Chapter 142 - "It's Not Like I Took His Chip..."

"My good man … Did you really have to have me destroy these?" Dominic smiles bitterly as he squats by one of the ruined plants in the gardens and sniffs it the very pleasant smell emitting from it.

He feels bad looking at the beautiful things he destroyed just for the act.

"Meh. I have excess of them stored away in my chip." Red shrugs as he fixes the ruined bamboo walls by replanting the uprooted bamboo trees that make it up.

"About that…" Dominic is reminded of his interest.

"How did you even find out about the function of that thing?" He asks.

"Secret." Red smirks.

Dominic shrugs, not surprised. He was just shooting his shot after all.

"But… Aside from an independent dimension inside the chips, is there anything else it could be used for? For the benefit of the superiori?" He asks, with a knowing look.

"Yes. Accelerated time. Perfect for emergency training." Red says.

"I already figured that." Dominic scoffs.

"Come on. You have four, FOUR, A-Class Superiori serving under you. Three of which are in their early twenties. That's not normal." 

"It has nothing to do with the chips. I just have a knack for finding talented people." Red explains.

"Hm…" Dominic does not know if Red is lying or not, and he gets frustrated not getting his curiosity satisfied.

"You know. If somehow, I give you your freedom back, and you earn my trust after that, I'll tell you." Red smirks, dismissing the subject.

Dominic's face falls in disappointment.

"Can I at least get my chip back?" He asks instead.

"Sure. Here you go." Red tosses the treasure fragment that once belonged to Dominic, to Dominic.

"…" Dominic catches the chip while staring at Red blankly.

"Really?" He scoffs.

"What? Do you really think it's easy to activate it?" Red scoffs in return.

"You make it look easy." Dominic shrugs.

"But I get it." He then tosses the treasure fragment back to Red. 

After seeing what the thing can do, he feels that possessing it just to subjugate demons is not worth it. 

He figures that something mysterious must take a lot to activate.

"Anyways. I heard from the grapevine that your friend Argus is here in Japan. Is that why you're here?" Red asks.

"Yes… Well, he was. He went back to Australia last night." Dominic confirms.

"What's up with him? It's not like I took his chip." Red asks.

"I actually told him about my chip acting weird and he got invested in it immediately. He and I were not that curious however, so we sent Samuel and Eliza in our steads.

"And as you know, Eliza was also his great grandniece, and one of the few in the new generation whose names he actually bothered to learn.

"So, when he did not receive a remote report from her for two weeks, he suspected that something went wrong with her and Samuel. He immediately came to me after that." Dominic reports.

"You had to put up an act." Red nods in understanding.

"Yes. I had to act worried about my stolen chip because he was starting to ask questions. So, we traced Eliza and Samuel's footsteps until we found their bodies in Wajima yesterday." Dominic explains.

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Outskirts of Wajima City, 1 day ago.

In a farm house.

"Two Australians? Tourists?" An old farmer asked.

"Yes. A married couple. Both in their early thirties." Dominic said.

"Both having brown hair." Argus added, his Japanese is not any worse than Dominic's.

"I did indeed see them. They also had three Japanese with them. Their interpreters, I think." The farmer confirmed.

"Well, did you know which direction they went?" Argus asked.

"Ehh… Let me think. They went east wards from my rice field." The farmer said in certainty.

"Point it in this map."

A few minutes later, in a forest.

"Hello there." Argus greeted, spotting two foreign men who he figured are middle-eastern descents, heading to the same direction that he and Dominic were flying to. From his and Dominic's investigations, they already knew that they were not the only foreigners asking around in the city.

"…" The two strangers stopped in their flight as they immediately recognized Argus and Dominic.

"M-Mr. Fowler and Mr. Little." The taller one of the strangers, returned the greeting with a nervous one.

"Did you just arrive here?" The shorter one asked, handling himself better than his companion.

"We did." Argus frowned, finding the question odd.

"Then you don't know yet." The shorter stranger said.

"Stop speaking around the bush and tell us what happened instead." Dominic urged, feigning impatience.

"It's best if we show you." The taller stranger said as he led the way while acquainting with Argus and Dominic.

The group soon arrived in a clearing at the foot of a small mountain.

"Damn…" Argus scrunched his nose at the scene after quickly processing it.

On the grass, he saw the lifeless Samuel lying on his back with a dried stream of blood that originated from Samuel's forehead. On top of Samuel was Eliza, lying on her stomach and she too, had a dried stream of blood that started from her head.

A few steps away from the couple, were two more dead bodies belonging to two other foreigners, men in casual suits, who Argus figured to be the acquaintances of the strangers they met along the way, based on the two bodies' ethnicity.

