Chapter 6: The exploration gone wrong.
Nobuaki Zen'in. That was the name of the Kukuru units captain. A unit made of nobodies in a clan where they were unwanted. If Zen'in clan is a curse for those without a cursed technique, then these are the people who were cursed, and yet still haven't let go of this curse.
This of course, also included the leader. In fact, he was the target of this curse more than anyone else in the unit. Being the leader of a squad, naturally also means that he has to take responsibility for all of their actions or inactions.
And God knows it is difficult to take responsibility for a team of non-sorcerers, cosplaying as sorcerers. Getting chewed out during meetings is pretty much an every day occurrence for him.
Now, this same man is about to pass on the art of misogyny to Akira.
He is someone who looks to be in his middle 30 or 40's. He has dark colored, relatively short hair that is styled handsomely into a pompadour, it looks a bit weird, almost like a sharks' face. Though, that is the fault of facial shape and hairline.
Similar to almost all the other Zen'in clan members, he also has a dark eye color, and white skin.
He wears a formal white colored uniform that looks incredibly out of place with the Japanese setting.
As he was strolling towards the dojos' entry, Akira had already put the practice weapons back in their place, and had seated at the forefront of the dojo, ready to welcome the people he wished he hadn't met in this life.
But that was the moment when he looked at the entry, and realized his mistake.
The door....
'I FORGOT THE FUCKING DOOR.' He thought, as he put his hands on his mouth, forcefully holding himself back from screaming out in frustration.
Indeed, the door that was just broken by the Maki-bullet, was dislodged from the door frame, and laid out for all to see.
On the other side, Nobuaki, saw the door and immediately felt his knees growing weak.
So weak that he kneeled on the ground. His eyes still on the door.
In that moment, Nobuaki went through all five stages of grief.
Denial.
'Surely the door isn't completely broken right? I can probably fix it before the others come.'
Anger.
'I truly need to pay a visit to the culprit's mother tonight.'
Bargaining.
'It's alright. I just need to buy a new door before the others come.'
Depression.
'But the others are already coming. They will be here in 5 minutes. I can't do anything.'
And finally, acceptance.
'I will be chewed at the next meeting again.'
With that, he let out a sigh, and went inside to find the clothes and equipment all set up. But there was no sign of Akira.
'Wasn't there supposed to be a kid carrying these things here. I am pretty sure i ordered him to do it.'
Indeed, Akira had fucked off the moment he realized the gravity of his situation. This of course, would bite him in the ass later, but for now it was okay.
In the back of a house, Akira made his appearance known. He was getting tired of the constant shadow walking. A weakness he had found out very early on after he had initially found out about the technique.
'This costs more cursed energy the faster i go. Too much consecutive useage would put a dent, even in my reserves.'
Looking around, he found himself exactly behind the main house. The residence of Naobito Zen'in.
Though, as it would seem, he had managed to pass under the guard's radars. It was another thing he had discovered. Usual sorcerers couldn't sense him using his abilities even when he is only 4 meters apart from them.
'I need to find somewhere to hide comfortably while that guy calms down and fixes the door. Then plead to the fifth and blame someone else. They can't even trace me when i am right next to them, tracing my resident energy should be impossible for them.' Akira thought of his genious plan that would certainly work for the better.
Crouching down, he prepared to use shadow walk again, this time to the only location he knew no guards existed.
A white building with chains around the doors. It was small in height, but it was clearly an underground building anyway.
Outside, there were multiple guards patrolling around. But inside, it was completely empty.
'To be fair, i always wanted to see the insides anyway.'
But his plan didn't work out too well, as when he reappeared, he was outside the building, and his head crashed into it.
"Okay i am pretty sure i aimed for the insides and the range was also stretching deep inside too. What the hell happened?" He asked in mild frustration while rubbing his forehead.
He immediately realized his mistake, as unexpectedly, someone actually responded to his question.
"This is what they call, a veil or curtain. This one in particular has a source inside the place. It doesn't allow a person without the family heads' permission, to enter in its walls. Well, why would anyone get in willingly anyway?" Sounded the voice of an old man. Very close to Akira's ears. Much too close for comfort.
Startled, Akira jumped in the spot, but quickly regained his bearings as his foot touched the ground again.
He immediately attempted to walk through shadows again. He had absolutely no desire, interest, nor intent to listen to anything the old man would say.
