Capítulo 20: Hidden Inventory IV
While Haibara and Nanami was fighting, so was Arai with his own opponent.
"I guess you'll be forcing my hand. You may have chose me to fight because I don't have as much curse energy as Mimoko but you'll be regretting that."
Hikari said while spinning her daggers. Though when Arai looked closer, he realized that the blades had a transparent liquid running down. It wasn't water as it looked denser than it and held no curse energy.
'Poison I think, that fits the ninja style. But there being no curse energy means that she either doesn't want an opponent to know that she has poison as they can sense it so she opted to use a normal poison or that the poison is has a very small amount of curse energy but unable to be detected at this range. I think the former is most probable.'
Arai stayed alert knowing full-well that his opponent was an expert at fast and silent kill.
'I'll have to finish him and help Mimoko finish off the two others. This one is the weakest from all three!' Hikari with her goal now found started the fight.
She directly dashed towards with both daggers in reverse grip.
'A ninja going straight towards their opponent? There has to be a trap within this. What trick is she going to pull out? Be prepared for everything!'
Seeing him be so on guard, Hikari smiled. 'Nothing you do will change anything.'
Arai was on guard but the variety of curse techniques were an infinite possibility. He had no way of expecting everything unless she herself reveals it or takes it in action.
But just as Arai prepared to attack, a blinding light flashed before his eyes. It completely enveloped his vision forcing him to close his eyes and cover them with his arms.
'Light! So her technique is generating light I think, I really didn't expect someone who was wearing ninja uniforms to have a technique that is the polar opposite of it.'
Now with his sense of sight gone, he focused everything on his other senses. His curse spirit was also affected by it and screeched in pain. It couldn't help him in this situation.
But he was taken by surprise as all of a sudden she appeared in front of him. Her presence just suddenly was there and he had no time to react.
With both daggers in hand, she attacked. Her attacks were shallow but precise as everything was aimed for vital parts. Now the light faded, Arai and his curse spirit were finally free from it.
Arai bringing out his own set of weapons clashed with hers. Now that both of her hands were being used, his curse spirit jumped at her from behind expecting to hit her. But just when it was about to-
*SCREEECHH!*
It screamed in pain and stumbled back. Hikari smiled when she heard this and broke off the clash between her and Arai. Jumping backwards, she landed behind the curse spirit still in pain and cut it apart killing it. It's body began being disintegrated and disappeared out of existence.
Arai who saw this narrowed his eyes down. 'My shikigami was screeching in pain but I saw no light blinding it. Even if I was directly standing in front of her and she used it behind, I would still be able to see the light shining. That means that her curse technique isn't the generation of light but something else.'
Looking back at him, Hikari wiped off the purple blood on her blades and walked to him. 'The poison should start working now. It isn't that dangerous since in a fight like this a poison that acts quickly is better. It's a deadly poison but it's first effect will be sluggishness and fatigue. Then paralyzation and finally death. He's got about 4 mins until the first effect and 8 mins before the second.'
Suddenly, Arai lifted his arm and pointed to the sky. Confused but on guard, she waited to see what he'd do not wanting to get caught in a trap. The young sorcerer then snapped his finger and muttered silently.
"Assemble."
Hikari who heard this looked around her to see shikigamis surrounding her. There were 7 of them here all ranging from fourth grade to semi-second grade. She began sweating as she realized the situation she was in.
'7 shikigami. 1 semi-second grade, 2 third grade and 4 fourth grade. It isn't a problem taking them out but with all of them here at the same time. It's going to be hard, my technique isn't good for this.'
The curse spirits were all used for reckon and checked for any possible threats that could go to the airport. Arai had deployed them before was ready to bring them back whenever he wanted.
While Hikari was preparing herself, Arai watched her with intense focus. 'Something's fishy about her curse technique, I need to find its effects and conditions before I can directly enter the fight.'
With his command, the shikigamis went into battle. All except the semi-grade 2 who stayed next to him and another small grade 4.
The semi-grade 2 was a 10 foot long alligator with green skin instead of scales. It's eyes were like that of a human and it's tongue like a snake. It's teeth were as sharp as a blade and tail has spikes on it.
