I Instinctively scrammed the smoke with the tablecloth nearby, revealing the source of a deep yet energetic male voice.
It was a rather peculiar individual with oriental outfit with a red and black flowery pattern. Instead of a gas mask, he merely strapped a full face scarf on his face. This man stood on top of the railing like it was nothing.
Aside from the unique yet unprepared appearance, there was some kind of empty key hole on his left chest. Inside it, I felt something sinister peeking from the void…
The man didn't respond to my question immediately. No, he seemed like he didn't catch it fast enough as he began to awkwardly clasped both of his palms together while also slightly bowing forward.
He then spoke with a completely different tone than before.
"I'm a ninja, nin-nin."
"That is a monk greeting!"
"A monk can also be a ninja, nin-nin."
"Your appearance is anything but a monk!"
Tch, I got worked up over a foreign weirdo.
Just as I wanted to ignore this oddball and contribute to the ongoing fight, my attention was caught after the dude started talking in an unruly, deep tone.
"Faust Hecates, are you sure that you want to swallow yourself in lamentation forever?"
I tried my best to maintain my smile. Although it may not look as kind at this moment.
"I don't know you, which rich asshole sent you?"
"Gyehehe. The future candidate of an 'Urban Messiah', of course."
I had no clue of what he was talking about.
Ignoring the weirdo, I faced the opposite direction and began to travel through the cramped street with a spear in hand and table cloth to dig through the mist, going to the source of explosions and clanging of steels that was occurring on the other side.
"Just tell that whatever-person that I don't care about, they better stick their fingers up to their ass and leave me alone."
"I'm afraid that it's not me that has the privilege to consider that."
A quick and loud step alerted me.
Before I knew it, the fake-ninja had already appeared in front of me, holding the same model of stiletto dagger that I formerly used.
"I shall do you a favor. Feel free to go to District 44 if you want to thank me!"
Like a spear used by the cavalier, the fake-ninja lunged himself with the dagger already charged up with terrifying heat.
As our distance was shrunk to a meter. With pinpoint accuracy, I hurled my spear to his wrist. There was no point if I attack anywhere else if it led him to throw the dagger.
The air was pierced.
Neither sound nor sight was dependable at that moment.
Even though my memory and action was one hundred percent sure that I impaled his hand with my spear, the distance and the frame that I perceived just now revealed his hand was still three meters apart.
As if the space was stretched apart so that my attack didn't connect.
And at the moment where the stroke that I launched had already offset the supposed trajectory of his lunging hand, his distance blinked into a meter once again.
Whether it was an illusion or reality shifting, the fact that my spear missed its target was undeniable.
But as long as I still have another hand unused, I could turn the tide.
Albeit flimsy, my left hand that was holding the table cloth immediately flung the fabric into his face, and grabbed the dagger on my waist in quick motion.
This time, it should connect.
Just like the former attack, I aimed at his hand.
All within the same breath, I shifted my foot position to give more weight to my force while avoiding the incoming dagger.
The edge grinded the air.
My attack missed once again.
The same thing happened once again. He was transferred back around three meters away in the air.
Without having anything left to counter, he rushed in and redirected the flaming stiletto to my left eye.
From the moment the tip traveled, to the point where it pierced the gas mask's lenses, and my retina, I perceived it all.
"Tch!"
My teeth were clenched, trying to numb the unbecoming wound in the making.
Before I could hack-and-slash everything in front of me, this person was already five meters away, almost completely hidden within the mist. Not wasting any time, I fixed the hole on the gas mask by tightly wrapping it with the table cloth that was fluttering in the air.
I lost an eye, I don't want my senses to be weakened by the Cleaning Mist any further.
Weirdly enough, the attack seemed to be strangely calculated as the only thing that was damaged was my eye and not a half of my skull.
The goal of this man by doing so? Not even me in the near future might know.
"Nin-nin."
"Quit it, that doesn't make you a ninja in the slightest!"
"Aww, you hurt my little heart."
And you literally blinded one of my eyes.
Keeping an eye on each other's movement, our face off got into a stalemate.
Out of nowhere, the ninja-wannabe abruptly laughed like an insufferable freak.
"Hmhmhm, gyahahaha!"
"Okay, now I'm contemplating about your wacky humor."
"Despite losing an eye, you're still smiling like a psycho!"
"Oh, really? You can't even see my face, I might be having a really grumpy frown, you know!?"
"Of course, but I don't really think that someone with a voice as calm as yours would look like a Tengu inside the mask. You might haven't known it much, but many gave you the title of 'The Fool' for that."
I appreciated the compliment, but that information had been in my head for a very long time already.
"Haah, apparently, I'm a materialist. Things like tarot and faith are just false reassurances people tend to sink into."
"In this day and age? Haish, don't worry, your ideology will crumble soon."
A sublime and raspy chuckling could be heard after that. A creepy one, and definitely the most annoying thing I heard up to date.
"Huh, District 44, wasn't it!?" I recovered my stance, trying to assess every information I could with only one eye. "I'll make sure to visit that place in the future. You just need to gosh darn wait for the inevitable."