Unlike Samuel and Eliza who he figured to have been killed by one attack each, one of the two dead middle-easterners looked worse with his body riddled with deep wounds and looked to have died more painfully than the rest.

Then away from the foreigners, were three bodies of young Japanese men, all lying on their stomachs, and just like Samuel and Eliza, each seemed to have been killed in one shot.

"Who are you two?" A casually dressed Japanese man asked with authority as he approached the two Australians.

"Sir. They are Argus Fowler and Dominic Little. From Australia." The short middle-eastern man introduced.

"O-oh…" The Japanese man was stunned, recognizing the names.

"N-nice to meet you. I'm the local clan leader of this parts." He humbly introduced himself.

"Yeah. Whatever. Tell us what happened." Dominic demanded.

"Let me." The taller Brotherhood member started.

"The group were probably lured here by someone. After reaching this isolated place, the killing began. We are thinking that the culprit must be someone who is at least a low-tier A-Class Superiori.

"After all, they were able to kill our friend over there, Miss Eliza, and Mister Samuel, who are all B-Class superiori, with one shot each. Then our other friend over there, is bordering A-Class and seemed to have put up a fight. Ultimately, he was killed.

"Our three young Japanese over there, looked to have been trying to flee, but failed as the strongest of them was just C-Class." He concluded.

"Any idea who or where the culprit is now?" Argus asked.

He figured the same as the middle-easterners' guesses. This was a very common sight in one of the wars he participated in.

"No, sir." The shorter middle-easterner shook his head.

"You folks are from The Brotherhood. You must have records of the culprit based on what their abilities left behind." Dominic asked.

"We have not found anyone in our database matching the things here." The shorter brotherhood member shook his head with a sigh.

"This is the first time we saw a superioris ability cause this. The victims' external wounds look small, but inside?... It was as if the tissues or organs surrounding their wounds' entry points were minced finely by a chef."

"…" Argus and the local clan head felt their spines tingle.

"…" Dominic on the other hand, was now sure that Red killed all of the victims.

The shorter middle-easterner's descriptions of the victims' wounds were exactly what happened to him when he was wounded by Red.

"God damn it…" He then cursed in false anger.

"We are sorry for your loss." The clan head sent his condolences to the two Australians.

"A shame." Argus shook his head.

"We'll take our people away now." He demanded.

"Of course." The local clan's head stepped aside.

<><><><><><><><>

"I see." Red nods, losing interest after hearing the story.

He already expected things to have happened as such.

"Heard of anything about the Haneda and Chibana clans?" He asks.

"I heard that they didn't care especially when they found out that me, Argus, and The Brotherhood were involved." Dominic shrugs.

"That's good then." Red nods, satisfied by his handiwork.

"Okay…" Dominic is reminded of another thing he is curious about.

"I have to ask. How did you make 7 dead people walk around Wajima?" He asks.

"I didn't." Red scoffs.

"You've seen me look like three different people so far." He gives a clue.

"Y-you… assumed their identities…" Dominic realizes.

"Not exactly." Red says before casting an illusion technique.

Dominic's eyes widen as he sees Samuel, Eliza, and the five more of Red's victims', pop into existence behind Red, all looking alive and well.

If he did not see the bodies of the seven with his own eyes, he would have believed that they are still alive and are standing behind Red.

"T-that…" Dominic walks towards the nearest illusion and touches it.

After feeling nothing however, "This is more than just assuming identities.", he looks at Red wide-eyed.

"Heh. Never gets old." Red is amused by the superioris's reaction.

Unlike the demons he subjugated, whose emotions and even thinking, are easily programmable by him using some soul techniques, Dominic, being an S-Class costs too much for his spirit sense to do the same.

So, to keep the burden on his spirit sense minimal, he simply established four basic soul rules for Dominic to follow.

One is for Dominic to do anything to protect the secrets between him and Red.

Two is for Dominic to never knowingly harm anyone he knows is connected to Red.

Third, is to never lie to Red.

And lastly, is for Dominic to follow Red's orders as long as they are rational and will not cost him a huge sacrifice, like his safety, his power and influence, people who are important to him, and his life.

This is preferrable to Red too because he still wants Dominic to be Dominic as much as possible, while ensuring the man's subservience.

"Alright. Be quiet for now." Red suddenly orders Dominic.

"…" Dominic did not need to be told as he can hear something incoming.

Soon enough.

*whoosh*

*whoosh* 

The recovered Kotone and Yoshiko arrive at the gardens, joining Red and Dominic.

"Sensei!"

"*GASP* What happened to your arm?!"