Buio and Tanoshi had been entering the demon dimension for six days now. At first they were accompanied by Garasu then Ryu. However for the past 4 days they had gone there as the usual dynamic duo. This morning Tanoshi was headed to the Elite Force hideout to receive a mission directly from the Supreme magi.
Buio hadn't been summoned for his first solo mission as yet and had decided to take the day for himself. That's how he ended up seated in a meditative position on his bed. To anyone else it might have seemed like he was doing just that, meditating.
Well, that was far from the truth. Buio was not even the one actually sitting on the bed. The eerily identical being was actually another of his Permaclones.
Abyss was one of Buio's deadliest Permaclones even when he was only utilising Buio's innate abilities. His main objective was to assist in refining the usage of Darkness and shadows. He would also occasionally swap places with his master to allow him hands on experience using said abilities.
Even though the permaclones were his creations, they were also sentient beings with total free will. Despite this fact, all of Buio's Permaclones gladly assisted him in their own way to gradually achieve his goals.
Several of them had been dispatched to infiltrate each guild as well as the Elite Force before. His trusty purple coat and Abyss however, never left his side, well so to speak.
While Buio was out conquering the demon dimension, Abyss had been experimenting with summoning miniature black holes. The permaclone had shared the sensation and intricate mana manipulation necessary to achieve this feat via their telepathic link, Buio was currently inside the dark dimension practicing to do it himself.
One would think that it would be much easier to achieve his goal with the insight he had gained prior to attempting it, however it was not so.
Just like one could conceptualize how a meal should taste if it contained certain ingredients and was prepared in a particular way, learning to create the miniature black holes himself was a very similar situation.
Having an idea how something should turn out based on your mental simulation was a completely different matter altogether than achieving the desired result in reality.
As such Buio was having quite a bit of a struggle trying to achieve the feat which was already partially mastered by his Permaclone.
As far as he knew, several hours should have already passed out in the real world while he was in this seperate dimension. Time flowed differently within the dark dimension than it did in regular reality.
And by his estimation he had already been inside for three days. Buio was very hungry and tired and needed to take a break some time soon.
Sometime later Buio was alerted by Abyss to share his senses with him once more. Innitiating the link he heard a knock on his door: "Buio, Buio, you up yet?" Came the feminine voice from the other side.
He recognized the voice as that of his guild mate Gomu. Buio quickly prompted Abyss to swap places with him, at which point a dark portal opened in the room and his Permaclone nodded it's head towards him then stepped through to the other side.
"I'm up, is there a mission or something?" He replied immediately while donning his Permaclone coat. "No, no mission... Hanabira and i were wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat with us in the town or something. We're heading out in an hour or so. Would you like to come with us?" She asked quickly.
Buio turned facing in the direction where a clock stood on his bedside table. Intending to Address one of his beast bonds he asked: "what time is it?" Forgetting to specify whom he was asking. A moment later there was a chorus of replies: "10:25 dark Lord!"
If Buio had been drinking anything at that moment he would have either choked on it or spat it out. 'Not this damned dark lord thing again, didn't i tell them to stop that?' He thought to himself.
Chuckling lightly to himself he replied: "Sure Gomu, I'll start getting ready in a few minutes. Thanks for asking." Immediately there was a satisfied giggle from beyond the door. "I told you he might say yes, why wouldn't he? Besides he goes out with Tanoshi all the time, clearly he likes the ladies and have you seen us we're prettier?" Another voice whispered as they walked away.
Buio face palmed and shook his head.
"Yeah but how would he know that, have you forgotten that he's blind?" There was a loud gasp as the other girl realized her mistake. "Oh crap, i forgot. It's hard to remember that fact seeing as he doesn't operate like someone with any impairments." She whispered in reply.
"Yeah, i can completely understand that. By the way i wonder what he looks like under that mask." Buio didn't get to hear the rest as they continued out of earshot.
.....
After disassembling the spider silk which clung to his body like an extra layer of skin, Buio took a long shower, finished getting ready and left his room to meet up with his fellow guild members.
Both of them perked up as soon as he entered the living room of their headquarters. He could tell from the momentary small but noticeable spike in their mana and the way their body's affected the atmospheric mana.
Buio couldn't help but smile beneath his mask. "Hi girls, where exactly are we going?"
....
Quite some time later they had visited a restaurant in the Basuketto district and chumped down on a generous amount of food. His two female guild members were bombarding him with questions about all manner of things, ranging from how he managed to fight so well without being able to see. To how many demons he had killed so far.
Buio declined most of their questions and answered a few, the curious girls were starting another line of questioning when a woman bumped into the three of them.
"Hey watch where you're going will you!" Gomu snapped at the woman. A moment later she realized that the woman was weeping uncontrollably and her facial expression immediately softened.
"Sorry, you just startled me that's all. What's wrong with you, why are you crying?" The woman looked up at Gomu with tears streaming down her face, then replied: "it's, it's my daughter, she's been kidnapped by a demon. Please help me!"
Just then she seemed to realise something and shifted her gaze to fully focus on Buio, after looking at his coat.
"Oh Purple Coat, the demon hunter. I have nothing to offer you but please assist me." She pleaded between all the sobbing. Buio turned to face her for the benefit of everyone present, as a crowd had now gathered at the sight of the commotion.
"It's fine, there's no need to offer me anything for my assistance. I will help you." The woman grabbed his hand and held it between her own. "Thank you, thank you Purple Coat," as she squeezed his hand then let go. "Mam, is it possible for you to take us to the vicinity of where it happened?" He asked her in a relaxed but concerned tone.
The woman nodded fervently, then turned around and began walking in the opposite direction. As they followed the woman through the Basuketto district Buio started theorizing what abilities the demon who had kidnapped the woman's daughter might possess. How he was going to rescue the... then he stopped. Realizing they hadn't asked the woman her name or any extra information about the situation, how foolish of them.
Depending on the details she would provide things could become rather complicated. Buio was accustomed to fighting demons by himself or while accompanied by Tanoshi to the death. None of those encounters ever involved an hostage situation, despite all his training and power this might be a tall order.
He might have to start thinking about how to deal with situations like that. This world was an unpredictable place afterall, who knew what might happen in the future.
"Miss, what is your daughters name and how old is she?" Buio asked catching up with the woman. The woman stopped abruptly, as if frozen in place. She slowly turned to face him but there was still no reply.
For some unknown reason she seemed to be completely stumped. "My daughters age, my my daughters name?" The stranger stuttered as if she was either unsure or couldn't remember at the moment.
Buio suddenly had a bad premonition. Maybe she couldn't remember because someone or something had caused her not to.
He immediately made a decision then said: "Gomu, Hanabira... can you two head back please? This situation might get very complicated." Buio sensed as both girls head's swung towards each other, displacing the atmospheric mana.
They were apparently considering something or simply concerned. "If you're concerned about me, don't be. If it's something else you have a right to be, but i have a weird feeling about this so i want you to stay back understood?"
Both girls nodded in reply then one of them blurted out: "we're complete idiots, he can't see that!" Buio chuckled then shook his head. "Don't worry i actually can, in a sense."
Despite agreeing to carry out his request, they hesitated for a moment or two. Then both dashed off in the direction they had come from. Buio then signalled the woman to lead the way and so she did.
About a minute or so later they came across a humanoid being with a stature akin to that of a child, based on the size and shape of the distortion it caused in the atmospheric mana... or perhaps a dwarf. The woman came to an abrupt halt before him then turned around.
Then she stuttered: "That, tha that's not my daughter. My daughter is nineteen years old, this is but a child."
It was just as he had suspected earlier, this woman's memories had been meddled with. The question now was who or what had done it? The child by mistake, that was unlikely seeing as even the little information fabricated in the womans memories were calculated.
Albeit not too calculated for a child to come up with but maybe a little too elaborate, the shock in the woman's voice sounded quite sincere so she was a pawn. Therefore it was unlikely that she was pretending, she was a victim not the culprit or even an accomplice.
Something was off about the child, the little girl hadn't reacted yet. Considering the recent outburst behind her there was no reaction whatsoever, this was not a child like response.
There was a loud gasp from the woman and she blurted out: "i'm sorry Purple Coat i have to go!" The fear and alarm in her voice palpable as her footsteps could be heard retreating rapidly.
"Hi Purple Coat, it's nice to finally have a chance to speak with you." The voice was coming from the child's body, however it was the voice of a mature woman.
'Ah so this was a trap intended for me.' Buio thought to himself quite amused. 'It seems i've attracted the attention of yet another dangerous woman.'
An unnerving laugh erupted from the childs body, then the adult womans voice said: "No need to worry now, i just wanna talk i mean you no harm. At least not at the moment."
Buio didn't answer, instead he unleashed a wave of mana from his dark dimension. "Oh no no, i wouldn't do anything if i were you. This child is not the daughter of that woman, yes and she is indeed being held hostage... the soul of the little girl that this body belongs to is still in here. However i'm in here too but alas i'm not a demon." The voice paused there, then continued a few moments later. "No, i'm the human even demons fear."