Chapitre 8: The preperation
If the preparation required to receive guests was a heavy task then the after work was even heavier to deal with. Asato had expected someone to take the chance to snoop around the house.
The traces for the same was minuscule at best, no finer determining print was left behind by anyone. It was an expert job which was worrying.
However, the library and all other important places were sealed by and they were untouched which relaxed him a lot. It would have been terrible had security been breached at such a sensitive time.
The first thing Asato did was to release the phoenixes in the back forest. As soon as he opened the door, the avian specimen fellow away from him, leaving his shoulders much freer.
Next was to make preparation to store the body. Normally, Asato would keep the body in the cold storage in his basement of the clinic.
But this body was special and would contaminate all the other specimens there, so that was a clear no.
The other option he had was to seal it in a room with special measures but the room needed to be isolated and prepared. The first stop had to be the special office which had texts related to the topic.
The shadow servants helped him sort the text out. The books were categorised in the terms of specific usage, so finding the right text came as no problem. The other part was to take out the material for preservation.
The body was to be kept in a specific liquid mixture at a specific temperature which was easier said than done. It would require an expert hand which Asato didn’t think he had down yet.
But his best would have to do. Once that was done, the biggest problem arose.
The location of material he would require further was varied and took him a whole night to decode.
His guests had left relatively early once he had departed so at least one front was clear.
Asato dragged a reference text along with the material book toward his office. The fourteen-year-old body ached due to all the work he had to do, but Asato managed somehow.
A whole night of reference later, the dark circles under the eyes popped out against the pasty skin.
“Replace me today at school and wake me up when Erin arrives” with the last command the teen fell into sleep.
It was a blissfully stress-free time for the mind and body, a sea of black calmness. However, the hands that woke him up felt different from the shadows.
They were way too solid and real to be the servants. Red eyes looked up into amber ones as consciousness returned to Asato’s mind.
And a scream followed.
“What are you screaming for? You knew I was coming” Erin’s grin irritated Asato even more. To be first woken up and then reproached felt bad. But then again, Erin had always been like this with him, taking personal liberties.
“Get your hands off of me. You’re heavy” Asato made a gesture to push Erin away only to be unsuccessful due to the heavier built boy who just grinned.
“Sorry, you’re stuck with me like usual. The higher-ups threw a fit about me going solo with you but who cares?” Asato cared. Erin would drive him mad with his too much chatter, but then again he was leagues better than others in the field.
If only it was the other personality of Erin which provided Asato with the pleasure of its company. The demon one felt far familiar and calm.
As a higher demon and human hybrid, Erin had two parts to his personality, kind of like a split soul. Only one could control the body at the time before maturity and Erin was too young in demon terms for it.
Which left Asato to deal with this annoying one in the human world. His master had hoped that the familiarity of Erin’s soul would help him since Asato was sure he knew him before his mother abandoned him, but the memory person was much different than this cheerful one.
That one was much more reserved and this Erin was a stranger at that time.
“How do you have so much energy in you?”Asato asked as the teen, no man almost jumped around in the office.
Asato cracked his neck to get the aches out of it. It hurt in a good way and popped around to provide relief to his aching joints.
“Well, it’s not every day I get to hang around with you. Besides, I really want to see what a calamity can offer, even a young one” there was a sharp grin on that face which did not assure Asato at all.
It felt far too sinister in his opinion, not something that suited Erin at all.
“Don’t get your hopes up and don’t sabotage it too. If you do I won’t be held responsible for what happens to you” Asato reminded the guy who let out a laugh.
It was irritating. The guy was really testing his patience most of the time with his words and actions. If Erin started anything on his property then it would become a problem.
“Don’t worry, I will keep myself in check. The child is already here anyway, might as well get along” Asato narrowed his eyes at that.
Erin knew far too much, almost like he had eyes everywhere and it would not surprise him at all to know it to be true.
After all, powers came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. And anyone could become dangerous if they tried hard enough.
“You do that and I will keep an eye on you too in the meantime. You get out of hand too fast” Erin just let out a small laugh as he exited through the door.
Asato just followed the other out of his office into a bigger living room where the red-haired child sat, stiff like a statue. It made him wonder how the child and Haru were related at all.
“Are you comfortable here Nate?” Asato asked the child who gave him an eerie eyed stare. Most people would have freaked out about it but not Asato who had faced far worse in his short life.
“Alright. Sister left, said to be good” the child spoke in parts but extremely clear vocabulary. From a first look, it was easy to mistake the child as a seven years old with unkempt red hair and watery blue eyes.
But looking at the child, the feeling of wrong would strike anyone. The child was too thin, young and way too greish to be alive in any sense. The eyes were also almost devoid of life and could easily freak out anyone who looked too deep into them.
Not a look you would expect a child to normally have.
“Right. Did she brief you about your role?” despite whatever you make out of the kid, Asato knew that he was a calamity, a being of chaos and unpredictability. Hence, in easy words, a walking time bomb that could explode anytime.
It was a risk he was willing to take to make things easier on himself. After all, the rumours about the skills of the youngest calamity were interesting.
And he made for a great hostage in case they ran into any higher beings. Even if most of the other spectrum does not care much for the youngest, they will save him to maintain their own equilibrium at least.
Asato was sure that this gamble was worth it in the long run since he would get a favour from Haru in return too. Erin already made sure that he had a big say in the bureau with this task.
“I’m to help” Nate’s reply attracted Asato’s attention immediately. The child knew what was being expected of him and Asato approved.
“You’re boring. Learn to smile more would you?” Erin made his way around the couch and picked the child’s face between his hands. There was no reaction on the child’s face.
“Smile” Erin stretched the face in between his hands which forced a smile on the child’s features but as soon as he let go, the features returned back to their original impassive routine.
“Hurts. Don’t” Nate called out to the man and Asato sighted at his accomplice’s childishness.
“Let him go, Erin, we have important work to do. Help me sort out the places and plan a route. The liaka berry and the easter grass would be a nightmare to require” Asato had planned the route the night below but it had far too many holes for his liking.
There were 10 available ingredients, six of those were in his inventory or on his grounds. 2 were readily available and would not have much problem getting. However, the last two would pose a bigger problem.
The liaka berry was right in the day less city and easter grass would be available in the easter dungeon. Both places were a nightmare to travel through but hopefully would not pose that big a threat.
“I’ll tell the bureau to keep an eye on the easter dungeon. There are teams keeping an eye on things around the area since there were reports of activity in the area. Let’s keep it for later. Day less city is also about to open in a few days, so it would benefit us more to visit there first. Hey kid, think you can get us in the demon territory?”
Asato agreed with Erin’s assessment. If that was the case, it would be better to postpone the visit to the easter dungeon. Maybe the visit there won’t even be necessary.
Besides, illuminating grass was at the day less city so it was to Asato’s own benefit visiting there first.
“I can but. They won’t mind Asato however” both sentences were broken but both Asato and Erin got the meaning clearly.
Asato won’t be minded but Erin would be a problem if he showed up too. But they had been in such a situation for a long time now and already know how to tackle this.
“Don’t worry. Just get me inside, I’ll handle the rest” Asato assured the child who nodded. Really, how did Huru end up with such an obedient little brother after all? And a calamity none the less.
If not for the magic in the air surrounding the child, Asato would have taken him as a normal child after all.
I'll slow down a little after ch 10, but hopefully, you'll still give me tons of feedback. I'm counting on you since I like posting here so much.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone