- Silas -
I woke up the next day, feeling much better.
The sleep was exactly what I needed to get myself together.
I guess the events of yesterday caught me off guard. Maybe it had something to do with the curses I had seen and fought. I had always thought of them as demons.
I will have to apologise to the customers of the Restaurant, especially Zeref.
Now that I remember, he said something about my body collapsing from a lack of Demonic Power and he did something to fix it.
Sigh.
I got up and got cleaned and ready for the day.
Walking into the kitchen, I saw that Sakura had already cleaned the place and was cleaning the tables.
"Good Morning, Sakura." I smiled at her.
She looked back at me and smiled. "Good morning."
So, let's see what to cook today.
I wanted to make something as an apology for the customers of the Restaurant for yesterday's behaviour.
I did have a dish in mind.
A dish my dad had shown me, something made for French Royalty.
It was made from rabbit meat and coincidentally I had just the thing in my possession. I pulled out a large piece of Cheese Rabbit meat.
This thing actually had a very thick and flavourful meat, absolutely perfect for the dish.
The Lièvre À La Royale.
It was one of the hardest things I could make and now, with my new Skill Level, I think I could make it too.
This dish comprised five parts: Lièvre Ensemble, Rabbit Blood & Chocolate Sauce, Royale Custard, Chestnut Confit and a Fig-Apple Purée Sauce.
This should be enough as an apology.
__________________________________x___________________________________
I opened the Restaurant when I was done with the preparations.
The first one to come was Saitama.
"Silas. Man, are you alright?" He sat down beside me. If I didn't know better, his rather bland tone would have made me feel worse instead but I knew that the guy cared in his own way.
Especially after Suzuki and Mikami had stopped coming to the Restaurant suddenly, the guy had started feeling lonelier.
I admit I was not different either.
Perhaps it was also because of this that I had started pushing myself too much into learning Jujutsu.
Those two idiots had really become quite close to us in such a short time and now without those two, only Saitama and I were left so we were quite close.
"I am alright. I just… it was too much for me to process all of a sudden. I am sorry that I overreacted like that."
"Don't mind. Don't mind. It's fine." He waved casually.
One by one other guests started coming to the Restaurant.
"Silas-san, are you okay?." Miu asked me, looking worried. She was with Naruto beside her.
"Nii-san. Here, this is for you." Naruto gave me a good luck charm. I smiled and patted his head.
"Are you not afraid of me?" I asked, hiding my hesitation behind the smile.
"Eh? Why would I be afraid? We had to leave early so we couldn't see them but Kensei-sensei told us that your wings looked really cool. Hey! Can I see them?"
"Naruto! I am sorry for him, Silas-san." Miu apologised.
I chuckled.
"No no it's fine." I closed my eyes and willed my wings to pop out, earning a gasp from the duo.
"That's so cool! Hey hey, can you fly?" Naruto jumped around me checking out my wings from all directions.
"I can." I smiled.
"Really! That's so awesome. I wish I had such wings too." He had a shine in his eyes when asking for this. I laughed and brushed his hair.
"Then I will take you to fly out sometimes."
"Yay! Don't forget okay. I will hold you onto it." He jumped.
Behind them, Hayato-san, Kensei-san and Shigure also came.
"Kensei….was right. Your wings….look cool." Shigure gave me a thumbs up.
"See, I told you."
"Hahahaha I heard that you can fly with them too? So many things can be done when you can move in the sky. A whole new world of martial arts. You missed yesterday's class so we are going to train you till you fall today. There is no way we are going to let you waste all that potential." He laughed.
I sweatdropped.
What do you mean train me till I drop?
You already did that before.
Cid also came in but he was not there yesterday.
"What's today's order, Cid-kun?"
"Oh, I would like some yakisoba please."
"Alright. It will be done in a moment." I looked towards the rest and took their orders.
Before preparing the orders though, I served the dish I had prepared for everyone.
"Here is something from my side as an apology for yesterday's behaviour."
"Eh, you didn't need to do that." Kensei-sensei shook his head but took the plate nonetheless.
Naruto, especially, was having a blast.