The grade 4 was miniature and was like the grade 3 who previously got exorcised.
They all went straight to her and attacked. But to an experienced curse user and ninja, her senses and skill was too high making it impossible for them to hit her. She brought out her senbons and quickly took care of the fourth grades.
The remaining third grades became careful after seeing the slaughter. They surrounded her in opposite directions before attacking her.
As both charged, the same thing happened again. One of the curse spirits screeched and looked away losing his concentration. Hikari took this opportunity to kill it by decapitation. The other who was left got railed by senbons and was killed when the knife plunged into its head.
With all of them down, she turned her attention back to him.
'He didn't try to attack. Was he hoping to find the effects of my curse technique? Either way, I won't be revealing it.'
But looking around, she seems to have found something missing. The grade 4 curse spirit was missing.
'Hm? One seems to be missing. It must of slipped away when I was busy fighting the shikigamis. I'll have to keep an eye out for any possible hidden attacks. Still, it's a grade 4. It's not much of a threat. If he had kept a grade 3 or semi-grade 2 then I would be in more trouble. I guess he isn't as smart as I thought.'
"So that's how it is, no wonder I got caught in it." Breaking her train of thought, Arai chuckled and began walking towards her leaving himself alone.
'He's not even using the curse spirit. Did he really figure it out? No, no way. I kept it well hidden and didn't even use it that much. It's a bluff to have me lower down my guard.'
Arai dashed towards her and attacked while she also did the same. He threw both daggers at her and filled it with curse energy.
'Throwing both weapons and leaving yourself open. Did he really think I'd get caught of guard because its close. Foolish.'
Hikari easily blocked the attack. She activated her technique making the light completely overwhelm Arai. Though he looked unfazed as he closed his eyes with a smile.
'I know what your technique is. It's projection, isn't it? You make a wall of curse energy and display an image in it. Kind of like a TV screen. But it seems like you can't make something too complex otherwise you wouldn't have used a blinding light. An illusion of you doing something else would of made you an even trickier opponent. And you can only use one wall it seems, or else when my two shikigami who were facing you would of both been blinded.
That's why you appeared out of nowhere before. It was because you were behind the wall and only after you crossed it could you be detected. Still, you can't beat me with just that. A competent sorcerer would of already noticed the hints and beaten you. Well that's why you aren't a first grade.'
'I just need to wait until you appear and then-'
His senses detected her. She swung her weapons at him but he was prepared and grabbed both of her wrist.
"How did you!" She exclaimed shocked at how he knew where she was coming.
"You're just too obvious."
Hikari struggled trying to break free but couldn't. Knowing she was trapped, she tried pushing her dagger and it was nearing his eyes.
"Attack." His curse spirit who was standing still now had the order and charged towards her. With both locked in place, this was the best move. Hikari realized her current situation and focused everything she had to break free.
She was slowly beginning to overpower Arai who had the lesser amount of curse energy.
But with her distracted, Arai could now fully enact his plan.
He brought his face to face hers and kissed her on the lips.
Hikari widened her eyes and tried to break free but couldn't. Things didn't get better as she felt something enter her mouth through Arai's saliva.
Despite her obvious superior strength, he kept forcing himself on her as he kept kissing her. She was slowly losing her mind as her anger grew at an alarming rate while she was losing concentration because she was being out of breath.
Thankfully, she managed to break the clash after a moment and backed away. The shikigami neared her but she threw senbons forcing it to block them with its tail.
With a distance between them, she finally got a break and coughed spitting out the saliva that got in her mouth.
"What did you do to me?!" Her anger neared its peak. She never had someone that had the audacity to kiss her without her consent. And one that would do that in battle was unheard of. No sorcerer, no matter how dirty their tactics are would use that as a weapon.
"A kiss, did no one teach you what it was? Well to be fair it was my first one as well. But let's just say I gave you a taste of your own medicine. How does it taste like?"
Realizing what he meant, she touched her mouth and saw the transparent liquid like that of her poison. 'No way! He fed me my own poison?! I have the antidote but its not on me. I have to run away before it takes effect!' Hikari knew this fight wasn't worth it and run away but not before saying her last words.
