"Who are you?" Sakamoto lowered his glasses to take a good look at the newcomer teen.
"You're that guy from the train station." Fushiguro's eyes widened in surprise after recognizing the tall white-haired man that reminds him of his Sensei.
Sakamoto's sharp ears caught his lowered voice and squinted his eyes.
'I see. Never thought I'd see him again here.' He muttered to himself before scanning the dark-haired boy in front of him.
Clad in a familiar black-coloured full-body uniform. Along with a logo-like button around the neck part of his uniform.
'That symbol. I've seen it somewhere before.' Sakamoto's eyes were glued on the button on Fushiguro's shirt, recalling a certain reminder from one of his colleagues about the symbol.
However, Sakamoto, full of confidence in his skills, not to mention, he's just facing a child, tens of years younger than him, stepped forward in an intimidating manner.
"Kid, back off for a while. If you want talk with him, get in the line."
Fushiguro however, stood still, crossing his arms in the process.
Although Sakamoto's words sound arrogant, but there's obviously a hint of truth in it.
Fushiguro, as a skilled fighter, could tell from Sakamoto's stance and aura that the man in front of him is trouble, clearly not easy to mess with.
But would Fushiguro lose against him?
Nah, he'd win.
"Apologies. But mine is more important than yours. If you want, you can wait fo-" Before Fushiguro could finish his words, his eyes widened in surprise when his senses immediately alerted him of an impeding danger.
Without hesitation, he ducked immediately and felt a gust of wind as a kick blurred over his head.
'Fast!' Fushiguro muttered to himself before sweeping his legs over his opponent.
Expecting this, Sakamoto backflipped and when he landed again, two knives flew from his hands out of nowhere.
"Guys…we're in a public space, you know?" Standing on the side was Kenshin, wearing a slightly embarrassed face as he noticed a small crowd gathering around them with their phones out, recording the 'entertainment' in front of them.
Kenshin wanted to stop them but he doesn't feel confident if he could stop them in his current state.
He's not sure if his maxed out close-combat proficiency is enough to take the two combatants down with his current stats.
Maybe if his stats are around three digits. He would be able to handle them with ease but for now, he could only hope for the best.
As for magic? He doesn't want to repeat the same mistake as what happened back in the alley where Alya caught him in 4k.
In the end, Kenshin came to a decision to execute the ultimate technique that humanity's ancestors has been doing since the age of stone.
Run away!
Turning around, Kenshin ran as fast as he can and with his above-average stats, he's running at almost 30 kilometers per hour.
Back to the fight, Fushiguro dodged to the side as the two knives whistled past him.
Seeing that his target is running while his opponent still stood in a guarded position, he clicked his tongue.
'Dammit…' Raising his hand, Fushiguro formed a gesture with his two hands and a huge white wolf appeared in his side.
Since most humans are incapable of seeing Cursed Spirits, especially Shikigamis, he's not afraid to use it in a public space.
As for Sakamoto, he suddenly felt a chill up in his spine and trusting his instincts, he sidestepped, feeling a small gust of wind on his side in the process.
'What was that? I didn't see anything but I feel like something dangerous was just near me.' Sakamoto furrowed his eyebrows and when he realized how more and more bystanders have gathered around them and some even calling the police, Sakamoto didn't expect such an easy mission to be a failure.
Not to mention, his original target, Kuroki Kenshin, has escaped.
All because of the boy in front of him.
Giving Fushiguro one last glance, Sakamoto relaxed his guard before turning around to leave with his hands tucked in his pockets.
Fushiguro, on the other hand, accepted the temporary truce.
'Who was that guy?' Was the question ringing in his mind.
***
After a successful escape, Kenshin sighed in relief.
As much as possible, before engaging in any activities, especially in an unfamiliar world where unknown dangers lurked, he wanted to at least put all of his stats to three digits.
"Better get these stats up real quick."
"But still, that black-haired boy. It looks like Megumi from the Jujutsu Kaisen series. Didn't expect to meet him so soon and why does he want to see me?"
"Especially that white-haired thug earlier it seems likehe's from the Yakuza that the original Kenshin took loans from, though he's quite a bit strong for human standards. Seriously, this world is getting more and more dangerous the longer I stay."
Kenshin pondered to himself before deciding to go home and contemplate back in his room.
Obviously, he doesn't want to get himself followed to his home and risk his family's lives.
So he went through an alley first, placed his bag of clothes to his inventory and was about to cast an invisible magic to himself when suddenly, he froze after hearing a slight growl from his behind.
Turning around, he gave a wry smile as a white-furred wolf stood in front of him, blocking the alley with a toothy growl.
'Great. A shikigami.' Kenshin's face turned slightly grim as he realized that he doesn't seem to be going home anytime soon.
'Should focus more on my magical stats. I'm itching for that teleportation spell.' Kenshin rubbed his temples while muttering under his breath.
"Alright then. Let's get this over with." Raising his arms, Kenshin stood forward with a fearless expression.
The white wolf, only tasked with chasing and not attacking, stayed still, awaiting for its master to come.
However, that doesn't mean the wolf wouldn't retaliate once attacked, as can be seen when it dodged to the side after Kenshin delivered a sweep kick towards it.