However, the old man with years of experience, was already ahead of him. He had seen the way Akira moved with Maki and Mai through the last month, and theorized that if he touches Akira, he will be sent along with him. He grabbed Akira's clothes just before he had landed on the ground, already anticipating his move, and when the shadow walk ability was used, the old man was sent through along with Akira.
Since the ability was used on the fly, it didn't had any destination. So it chose the closest shadow as the destination, which in this case happened to be inside the white building.
"Hooh, seems you managed to enter this time. Probably because i was with you too." Said the old man. Coincidentally, also giving away his identity.
Hearing that, Akira's eyes widened.
Of course, he had been aware that the family head can track his cursed energy. That was how he found him when he awakened it in the first place.
'I let my guard down around the compound just because some monkeys couldn't see me.' He thought, condemning his overconfidence in his mind.
Seeing that he has realized his mistake, if his eyes and body language was anything to go by, the old man decided to let it go and grinned a bit.
Afterall, that was the whole purpose of following Akira anyway. Grooming the perfect sorcerer. And thus arose the need to point out his shortcomings as early as possible.
"You never told me why you wanted to come here, but it's fine either way. Let me show you the place now. Specifically the underground section." He continued, with that same grin on his face.
Akira had tried to get out of the building with his ability again, but it had failed. He encountered the same veil that had originally blocked his entry.
Having no choice, he decided to follow the old man for now.
'Not like running would fix anything anyway. It would probably just make the situation worse when he founds me afterwards.'
They both walked through the dimly lit hallway. From what light there was, white walls could be seen. And then more white walls, and even more white walls.
'This place really has no decoration huh. And it's long too. This is giving me PTSD from those hallways before meeting Hades.' Akira thought to himself while unconsciously sweating.
Eventually, after five, mentally excruciating minutes, they came across a door that was placed on the floor itself. Clearly leading to the underground.
Naobito, opened the door and threw it to the other side, revealing a rather short stairway to the underground. This stairway was in fact lit with lamps quite nicely, so there was no need for torches.
He nodded his head towards Akira, inclining him to go first.
Akira was happy to comply. If anything does happen, he can just bust the door open with his cursed energy. That's what he was thinking about anyway. In truth, the way to get out was actually much simpler than that.
Though, that seemed to be unnecessary as Naobito never planned to trick him anyway. In fact, the old man came down right after Akira. Making sure to close the door too of course.
Here, Akira shivered. Not due to fear or cold, but because of another feeling. One that was foreign to his mind.
'This creepy feeling is new. Something i have never felt before, but for some reason, know i don't want to get close to it at all. It's a chilling and fearsome sensation.' He thought, very much noticing an icy sensation in his legs, hindering and almost stopping his movement.
"Hmph, so you can finally feel them. Took you some time. Honestly, i am surprised, the entire hallway gives anyone who loves their life a creepy feeling. Your survival instincts are terrible kid, you won't last long as a sorcerer. I knew a person with no cursed energy or technique at all, and even he managed to feel them much sooner than you did." The old man Naobito said disdainfully, recalling the memory of a hateful brat.
'Well i apologize, my mind was too busy going through a panic attack.' Akira thought as he turned his head away from the old man.
They didn't had to go down too far, before they saw another hallway in front of them.
Only, this one had 2 exits in it.
A giant double door formation that was locked behind tons of chains all around it in front, and a much simpler looking single white door to the left side.
Both doors gave a bad feeling to Akira. More so the smaller door.
"Choose wherever you wish to go to. But if you make the wrong decision you may find yourself defenseless in a bad position, so choose carefully." Said Naobito while rubbing his sabel.
Akira looked at the old man suspiciously, while trying to figure out a solution.
Undeniably, the amount of energy oozing off of the smaller door was larger than the double doors, which was a bit weird.
He also knew that the cursed tools warehouse was in fact placed in this white building. One of the reasons why people weren't allowed inside.
Adding onto that, the old man mentioned being defenseless in a bad situation, so naturally a fight had to be anticipated. However, Akira already was defenseless to beging with. Putting 2 and 2 together, he made a conclusion.
'One of these doors leads to the weapon storage. If i choose correctly, i can pick up a weapon, but if i choose wrong, i will be stuck with my fists, which aren't really impressive considering they are 5 years old.'
The tricky part of the puzzle, is choosing the correct door. Is it the smaller container that is giving bad vibes, or is it the bigger container, that is more tamed?