"Don't think you've won! I'll make sure I kill you!"
"Go ahead. Though you won't get a chance." Arai said ominously. She felt that something was wrong but still knew if she stayed here then her death would be sure.
'It doesn't matter if I can't win. The poison already circulated his body and he'd drop dead soon enough. Mimoko should be having trouble but knowing her she'd be able to get out of there before it gets too serious. I hate this! Losing to a brat of all people! And one that doesn't even have that much curse energy! No one can know about this or else everyone in the group will laugh at me and kick me out of there.'
Back to Arai, he watched her leave with no intention of chasing after her. His plan has been enacted and was finally ready to be set in action.
"I'm sure Nanami and Haibara have already captured that other girl alive. They aren't as slow as I am." Glaring at her leaving figure, he smirked before snapping his fingers. "So I don't need you. Alive, that is."
[Contract Technique: Gift.]
Hikari looked back to see Arai not even looking at her as he walked away.
'He has the advantage and should of chased after me. He probably doesn't have much curse energy left which is why he backed away. But with his shikigami it would of been able to slow me down at least. No matter, when I come back I'll have his head!'
But all of the sudden, she felt a foreign curse energy becoming rampant inside her. It was at a great level but what was worse was that its location was-
Her heart!
"Wha-"
She didn't have time to finish before an explosion happened. Her death was instant as her body imploded itself. Pieces of her body flew everywhere and blood sprayed the roof. Intestines, eyes, bones, everything from her body was scattered everywhere.
Arai who saw the result of his work nodded appreciating his work.
When Hikari had injected poison into him, he knew he was done for if he left it alone. So what he did was a dumb plan that could work. Have a curse spirit go into his blood veins and remove the poison from his body.
Luckily, he had a curse spirit that could minimize its size while elongating its length. Going into his veins and removing the poison was no easy task as he had to command it where to go and what to do.
His shikigamis don't work like other shikigami users. They don't have charms to control them.
No, Arai had forcefully enslaved them to his own will by placing a non-negotiable pact on them. In layman's term, he made them his slaves that would do his bidding without a will of their own.
{AN: Auxiliary chapter explains a bit better}
The curse spirit who swallowed the poison was affected it by it but it was made to kill a human, not a curse spirit. So it was able to last longer.
Arai who kissed Hikari then had his curse spirit who was in his veins go to his throat so that he can cough it out and forcefully injected the curse spirit through his own mouth into hers. And by doing so he deceived her into thinking he injected the poison into her when in fact it was his curse spirit.
But just in case she escapes, he used his ultimate trump card.
[Contract Technique: Gift]
'Gift' was a technique developed by Arai inspired by his senior in school Mei. Mei had the technique black bird manipulation and as it entails, it lets her use black birds.
But what was so great about her wasn't the technique but how she used it. Mei Mei using a Binding Vow on a bird, forcing them to commit suicide for her in return for exceeding the limits of the typically weak bird's cursed energy.
The bird who is then enhanced will hurl towards an enemy and devastate them with an impact so grand that she was recognized as a first-grade sorcerer.
Arai followed her example and did the same. Though he is much less used to it than her making the efficiency less than hers and since it is her technique that she's using. That makes her be able to amplify the effects even more and since he doesn't have as much curse energy as her than he will never be able to do something consistently.
Though combined with his shikigamis, one could say that he was a mixture of both Suguru Geto and Mei Mei.
Arai used it at the start of their battle to blow her away from her partner and in the end to kill.
"Go take her corpse and bring it back. Leave no traces behind." The shikigami did as he was told and cleaned up the mess.
"Nanami and Haibara probably already finished up. I'll have to meet up with them."
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{AN:
Hope this explains more about his technique to you guys, I'm trying to let him be versatile and have more moves. Still, it's not easy to think of more ideas that don't contradict the laws of this world.
Like I can't just have him be like, 'Oh I place a vow that makes me able to steal techniques when I kill the user.' Doesn't work like that I'm afraid.
Still if you have ideas share them with me please.
I'll read any suggestion and see if it can work with my story.}
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