The Black man froze as he watched Igarashi Amaha walk away, then hurried after him and asked, "¿Qué acabas de decir? ¿Vas a volver a Japón? (What did you just say? Are you going back to Japan?)"
"Ah, yeah. Something interesting is about to happen. Time to head back and join the fun." Igarashi Amaha yawned again, sounding a little listless.
"All right," the Black man said.
The two walked to the roadside, opened the rear door of a Maybach, and got in.
"Sir, your student ID has been processed." The driver in front respectfully handed over a card.
Before Igarashi Amaha could do anything, the Black man beside him snatched it up. Looking at the small card in his hand, he read haltingly in broken Japanese, "To... Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu... Technical High School student ID. Student... number 100006. Age, sixteen. Damn, your age blows my mind every time I see it. You're actually only sixteen. That's so weird."
"Name... Igarashi Amaha, and..."
But when he reached the last words, he cried out, "G-Grade 1!!??"
At the Black man's booming voice, Igarashi Amaha pressed a hand downward, signaling for him to quiet down.
But the Black man ignored him and continued in astonishment, "You've never even attended school, and they made you Grade 1 straight away? Don't you need an assessment? Don't tell me you donated two school buildings to them!!?"
"You don't know shit. Over the past few years, I've exorcised more Grade 1 Cursed Spirits on my own than you've ever seen. It'd be weird if they didn't rate me Grade 1."
After saying that, Igarashi Amaha ignored the Black man, found a comfortable position, folded his arms across his chest, closed his eyes, and fell sound asleep.
The driver in front spoke up then. "This mission is to investigate the waters of the southern district. According to our intelligence, this Cursed Spirit has already reached Grade 1, though it may be even stronger. Some fishermen may already have died while you two were watching the match just now."
The Black man laughed outright at the driver's last sentence. "Come on, Mr. Aman, you could've left those last two sentences out. Do you think Amaha cares about any of that? After all, humans without Cursed Energy are nothing but monkeys in his eyes. Hahaha."
Mr. Aman seemed long accustomed to this and said nothing. Driving and managing intelligence were his job. Although he could not understand why his boss treated humans without Cursed Energy so coldly, there were still things he had to say.
The car had been traveling for about ten minutes and was just approaching its destination when the drowsy Igarashi Amaha spoke from the back seat. "Stop up ahead. I have something important to do. Saad can go ahead. I'll be there soon."
"Yes, sir."
The Black man, Saad, turned to Igarashi Amaha in disbelief. "Huh? That's a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit! I'll die if I go alone, Amaha. We've been close friends since we met in Hua Capital. Can you really bear to send me to my death?"
Saad, whose full name was Hamza Saad, was a twenty-three-year-old Moroccan Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer. He had met Igarashi Amaha in Yang City, Hua Capital, in 2002. Since they were both Jujutsu Sorcerers, they often went out to exorcise Cursed Spirits together, growing close over time. Later, when Igarashi Amaha went to Spain, he followed him there and even started a family.
"Relax. You'll be fine."
"Stop right here."
"Yes, sir."
After getting out, Igarashi Amaha lit a cigarette. Only once the car was far away did he walk straight into a movie theater.
"Hi, one ticket for Blood Diamond, a bottle of Coke, and a bucket of popcorn."
Igarashi Amaha took a few euro notes from his pocket and handed them to the woman behind the counter as he spoke.
The woman's eyes lit up at the sight of Igarashi Amaha, and she affected a sweet voice. "Of course, sir. Just a moment, please."
"Sir, here are your ticket and popcorn."
Igarashi Amaha picked them up, gave a quiet hum of acknowledgment, and headed inside. But just as he reached for some popcorn, his fingers touched a slip of paper. He picked it up and saw a room number.
"6012"
He looked back at the woman behind the counter and found her gazing at him seductively, throwing him the occasional flirtatious glance. At that, he understood what was going on.
Igarashi Amaha shook his head with a rueful smile. The paper in his hand turned to ash and vanished, and he headed toward the screening room without looking back.
A mere beauty of flesh and bone dares interrupt my movie? Ridiculous.
The movie began, and Igarashi Amaha became completely absorbed in it, utterly unaware of the phone vibrating in his pocket.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Aman sighed helplessly when Igarashi Amaha still failed to arrive. "As willful as ever. There's no other choice. Mr. Saad, please hold it off for now. At this rate, that Cursed Spirit will get away."
Saad, who wanted to cry but had no tears, eventually agreed. He vaulted over the cordon and began warily surveying his surroundings.
Seeing this, Aman raised one hand before his chest and began to chant, "Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
His words fell silent.
Whoosh!!
The sound of flowing water echoed through the air as something resembling a drape slowly descended from the sky.
As the [Curtain] descended, waves instantly began surging across the previously calm sea.
"It's coming." Saad surveyed his surroundings gravely. At the slightest sign that anything was wrong, he would immediately run. That was his battle plan.
Splash, splash, splash!!
Waves crashed one after another, drenching Saad on the shore.
Roar!! A chilling roar rang out from all around him.
Saad retreated, and with a boom!, flames of Cursed Energy ignited around his fists.
"Get the hell out here, you bastard. Don't make me come looking for you."
Bang!!
The sea erupted, and a humanoid Cursed Spirit burst out amid several columns of water, surging straight toward Saad.
"I tell you to come, and you actually come? Shit." Saad froze, then retreated before pushing off hard and appearing behind the Cursed Spirit in a burst of speed. Before it could react, he lashed out with a roundhouse kick.
Looking at the Cursed Spirit he had knocked to the ground, Saad instantly put on an arrogant expression. "Bastard, let me show you my Hua Capital kung fu."
Without giving the Cursed Spirit a chance to catch its breath, he took a Wing Chun opening stance and charged straight in. He swung both arms, his fists blurring as every blow landed on the Cursed Spirit, making him scream nonstop.
"Hey, boy, have a taste of my iron fists of love! Ararararara!"
Squelch!
"Huh?"
Saad's fist went straight through the Cursed Spirit's skin and plunged into its body.
He suddenly sensed something was wrong. Just as he tried to pull his fist out, he discovered that it seemed to be gripped firmly in place, unable to move an inch.
Then a garbled voice sounded beside his ear, instantly freezing the blood throughout his body.
"...My... turn... now... right...?"
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