While I was in the kitchen several others came as well.
Nanami-sensei and Gojo-san, the latter coming after a long time.
Kisuke was next to arrive.
Sakura served them the rabbit dish and took their orders.
When I came out, the new arrivals were looking at me with different types of gazes.
Nanami-sensei's gaze was….complicated.
Kisuke was looking at me as if he wanted to dissect me and knowing what little I knew about the man, that might actually be the case.
Gojo-san looked at me, pushing up his glasses. "Oh, you do look a bit different than before. So I heard you got wings now? How do they work?"
"I…." I willed my wings to appear and both Kisuke and Gojo-san looked at it in interest.
"How fascinating. They just appeared. You were not folding them back either. And they seem to phase through the clothes." Kisuke said.
"I heard that you were under a seal of some kind. Did you find out anything about it?" Nanami-sensei asked, finally breaking his silence.
I nodded. "I think I might have a clue. Yesterday, a girl called me a Devil and said something about Three Factions. I intend to find more about it later."
"Devils and a girl? Sounds like you had quite an adventure."
"I went out and encountered something yesterday. Those things were like curses attached to people and were chasing a friend. I fought them and brought the guy back here. It was one of his friends who said that she didn't know that there were devils in this area as this was supposedly neural grounds."
"Curses?"
"They looked like curses but were mostly shaped like animals. A Spider, a rat and a lizard monster attached to three people. Tobio said those people were his classmates who had been kidnapped a while ago and now they reappeared like that. Those three looked almost as if they were puppets. I took him and ran but couldn't run away on time so I chose to fight. I think… I might have awakened my Innate Technique."
"How interesting. You said you awakened your Innate Curse Technique. Did you take them down? How strong were they?"
"I….don't know."
I seriously didn't know.
"Eh? What do you mean you don't know? Ah, then how about this, how were they compared to the curses you fought the last time?" Gojo-san asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know. All it took was one attack from my new Technique and they were down."
"Hoh! One attack you say. Now I am really interested. Let's have a spar after dinner today. I want to see what else you gained from yesterday's debacle aside from your Cursed Energy increasing several times over."
The spoon in Nanami-sensei's hand fell on the table with a clank as he looked at me as if seeing a ghost. "Several times?"
"Around three times more really." Gojo-san waved his hand and took a bite of the dish. "Hmmmm yesss. You overdid yourself with this one, Silas-kun."
"Thank you. Glad you liked it."
"By the way, Silas-kun, if you need any help in investigating your new….heritage, you can always come to me for help. I would love to work with a….devil, you said." Kisuke offered.
"Umm….thanks…." And no thanks.
I am a devil….not an idiot to accept that proposal.
The guests of the Restaurant all behaved normally. Some were curious while some were casual.
Cid for example told me that their world has many races of people like humans, elves, demi-human races like cat people, dog people, etc.
I guess when considering that my Restaurant was connected to so many weird places, my new identity almost seemed normal in comparison.
By evening when there was no one in the Restaurant, I went outside to test out my new Innate Curse Technique from a spar with Gojo-san and learn more about it.
- Unnamed Yakuza -
"What is the situation there?" He asked over the call.
There was a period of silence on the other side before a reply came. "Everything was wiped out, boss. There is nothing left here….except the bodies."
He gritted his teeth.
It was their sixth base in the past few months. Just who the hell was it? Who was doing all this?
"Did you find any clues?"
"Nothing. All the bodies seem to have died the same way, drowned in water."
He slammed the table in front of him, breaking it in two.
"Dammit!"
This was surely some magic user but who?
He knew about the supernatural due to his connection with the Utsusemi Agency. They were the actual background leaders of this gang and he was just a convenient face for the organisation.
It was obviously not for free as he did gain a lot of benefits from the whole deal.
They had given him the knowledge of the greater supernatural world and magic and helped him awaken Flame Pulse, a Sacred Gear.
He raised his hand and a wisp of fire flickered on his palm.
The Utsusemi Agency were the exiles of the Five Principal Clans, who basically controlled a large part of the whole country's supernatural world.
Even the exiles from those clans had enough knowledge of magic to make someone like him from a roadside thug to the leader of one of the top gangs of the entire Tokyo.
The magic taught by those people and his Sacred Gear helped him solidify his position as one of the strongest yakuza leaders. He basically ruled over this area. The only other gangs he couldn't take over all had supernatural backing of their own or had Sacred Gear users and the Utsusemi Agency didn't want to ruffle too many feathers, especially now that they seem to be doing something big. Everyone was being extremely secretive.
All his targets were selected carefully so that he didn't set onto the toes of someone strong.
This was a rule which had helped him not only survive but also flourish till now then how….how did he mess up?
All people dying from drowning….this couldn't be done by normal means.
It had to be the work of the supernaturals.
Was it some youkai?
Those pesky things could be vicious but then again, Tokyo was a strictly regulated city and Youkai didn't gather there.
Was it other gangs?
Was it some crazy sacred gear user?
"Alright, take care of the bodies and then return. Don't wander around the area."
"Yes boss."
The call was cut and he put a hand over his face.
"I thought that I would get a promotion after overtaking that restaurant with two leylines which the boss had been after, instead I get fucked up like this. Shit! If I find out who did this, I will burn them to the ground." He growled, sending a fireball on the broken remains of the table, completely erasing it.
Tch.
Now the carpet was ruined.
"Someone clean this mess!" he shouted loudly and brought out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a sip.
A minute passed but there was no reply..
"Dammit, can no one hear me? Clean this shit up already or someone else will need to clean your ashes, Genzo, Taku, where the hell did everyone go?"
Suddenly a voice came from behind him.
"To the afterlife."
He felt a chill run down his spine at the voice and jumped ahead trying to create a distance between himself and the unknown intruder and threw a fireball right behind him, creating a small explosion. Rolling on the ground, he looked back at the intruder to see a wall of water.
He hadn't even sensed him.
The wall turned into snakes of water and rushed at him, he threw several fireballs at the snakes and tried to dodge.
With his experience, he understood that this was not a foe he could fight and tried to run but one of the snakes wrapped around his legs and dragged him into the air.
Other snakes of water bound his whole body and one wrapped around his neck.
The water wall subsided to reveal a figure in front of him.
"I have been trying to find you for the last three months and by now I am at the end of my patience so let me make a few things clear first. The more you delay answering any of my questions, the more these bindings will tighten. If you lie, they will bite your limbs off one by one. So it is my earnest advice that you do not waste any of my time anymore. Answer me, who do you work for?" The figure asked.
"I….Hanezu Himejima. I work for Hanezu Himejima, the vice leader of the Utsusemi Agency….mmph." He shut his mouth, eyes wide at the information he had revealed.
He didn't want to reveal it because he knew that they would kill him if he did then how….hypnotism. Mind Magic….dammit, how did he get inside his mind?
He had trained to not let something like this happen?
This….whoever this figure was….was way beyond anyone he had seen before.
"On whose orders did you kill the Evans family?" the figure asked, no inflection in his voice.
The Evans family?
Those restaurant owners?
Was this because of them?
Dammit!
He had checked them out and found nothing related to the supernatural factions on them except an independent magician.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pang of burning pain from his leg. On looking down, he saw that his leg had been bitten off by that snake.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"You can continue shouting or answer my question. If you do the former, you will lose your other leg as well." The figure said.
He gritted his tongue to control his pain and answered.
"The U-utsusemi Agency! They wanted the….restaurant….be-because of the leylines under it."
"Who killed Rufus Beige?"
"Wh-who?"
"The magician Rufus Beigie."
Was it that damned magician?
Wasn't he retired already?
"I-it it was the Utsusemi Agency. They….said he was retired and….they took him down."
He breathed as the world in front of him was blurring.
The blood loss was getting to him.
"Now for the last question…." A heavy pressure fell on him as the building started cracking and he finally realised what the figure in front of him was….a devil. It was a real Devil.
The voice which hadn't shown any emotion till now was heavy with killing intent enough to knock him out had he not been bearing the pain from the loss of a limb.
"Where is Silas Evans?"