Though, this was just more of a trick question than an actual test. Afterall, even if he makes the wrong choice, his technique could get him out anyway. The veil doesn't limit movement from within itself. So a shadow walk, from and towards the interior of the building, wouldn't be restricted. The barely visible smirk on the old man's face was attesting that.
This was in fact, the easier method of getting out. You could always bust the door open too of course.
'For a true sorcerer, there is never a situation in which they are defenseless. You will now learn that.' Thought the old man to himself, as he watched Akira struggle with his test.
Akira himself, in a moment of genius thinking, used his only real advantage as of now, and made a comparison to himself in order to get a better understanding of his situation.
His knowledge wasn't impressive, but he knew his cursed energy reserves are immense, and if the cursed energy in this area gets even slightly comparable to half of his own, then that means an absolute monster of a cursed spirit exists down here.
And as it would turn out, the enegy from the smaller door, was barely comparable to about 1/10 of him.
Just barely, but that was still important, afterall, even the old man behind him, doesn't compare to 1/10 of his reserves. So it is safe to assume, that if such a monster lived here, then the Zen'in clan would have already gone extinct by this point in time.
'The bigger source of energy is less likely to be a living creature, as it would be too much of a threat.' His eyes widened in realization, as he gave himself a self compliment on his thinking.
With a smug look on his face, he took wide steps and went straight towards the smaller door.
"This is the warehouse right? You wouldn't keep a dangerous creature under your houses. So this cursed energy is probably an accumulation of some grade 1 cursed tools." Akira said confidently, as he put his hand on the door's handle.
The old man however, furrowed his eyebrows and refused to answer.
'That's a solid 70 points i would say. You missed 3 points. Firstly, smaller door doesn't necessarily lead to smaller places. It could be an stairway leading to a hall. Second, why would be bother locking the door with chains? The veil keeps the cursed spirits inside the building anyway. Those chains were put there due to a certain "incident" with a person that was physically powerful. They are there to stop certain "inanimate objects" that can freely roam inside the building, from stealing the whole armory. The damn creature scared the idiots into putting chains on the door. Thirdly, cursed tools can also be sealed to confine their cursed energy, so you wouldn't feel too much of them. In short, you failed.' Thought the old man to himself, without showing any other reaction to Akira's decision.
And, as Akira opened the door, expectedly, he was met with stairs. He was stomped for a bit, before the old man decided to kick him off the stairs anyway.
"Eeeeeeep, FUCK, DAMNIT, MOTHER FUCKER, HAIRY ASSHOLE, DICK BALLS, CUNT." Akira let out some beautiful last words as he landed on multiple stairs with his butt, before crashing face first into the floor.
"Just try to survive now. There should only be grade 4 up to 2 curses there. I will check you out in a bit." Said Naobito before locking the door.
'Now then, how long until he figures out he can get out of there with his technique?' The old man thought to himself. His expectations were high, but who could blame him? A child with that much cursed energy would make a perfect weapon.
On the other side with Akira though, things were a lot more peaceful than Naobito had imagined.
This was yet another white hall, with pillars and holes all around it, in which the cursed spirits resided.
'Nobody is attacking.'
The curses were clearly there. They attached themselves behind the pillars or inside their holes, refusing to come in sight or leave their homes.
'Everybody is just sleeping huh.' Akira thought to himself as he lowered his guard and sat down, tempting fate and baiting the curses.
But even then, nothing happened.
The problem was that these curses were too weak to even try and approach the huge beacon of cursed energy that is known as Akira. This isn't really a big secret that curses avoid getting close to things with massive cursed energy pools as they deem them dangerous, but the old man had truly gone too old.
This method of discipline had always worked on these brats afterall, so he really didn't thought Akira would be special in any way. Old age does catch up to people, even in sorcerer society it seems.
"Wait a minute. This is exactly what i wanted. I get to sit here for an hour while those idiots fix the door, and then i can make an excuse that i was with the clan head the whole time and plead for my innocence. The plan worked perfectly." Akira mumbled under his breath, his eyes were widened and his smug grin returned immediately.
'Was i truly the one who lost? I think i was the ultimate winner heheheh.' He blissfully thought to himself.
Of course, Naobito would at some point get tired and check on Akira again, and his voice would be ridiculous upon seeing what had actually happened to the kid.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone