispering by reinforcing his ear with Cursed Energy, but immediately regretted it, all he got was that these people were afraid of him and that he would learn nothing useful from them. 'Aren't they trained killers? Why are they so afraid?'
Unbeknownst to him, the fact that they are trained killers with a fighter's instinct meant that they would feel the largest brunt of his baleful spirit. It was practically screaming at them 'DO NOT ENGAGE'
Megumi waited for a barista to attend to him, so he could talk to somebody and get at least some information about this place. However, they all seemed to purposefully avoid him, moving faster as they entered his line of sight.
It was quite irritating, and being in a setting such as this was already adding stress to the brain-fried man.
"Hey..." Megumi spoke out to one of the baristas, a more restrained tone with his teeth gritted.
Big mistake it seemed, seeing how they froze from his attention, sweat forming on their forehead as the empty cups they were holding shook with their arm. "Y-yes g-good, sir?"
"...Could you come closer?" Megumi motioned towards him, getting sick of this. 'Why they hell are they-,' it was then a realization hit him, could they feel his Cursed Energy? 'No... that can't be they don't possess...' He tried to make conclusions over the reason, but attributed it to the people of this world possessing some sort of magical energy as Megumi had termed it. 'I can feel a slight amount of it in other people.'
"A-ah, u-understood, sir..." They moved closer to Megumi over the bar.
The seats around the Ten Shadows user had already been excavated, everybody leaving in fear of him. "Could you get me..." Megumi mulled over what drinks he could buy, not seeing any menus, "grape juice?" He honestly didn't like alcohol that much, and was as much as a lightweight as Gojo Satoru.
"D-definitely," the man stuttered back, his feet immediately scuttering to the back door of the bar, most likely reaching for the kitchen.
Megumi only caught a glimpse of it, but the backdoor to the kitchen looked refined and overly expensive... In fact, the large room he was residing in seemed to be lined with gold colored decorations. 'Is it... Actually gold?' What the hell had he found, by following a bunch of horned mercenaries?
He side-eyed the area, watching how the people of the room still remained nervous at his presence, finding the Sarkaz mercenaries he had tailed in the corner, although he could only barely see them.
They were quite tall, although Megumi was 175 cm (5'9) as a teenager and now 185 cm (6'1) as an adult, one of the mercenaries stood out as an absolute giant. They were the only people who seemed to have kept their hands on their weapons, ready to be drawn.
The black haired man turned back his side-eye as footsteps were heard once again, a man bringing out a purple colored cup as he tried his best to meet the former's gaze. "H-here you go sir!"
"Stay," Megumi simply spoke, seeing how the man seemed to run away at the moment. Perhaps he could be more soft about it? Considering he stated it in a rather curt tone, which caused the recipient to instantly freeze in place.
"Yes?" The Feline barista looked like they were about to pass out at any moment, averting his gaze to not feel the terrifying presence of the other.
Side glances of pity were sent from the people sitting at the tables behind.
"Let's have a talk," Megumi answered him, shaking his cup a little bit as he watched the liquid spur in the cup disinterestedly. "I want information..." He kept his words as vague as possible, hoping it would do him any good. Hopefully he could manipulate the fear he was giving these people to his benefit... But it was going to be hard to maintain in the long run.
"Anything y-you wish, sir," the barista in particular assumed the man to be an extremely powerful Higashin who decided to survey the slums of Lungmen, brazenly entering the territory of the 'Rat King' himself and causing a scene with his might. 'I-is he planning to go to war with the slums?!' Although the barista held a lot of loyalty to the higher-ups he served in this area, he most definitely valued his life more than disobeying this monstrosity in front of him.
"Where can I get a commission? One that offers good money," Megumi took a sip of the drink, finding no alcohol in it. 'I can't even taste it, my taste buds have also been fried too, huh?.' A sense of disappointment came over him, meaning he couldn't enjoy food unless he mastered RCT to a degree or used Round Deer. 'Even more reasons to tame it as soon as possible.'
"W-we can personally bring up one for you, if you wish..." The barista felt slightly more comfortable that the man was looking for a commission, and not trying to pick a fight in the Rat King's territory, 'unless he's just faking it...'
"I wouldn't mind," Megumi took another sip, motioning for him to do so with a slightly rigid movement.
"Understood, sir," the other man spoke respectfully, bowing before swiftly walking off to a second back door that seemed to go somewhere.
The voices behind Megumi seemed to rise from that.
"H-holy, is he getting a commission from the 'back door?'"
"He really is a big shot..."
"Crap, look away..."
"We shouldn't disrespect..."
Fushiguro Megumi just stared at the backdoor where the barista had gone through, wondering if he would even be able to get out of this sort of occupation after pulling such a stunt. 'No, I definitely can, if I keep a low profile after this...'
