*huff* *huff*
The night air shimmered with heat as she ran, the white folds of her kimono catching the faint red breath of the wind behind her; Within the folds of her arm, lied a young babe no more than a few weeks old. she ran with all her might, dodging and weaving through the dense forest that was usually covered with a dense darkness at this time of day, was now grandly alit from the raging fire that followed this women.
"I will not let anything happen to you Yuki, your mother promises you that" she said to herself as she clutched the babe tightly, as she new soon she would not be alone, as her legs started to give away and the group of assailants behind her, showed no signs of wear.
The echo of her mother's words dissolved into the steady hum of waves against the hull. Yuki's breath caught; the smell of smoke lingered even here, centuries later, in her dreams.
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With a loud gasp, Yuki Gojo woke up, her body perspiring from every pore on her face, she was drenched in her sweat, with a hazy memory of what had happened she found her self in a dimly lit room that smelled like a damp cave with a musky smell. she looked around to look for answers as to her whereabouts, when she glances upon a watterflask, which she drowns within a moments notice, water dripping down from her lips, glistening her skin as it draped down from her mouth to her chest, caressing her as it did, she took a huge breath of relief as she finally put the flask down. Now with her thirst quenched, she stood up to leave the room, when the door slides open and two figures immerge.
"Are you ok yuki? i am so sorry, i was stupid and impulsive" said Tatsuya, with his eyes drowned in shame and begging for forgiveness. Yuki replies "Its okay Tatsu, i know Jito can get on your nerves"
Jito butts in to say "That doesn't mean he will hit you now, doesn't it?"
Its not his fault that i fainted- Yuki interjected, using space warp drains my cursed energy.. among other things.
"I mean surely the kick didn't help" Jito adds, trying to mock Tatsuya.
"Don't fester him Jito, i was able to cast my infinity, so no, it did not hurt me."
"I fainted because of using limitless" yuki said not being able to meet eyes with either of the two.
Tatsuya asked with a confused look "But isn't it your technique?"
"Heyyy man, what happened, happened, lets not dwell on it any further, let her rest" Jito said trying to change the flow of conversation"
Tatsuya shrugs his head to convey his understanding, although still unclear on how can such a small use of her technique leave her at such an impasse. he adds "Whatever the case may be Yuki, please don't come in the middle of us next time, i beg of you"
"Tatsu kun, Jito-- i dont like to see friends fight, please don't, the world is already at war with each other, we have enough enemies already, lets not put each other on that list" Yuki says as her eyes starts to num.
Jito notices that, but doesn't say anything.
"with that settled, lemme assure you us coming here was not in vein, i think i have found him, i just need to pinpoint where he is"
"You said we were here to find a Chinese sorcerer you have heard so much about, were you able to locate him?" says Tatsuya with loosing patience.
"If i did, we wouldn't have fought like we always do Tatsu, you need to have some patience" Jito explains.
with Anger creeping up on him again, Tatsuya asks "So what do we do now?"
"Yuki, get ready, Tatsuya follow me, because we have a crime to solve"
The three leave the hotel, and reach the destination.
[Shanghai market district, where Jito first encountered the corpse]
"So let me get this right...there was a faceless corpse here, in the middle of the market, which reeked of cursed energy and as you went to inspect it the ground started shaking, which apparently none of us felt, so you assumed foul play, you used the enlightenment light, that made the flame bend down into the ground? so you decided the best decision was to open your domain in the middle of this bustling market, and as you were about to massacre so many people by squishing them with your domain, the corpse vanished and so did the trail that apparently was leading to the sorcerer? correct?"
said Tatsuya.
Jito with his starry eyes glimmering with newfound enthusiasm replied
"Correct"
"Except i had made sure to expand my domain just enough so that i could locate the sorcerer, no civilians would have been harmed"
to which Tatsuya replies, "Because of course you have such fine control over your domain expansion" sarcastically.
"You have seen your fair-share of corpses with the yakuza haven't you 'Ta-Ta' kun? you wanna weigh in with your expertise here?" Jito said endearingly mocking Tatsuya.
Tatsuya sends a bone chilling glare to Jito, as if almost wanting to start a fight, when he looks at Yuki, who gives her gentle look, which could melt the toughest of rocks into water, maybe it reminded Tatsuya of his previous altercation with Jito, or rather the result of it.
Tatsuya calms down
"I have told you again and again that was not the life i chose, this is mylife"
he said with a stern voice.
"This work is not of an organized crime unit, the curse user probably sensed your presence here and used some sort of technique to hide the body and evade the crime scene."
"where there any identifiers on that corpse which you remember?"
Tatsuya asks
"He didn't have a face to begin with, and yeah, he was wearing some sort of a military uniform"
replied Jito whilst pondering over the event.
"I think we should ask around, lets see what the locals saw, we have a perspective which the police don't, lets meet up here in 20 minutes and see what we found"
Suggests Yuki.
Both parties agree to it, Jito decides to head straight north into the market, Yuki decides to go south, but Tatsuya remains there.
He decided to inspect the crime scene once again, whilst the others were asking around, Tatsuya was recreating the crime scene in his head.
"How did the corpse vanish?"
"What made the ground shake?"
"Why didn't it have a face?"
these were all questions going through Tatsuya's mind, when he notices something...
The police had outlined the shape of the corpse as it was laying on the ground, from that position, Tatsuya assessed that he was already dead when was dumped here, as there were no footprints which showed any form of scuffle, as a matter of fact, there were no footprints.
"But why dump a dead body, only to then take it back? and why dump it in the middle of this market" Tatsuya said to himself.
it was then, when his eyes caught a glimpse of some sort of an object buried into the ground, with only the tip shooting above.
Tatsuya dug it out with the help of the knife he always carries on himself.
His eyes shot open with a thunderous glare, as he examined the badge and realized what it was, two SS symbols in the shaped of striking lightining.
"A Nazi in China??"
As he was about to put it back in his pocket, a hand emerged from the ground and grabbed hold of his leg
Tatsuya was being pulled into the ground, he stomped his right leg upon the arm, freeing from its hold.
He grabbed his jacket and tore of his left sleeve, that revealed a big red dragon tattoo, it could be seen that it started from his rear dealts and followed towards his forearms.
Tatsuya exclaimed " Oh great O-Raijin, aid me and bestow me your power"
as he uttered those words, the flaming red dragon leapt out from his arm, flew up in the sky and turned the calm evening sky into roaring thunderous clouds, the dragon then decended down from the sky, and started hovering over him.
Soil crumbled from his shoulders as he rose, straightening the waistcoat across his chest like a gentleman late to tea rather than a ghost climbing from the grave. The round lenses of his glasses gleamed calm, clinical before his hands settled before him, fingers alive with tension, tracing the sharp symmetry of a Wing Chun guard.
"I guess there is no point in hiding now" said the mysterious man, holding his firm guard.
Tatsuya prepares to battle this mysterious sorcerer, "Did he kill the Nazi, or is he one?" he ponders for a second, before Raijin surrounds him and thunderbolts start crackling down from the sky.