The wolf launched itself forward with a ferocious growl.
"Graarrr!"
"Woah!" Not expecting the speed, the wolf almost caught Kenshin by a hair's breadth.
"Chill with the teeth!" Kenshin commented before taking out an item out of his inventory.
[Stick
- A stick that was found in the Twilight Forest. Durable enough to embarrass steel blades but couldn't cut even a piece of butter nor smash it. Perfect for sparring and blunt weapon.
No requirements]
"This should do the trick." Kenshin smiled before bringing the stick down towards the wolf's head.
Bonk!
Whimper!
The wolf, not expecting such retaliation, looked at Kenshin like how a child would to a mother who punished them.
"Sorry 'bout that." Kenshin on the other hand, just shrugged it off before bringing down the stick again mercilessly. It's not like the stick would kill the wolf anyways, maybe cause it some minor pain but that's it.
What seemed to be an advantage for the wolf earlier has reversed and now the wolf is running away from him.
He's dealt with millions of demon dogs back in the world of Fantazio, he's already immune to killing animals that humans consider as pets and deem illegal to kill.
Raising his mighty stick again, Kenshin was about to strike again when suddenly, someone yelled for him to stop.
"Wait hold on! Stop!" It was Fushiguro, running forward to help him Shikigami wolf. Kenshin frowned.
"What? You again?"
"You! How can you smack a dog with a stick? Are you that heartless?" Fushiguro's face twitched several times especially after seeing his Shikigami rush to hide behind him.
"Sorry, was that your dog? He was a bit naughty, you see." Kenshin scratched the back of his head and smiled wryly.
"Naughty? Really?"
'I just tasked him with tracking you and you're calling him naughty?'
"Wait. You can see him?" Fushiguro's eyes widened in surprise upon realization.
"Am I not supposed to?" Kenshin raised his eyebrows and feigned ignorance.
"Of course. Shikigamis are invisible to non-curse users unless you're a special case." Fushiguro was explaining when realization hit him, causing him to mutter the last few words.
'I see. He's one of those special cases. People who can see cursed spirits and yet aren't curse users. I've heard of similar cases before, never expected to see one myself but still, is he really a special case?' Fushiguro muttered to himself before shifting his focus back to why he had come here.
"Anyways. You're Kuroki Kenshin, right?" Replying with a nod of his head, Fushiguro continued.
"You were the first and last one to get out of the alley where a cursed spirit was last detected. There's also a girl who ran away but I haven't found her yet, she didn't leave any scent on the alley like you." Fushiguro leaned his back on a wall and crossed his arms coolly.
"Took you long enough." Doing the same thing, Kenshin crossed his arms and said coolly.
"….Can we talk for a bit? About what happened in that alley." Fushiguro asked politely. Eyeing the stick specifically.
Honestly, watching the anime, Kenshin doesn't mind coming with the boy.
As long as he won't release that white abomination, then everything is good.
"Sure. Lead the way." Smiling, Fushiguro retracted the wolf back to his shadow.
"I rented a hotel nearby. Let's talk there."
***
"Not yet. Something interesting just happened." Walking alone with his phone pressed on his ears, Sakamoto blew on his smoke before replying.
"Do you remember those exorcist that you told me not to provoke casually? I just met one of them today. And he's strong for a young boy."
<...>
There was a few seconds of silence on the other side before response came.
"….Okay."
Beep!
"Sigh…"
Sakamoto stared at the skies and muttered to himself.
"I wanna take a rest. Maybe eat some noodles from a nearby convenience store…" With a plan set in mind, he changed his directions towards the convenience store he passed by earlier.
***
"Do you know that guy? From earlier?" While walking towards the hotel room, Fushiguro initiated a small conversation.
"Him? Nope. Probably sent by Yakuza that I'm indebted to." Kenshin answered with a shrug of his shoulders. Honestly, he felt like the man from earlier looks familiar. He just can't put a finger onto it.
Fushiguro stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Kenshin with a complicated expression.
"What?" He raised an eyebrow at this.
"Seriously? You owe them money? You loaned from the Yakuza? Didn't you just win the lottery a few days ago?"
Obviously, the photo of Kenshin he sent to Ijichi asking for information was received, so Fushiguro knows quite a few things about the boy in front of him.
Winning the lottery, cutting off ties with his family and squandering his entire winnings to gambling.
So many things doesn't add up to the information though.
Such as how did Kenshin managed to buy a lottery ticket when he's just fifteen years old. Literally illegal to participate in lottery.
Then there's also the fact that he managed to win and claim his winnings without dealing with any documents and legal papers. Just straight up claiming the money from the counter.
'His background alone warrants deep investigation, especially to the side of the lottery station he claimed his money from.' Fushiguro muttered under his breath.
"I'm not surprised you know about it. Honestly, I'm also weirded out a bit. I never knew back then that I can't legally participate in lottery and they allowed me to do so."
"Smells like conspiracy…" Kenshin squinted his eyes while staring at the air in front of him.
"We can dwell on it later but for now. Let's talk about why I came to find you."
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[Power stones! Raaahhh!]
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[Next Chapter: Ch. 10 - Date turned disastrous!]