He cursed his luck, but only mildly so, he didn't want to become a Cursed Spirit after dying, especially since no Cursed Techniques or Cursed Energy itself exists in this world; meaning he couldn't be completely exorcised and had a chance to become a Cursed Spirit. 'Not that I would ever do such a thing.'
Megumi took another big gulp of the grape juice, the only form of sustenance he had so far in this world. He still wasn't that hungry, thanks to Cursed Energy keeping his body stable and at a functional level, but he would need to eat eventually.
The backdoor that Megumi was focused on finally opened, as the Feline barista stepped out holding what seemed to be a file, unfolding it as he made his way to where the black haired man was sitting.
"H-here," he placed it down in front of Megumi with a nervous gait.
Megumi raised an eyebrow, propping a fist against his right cheek as he analyzed what the contents were. 'A recent rise in criminal activity being secretly administered by company owner Hanshi in Lungmen has...'
He digested the words written quickly, gazing through it in one second and understanding everything about it. Explaining it in a general way, Hanshi was some guy that disguised his company as a place that sold USBs, normal functioning ones. But also used it as a front to dump 'non-functional' USBs into the trash cans where people would find them spilt onto the streets. However, they were actually virus softwares that would steal informationThey made sure their company labels on it were scraped off, and had hacked nearly one million LMD as a result.
Hanshi was also somebody who would steal kids and sell them off to a trafficking criminal organization, getting a small share of their earnings from it.
'Where the hell did this place get such information?' Megumi flipped it over one more time before he organized and closed it, placing it back into the folder and closing it. "I'll accept this." It was really strange, this place was, was everybody here a trusted member? Seeing how they used a passcode to get through?
The information and profile of Hanshi were given, thankfully letting the black haired man know where he stayed. A high rise building that had other buildings he could use as a vantage point to assassinate the man. 'An asshole like him who also dealt in human trafficking and that hacking stuff's gotta be put down.'
Megumi wasn't one who enjoyed killing, in fact, he tried to avoid it. But when push came to shove he would not hesitate. It was standard for the average Sorcerer to have this kind of mindset, and he'd like to believe he was more lenient than others when it came to this occupation.
"O-okay, would you like to bring a partner-," the barista attempted to speak, but was cut off.
"No, I can handle this on my own," Megumi stood up, before asking the price of the drink, "how much did this drink cost, anyways?"
"U-uhm... 2500 LMD..."
The Ten Shadows user froze, arms itching to turn into a certain summoning pose when he heard such an absurd price for grape juice of all things. From his calculations and comparing Chinese Yuan to Japanese Yen, it was worth 50,000 Yen...
"...Isn't that quite absurd? For grape juice?" Megumi could feel the stress piling up in his mind, most likely not a good thing because he still needed it to recover from Unlimited Void. 'I couldn't even taste it because my taste buds are vaporized!'
"I-it's on the house for the first order, please don't be too angry!" The barista waved his arms, sweating profusely as the negative energy from Megumi rose from his current feelings.
"Ah, is that so? Thank you, then," Megumi felt himself calming down, and turned away as he moved to get the commission done, 'I hope this doesn't bite me in the ass.' He walked through the crowds of tables once more, noticing how they were completely silent now. 'Seriously, why are they like this, Cursed Energy isn't this severe...'
His Spatial Well in his shadow only had 750 LMD, one that he robbed from a couple of thugs that he found in the alleyway, and it was purely based on luck that he was able to find off rather well off hooligans.
Megumi paused and stared at the entrance door blankly, realizing that it wasn't supposed to be exited through, before turning back to the barista who froze at his gaze.
"A-apologises, the e-exit door is over there!" The Feline's finger shook as he pointed to a different door to the right of the room.
Megumi nodded wordlessly, walking to make his way there, haori moving alongside his form. 'Isn't somebody as professionally trained as him way too much of a scaredy cat?' He amusingly thought to himself, considering the person was... Well, a cat.
He exited the room, closing the door behind him as he did so.
The residents all breathed a sigh of relief, the malevolent presence emitting from the man vanished. Feeling as if they had another chance to live another day, all the people in the room were going to take this opportunity to live their lives to the fullest from now on.
It is said that two mercenaries quit their job after that day.
***
At the dead of night, Megumi stood on a roof top of a building overlooking a glass paned structure in front of him. Looking through the window, he could see an overweight man sitting in an office building, smoking what seemed to be a cigar as he swerved in his chair.
The impression he gave off was somebody high off of power, seeing how he spun his hand in the air as if he were some Machiavellian super villain orchestrating schemes within his mind. Megumi did not find it entertaining at all.
He was talking to somebody in front of him, two bodyguards by his side.
'Ok... You know what to do,' the black haired man took a deep breath, reaching back at his shadow as a certain weapon shot out. Grabbing it, Megumi unwrapped The Inverted Spear of Heaven as he kept his sights on Hanshi.
Grabbing the hilt of the dagger, he settled the wrappings into his shadows as he covered the back end of the chain that was attached to the circular end-hilt of the dagger, before extending it. 'Huh, just as Gojo described...' The chain kept extending until he could spin it in the air, off to his right side as the momentum started to build up. 'Is this even going to work?'
Having superhuman senses that were enhanced by Cursed Energy, he could naturally control motions from complex weapons such as the three-sectioned staff of Playful Cloud, but still found it slightly difficult to control.
'Alright, let's take it slow...' Megumi could feel the weapon spinning on the chain rotating even faster, as he tensed and enhanced his body with Cursed Energy. With his eyes shut, he could feel his focus increasing, the world dulling around him... Before shooting them open, 'I've got you now...'
With a huff, he shot his right arm forward, his haori fluttering in the air as he turned his body with great effort, directing The Inverted Spear of Heaven's trajectory to human trafficker as a sonic boom rang out.
It shot out, the chain extending infinitely as long as the back end was not seen, charging faster and faster...
***
"And what are you going to do about it? Lin Yuhsia?" Hanshi stared at the pink haired woman in front of him, wearing a black dress. He noticed how the woman didn't bring any bodyguards with her, a rookie mistake, and here he heard that the woman was the successor of the Rat King himself.
"Normally, your activities would be for the LGD to handle, but due to the fact that it is reaching into the slums..." Lin drew out the last part, eyes narrowing. An air of authority and power seemed to wash over the room. "I guarantee you that I will have to take matters into my own hands."
Hanshi glared at her, hating how he felt intimidated by this little mouse lady. Literally, she was a Zalak. "Oh? Is it so serious that you'd come here yourself?" Hanshi smoked his cigar as he regarded her with a faux uncaring look.
Lin simply crossed her arms, the commission that was put into the mercenary tavern set up in the slums didn't have anybody confident enough to take it upon themselves to handle this man. Due to the recent high rates of crime from foreign influences, which irked her to no end, the LGD couldn't take their time to investigate this man.
So she decided to personally deal with him herself, if Hanshi didn't heed her warning she simply had to-
One of the body guards jolted, feeling a sense of danger as they turned back to the large rectangular window behind them, "Sir! There's something-!" He ran forward to erect a barrier with his arts, but it was too late.
CRASH!
A two pronged dagger attached to a chain broke through the window, reaching Hanshi in a wide arc as the man widened his eyes.
The bodyguard who placed down an arts barrier in front of his boss found it instantly dispelled as the weapon made contact, causing him to widen his eyes-
Before the dagger sliced him in half, a great force rippled across the room as it moved onwards and killed the other bodyguard stationed to Hanshi's left.
"W-what the fu-" Hanshi panicked, falling back as his chair tilted backwards, causing the sounds of falling objects when his desk was pushed forward because of the force.
The dagger attached to the chain after it had nearly completed its course around the room in the section in front of Hashi immediately had an equal force distributed to reduce its inertia, although quite sloppy. But it gave it enough time to instantly build up enough power to go through another course.
Lin Yuhsia had already backed off to the elevator at the end of the room, summoning her sword and preparing any of her glass arts to defend against the dagger. 'What is going on?' She didn't remember stationing any assassins. The woman was already in a sword-style pose, holding her sword in reverse grip in her right hand and two fingers raised and pointed up in front of her body.
Hanshi would find himself sliced in half after The Inverted Spear of Heaven grazed across the room again, sending his head flying off before he could say anything else, leaving a splatter of blood to come out of the stump.
His head rolled in front of Lin, the woman not giving it so much as a glance as she narrowed her eyes at where the attack had come. With a slight push against the ground, she shot forward in a pink and black blur as the dagger that had assaulted the room was pulled back.
She stood at the broken window, looking up as she saw a shadowy figure turning away and running. 'I could make the jump... But no, it won't be worth it...' Lin didn't feel like chasing the mysterious across the cityscape, 'did he come from the tavern?' Multiple questions came up in her mind, but she immediately dispelled them. 'I still have other business to attend to, I'll research this matter later...'
The Zalak turned back to the three corpses, the blood pooling on the ground as she sighed, 'it seems I'll have to get this cleaned up, then... Or I could just leave it.' With her decision made, she decided to gracefully leap off the building and to another, letting what transpired here be as it is.
Lin Yuhsia pondered what his motives were, and exactly why he decided to target Hanshi... Her thoughts came to a certain place, the Mercenary's Tavern under her father's influence. 'I see...' A calculating gaze came over her face as she stared in the direction of the slums.