"You can go investigate on one condition: you must take someone with you."
Those were the conditions for Hisagi to be allowed to investigate the ongoing disappearances.
It was an unsolved case that was slowly causing more and more panic among people, so it was essential to find the source of the problems.
Knowing he had to bring a companion, Hisagi chose Toge, who would be the least likely to complain about being dragged into a mission he knew little about.
"Alright, Toge, let's get going." Hisagi was in a good mood, as he could now continue his investigations, but this time he had a driver to take him to the designated locations.
Both of them got into a vehicle, and the driver, after asking a few questions, started driving without further inquiry.
"I wonder what the source of the problem is," Hisagi said loudly enough for Toge to hear.
"Red salmon?" Toge looked at Hisagi with a bit of stress, knowing he wouldn't fully understand him.
Communication would be a problem on this mission, which was quite unfortunate.
But Hisagi wasn't clueless; he knew exactly what Toge was asking, so he explained in detail what he knew about the case so far. "The case where we met a few weeks ago is connected to a series of disappearances of women."
Toge listened carefully to the details of the investigation.
"I understand that the things causing so much harm only kill the men and kidnap the women. Strange, right? You might think humans are committing these atrocious crimes, but the worst part is that these attacks aren't done by humans."
This was what intrigued Hisagi the most. The fact that whatever was causing this wasn't human, nor was it a cursed spirit, was something new to deal with.
"It doesn't have cursed energy, but it does have spiritual energy. So, could the source of this problem be a Yokai?" Hisagi asked, wanting to know what Toge thought.
But once again, communication was an issue.
Toge nervously glanced at Hisagi, trying to find the right word to summarize his response. After some thought, he said, "Magic beans."
"Hmm, the spiritual agents should be investigating this case, but now that the number of victims has dramatically increased, this case will become ours." Hisagi wouldn't let this case end without a satisfactory resolution after having invested so much time in it.
To have been chasing the source of the problems and come up with nothing would be like carrying a long-standing burden.
Why was he trying so hard if, in the end, he would miss out on the final blow?
Killing granted him power, and this power made him stronger, allowing him to continue being the guardian of many lost souls.
"Oh, since we have some time, I'd like to say that your curse is actually more of a benefit than a hindrance." Hisagi looked at Toge in silence, generating a new topic of conversation.
Toge stared at Hisagi, confused. He didn't know why Hisagi was now talking about his curse.
Hisagi leaned closer to Toge and whispered, "Your curse consumes a lot of cursed energy each time you issue a command, and that's because of the high cost of the commands you give. But what if, instead of issuing powerful commands, you limited yourself to simple orders and fought hand-to-hand?"
"Sweet banana?" Toge was surprised. Hisagi barely knew about his curse, yet he was now giving him very practical advice.
"Imagine this: in the middle of a fight, you manipulate the movements of your enemies, and with a cursed weapon, you take them down in close combat. The best way to win the battle and maximize your combat abilities." Hisagi was quite excited, thinking about the advantages that his friends hadn't considered.
"Green apple." Of course, Toge liked the idea, but thinking about having to fight in close combat made him feel a significant amount of laziness.
Toge didn't like exercising!
…
Southeast of Yoyogi Park, a crime scene was being investigated.
Like all the other victims, women had been kidnapped here.
"The same as before: we've got nothing more than the build of the kidnappers captured on camera." Chief Detective Soichiro was at a dead end.
The walls were covered in blood, the smell was unbearable, and even the forensics team was having trouble collecting all the pieces of flesh stuck to the walls.
No one had any answers about what was happening. They had to keep the investigation discreet because if they caused panic without offering a solution to the public, they would lose control of everything.
"Once the forensics team leaves, keep security at a minimum. I'll leave a trusted man here to take care of the final details." Soichiro didn't have much more to do. Even with a special investigation team, they still had no answers, so he was more useful in the field investigating the culprits than sitting here hoping for a breakthrough.