Chapter 124 - Complications

Fumio, feeling danger from the servers, frantically tries to observe the reason why while trying to appear calm.

As the petite female server lays down his plate in front of him, he catches a whiff of something familiar. A scent that is not the olfactory kind, but something that knocks on his gut feeling that makes him scrunch his nose. This brings him to that time when he first found out the hidden identities of Red's servants.

He then looks more closely at the two male servers and also starts getting the same feeling that he got from the female server.

He looks at Sayuri who got lost in appraising his watch, hoping that the servers will not see or detect the demon core that is in the strap of it.

He swallows nervously, takes a deep breath, and infuses a bit of spiritual energy to his brain and heart to calm himself down.

Soon however, he realizes that his efforts to appear relaxed is too late. As he steals a glance at three servers again, he sees all the three, which he is now sure are demons, already stopped what they are doing and are looking at him strangely. This immediately brings tension in the room.

Sayuri, whose attention was on Fumio's watch, notice the sudden silence and looks around. .She immediately notices the strange atmosphere, and feels that something is wrong.

"What's going on? Do you all know each other?" She asks as she sneakily puts her hand over her ankle where her dagger is concealed.

Fumio meanwhile, undoes his resistance seals and prepares to take out his sword from his storage ring.

"Don't dare to be brazen. We are in a public space." Fumio warns the female demon, which he figures is the leader of her group, as soon as he feels the tension rise.

"Only us inside this room are the ones awake in the restaurant, kid." The female demon smirks.

"You're too observant for your own good. You two were going to die today without knowing it. Now you have no choice but to witness it." She adds.

With this, the male demons each jump at Fumio and Sayuri. Fumio quickly processes the everything and decides to be brazen himself, while dropping his concern about questions for later.

Seeing the two demons' speed of movement, Fumio figures that they are at least C-Class in strength. While the two are fast for the average superiori, they are moving almost in slow motion in Fumio's eyes. But even though they are slow, Fumio does not want to risk them harming Sayuri.

He quickly pulls out his rune katana from his storage ring, strikes one thrust each at the male demons' torsos in quick succession, before storing back it back his storage ring.

The two demons then freeze in their steps.

"…"

"…"

Sayuri and the female demon, are stunned at what had just occurred.

All that Sayuri saw was a glint of something shiny.

The female demon meanwhile, definitely saw Fumio attack her subordinates but the speed of it and the disappearance of the sword she definitely saw, makes her question if what she saw was real.

Before the two women can wonder, grey smoke rush out of the male demons' bodies before quickly condensing into demon cores.

"N-no…" The female demon wants to deny what is happening but, *thud* *thud* *clack* *clack* the bodies and demon cores dropping to the floor almost makes her dizzy in shock.

Before she can even think of fleeing, Fumio who was just sitting on the floor, zoom in front of her and she gets pinned to the wall by him through a hold on her neck.

"WHY?..." Fumio asks through gritted teeth.

"…" The demon cannot come up with an answer.

Seeing the demon speechless, "Nee-san. Please check the bodies if they are still alive." Fumio can only request Sayuri.

"Y-Yes…" Sayuri is pulled out of her shock and confusion and does as what Fumio say immediately.

A few seconds later, "T-they're dead…" Sayuri reports.

"That's unfortunate." Fumio sighs in relief. Understanding that the demons already made the bodies they possessed as their own, he is relieved that he did not just inflict lethal wounds to temporarily possessed humans.

"I'm not gonna ask again, WHY?" He asks the demon again.

Instead of answering, the demon gets the courage to fight back.

Before she can, however, she feels Fumio pull her towards him before receiving a huge headbutt from the young man. Her world is rocked and her command on her powers is cut. If it is not for Fumio holding her up, she would have already collapsed to the floor too.

"…" She cannot help but curse her luck. The reason why she was so brazen in attacking random humans is because encountering a superioris stronger than her in a small city like Nerima, is statistically less than .01 %.

After feeling out atmospheric energy which helped him learn that the people in the restaurant, at least the ones within twenty meters from their dining room, are unmoving, confirming what the demon said earlier.

"There is no movement outside. You left us for last when we should have been the first ones based on our location. That means you were targeting specifically us. Why?" Fumio asks again after feeling out the atmospheric spiritual energy.

"Just kill me." The demon glares back in defiance.

Fumio shakes his head.

Suddenly, he gets an idea.

"Nee-san. I know you have a lot of questions." He turns to Sayuri.

"…" Sayuri simply nods. She cannot even dare to speak.

"I will try and answer what I can later. For now, please step outside the room. If there are more demons outside, just barge back in." Fumio asks.

"O-okay." Sayuri can only swallow her curiosities for now and steps out of the room without question.

With the demon and Fumio finally alone, Fumio lets go of the demon and gestures her to sit at where Sayuri's spot.

The demon is taken aback by Fumio's sudden change in attitude and but his non-confrontational body language warns her not to flee. She also knows that she cannot flee even if she is in perfect condition.

"I'm sorry about your men… They were out for me and my… friend's lives after all. I couldn't just sit by, no?" Fumio asks.

"…" The demon cannot retort to the logic.

"I'm not the type to kill demons as soon as I see one. Do you know Tezguniuth, or Xoz'gekal?" Fumio asks the demon.

"…" The demon's eyes widen.

"I-I do…" She cannot help but react to the question genuinely as humans rarely get to know demons' real names.

"Then take a seat. I'll tell you about them." Fumio gestures the demon again to seat.

"Okay." The demon can only powerlessly heed the request for now.

"I know them personally. Would you like to hear about their current whereabouts?" Fumio asks.

The demon, while initially pleased and excited, gets skeptical immediately.

"Right…"

"It's true. I beat Xoz'gekal in a spar lately. His flame vultures burned me a lot though and were annoying to deal with. As for Tezguniuth, well, he's asked me to invest in the coffee business he is building." Fumio starts.

Even though she is not showing it, what Fumio said about Xoz'gekal and Tezguniuth surprises the demon. Fumio's claim about Xoz'gekal's ability is too specific to be made-up and his words about Tezguniuth perfectly coincides with what she and her men has observed ever since they started tailing Sayuri.

"So. Let me ask you again. Why were you targeting us? If you answer me honestly, whether I like your answer or not, I will help you contact Xoz'gekal or Tezguniuth." Fumio asks.

"You won't kill me, would you?" The demon smirks.

"You saw through my… apprehension earlier. With how long you've lived, I'm too young to deceive you through words. Do you honestly think I'm lying?" Fumio asks.

"…" The demon indeed feels that Fumio seems to be telling the truth.

"I approached Tezguniuth a few days ago, to…" The demon spills the story, feeling she might as well might even if she does not make it out of the room alive.

"So. We were about to use your friend as a warning to him. I'm not going to apologize for what we tried to do earlier. We are desperate." She concludes her story in resolve.

"That seems to be so, Galgredol-san." Fumio nods.

"I'm glad you understand." Galgredol is relieved by Fumio's reaction.

The next moment however, she sees Fumio's face crack into an expression she never expected, or hoped to see. Before she can take action, she already sees Fumio's arm suddenly move to a blur. She realizes what had just happened and she feels an unimaginable pain assaulting her entire being.

"Y-you!" Before she can express her disbelief at being deceived, her demon specter already goes haywire and leaves her body. Her consciousness starting to wane, her life she feels that is fleeting, she can only accept her death in resentment.

After Galgredol's demon core drops to the ground, "Phew…" Fumio sighs in relief that it is finally over.

By applying his spiritual energy to the part of his brain that controls his emotions, he was able to lie to the demon knight's face.

After picking up the three demon cores and storing the demons' bodies in his storage ring, he feels out the atmospheric spiritual energy, and detects that Sayuri is still outside, waiting by the door.

He does not invite her back in however and instead sits back down and pours himself a glass of the still warm sake.

While he easily solved the unexpected situation, he feels burdened by the complications it has produced.

."The fuck do I do now?" He can only bitterly down his sake.

.<>

Hinohara

*crrr…* An almost dilapidated sedan slowly pulls over at the bottom of the hill.

Inside of it is a Japanese couple in their early 30s, dressed in outfits that does not fit the country side.

The man, who is seated at the driver's seat, is sporting a baseball cap, thick oversized hoodie, loose jeans, and sneakers. The hip-hop attire may be easily ignored but the man's tattoos on his neck and the back of his head will definitely make most pedestrians stare.

The woman meanwhile, seated at the passenger's seat, is dressed in a way that matches her man's fashion. She is wearing a loose-fitting crop top she crafted out of her man's old button up shirt, exposing her belly. Her legs are draped with breathable skinny jeans, and her feet are sporting a pair of sneakers that has the same design as her man's shoes.

Unlike her man who has tattoos, she does not. She however has piercings on her ears, nose, and lips.

"Are you sure we're in the right place, babe?" The woman cannot help but ask as she looks at the plain, warehouse-looking building that seems to be embedded at the bottom of the hill. Beside it is  a clay road that goes up the hill.

"It looks… spooky." She continues to comment.

"I'm not sure either…" The man too, is not too sure now.

"So much for a 'life-changing opportunity'" The woman grumbles.

"Hey. They already gave us 50,000 yen just to get here." The man reminds her.

"Oh…" The woman nods, but she is still unsure of what awaits them at the isolated place.