Spending day with Yasaka

~10 May 2008~

Kojiro arrives in front of the palace once again after finishing cleaning some pests around his house and threatening his little sister. Kojiro is feeling relieved that he finally has an excuse to kill that little shit. He knows that Diodora is terrible news, but he wants to see if he is the same as his counterpart. When Diodora decides to hire some barrier breaker to record all Sakura activity, he knows that now he has an excuse to kill him for good.

He walks to the gate and nods at the royal guard before going to the garden where Yasaka is located. As he arrives in the garden, Yasaka walks toward him and hugs him, making him freeze a little before returning the hug. He can see the children's smug faces from where he stands.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Good, but there is still a lingering of blood on your body. You need to clean your body more carefully next time. I don't want the children to see you have a smell of blood."

"Ahhh, sorry about that."

"Good."

Kojiro then looks at Yasaka wave her hand, and suddenly, he feels another energy coating all his body.

"What is this?"

"This will cover the smell of blood around your body. We youkai have a strong nose. We are able to smell almost anything."

Kojiro then walks to Kunou, and Sakura tries to create a flower bed under the shade of a tree. He looks to the side and sees both Lilith and Fou sleeping under the shade, enjoying the weather. Kojiro sits down near Lilith, and Fou with Yasaka also sits down beside him. He takes out a tea set from his Pocket Dimension and places it on the ground. He already filled out the teapot with tea he brewed inside his house yesterday.

"How is your work?"

"It's okay, a bit stressful, but I can manage. How about you, Kojiro-kun?"

"Hmm, It's good. Sometimes there is a… eccentric customer that comes, but they are nice people."

"It was that damn cat isn't?"

"Hahahaha, no, it was not Akari-san. This one is mundane people. He came to my store and demanded his morning coffee. Every time he got his morning coffee, he would become a pleasant person, but before he got his coffee, then… well, he can be eccentric."

"Is it Mashiro-san?"

"Oh? You know him?"

"Yeah, He is rather infamous around Kyoto for his efficiency in doing paperwork. If he is not a mundane human, I will hire him into my palace. Because of his talent, I almost break the unwritten rules that never involve any non-magical people into our world."

"There are such rules?"

"Yeah. However, many people decide to ignore it. It was created many years ago to make people from our 'world' ignore the mundane people. Still, after the Devil created the peerage system, it becomes something that only works if the faction doesn't need ordinary people for something."

"For something like what?"

"Sacrifice or something like that"

"Sacrifice?"

"Yes, they usually do it to create a barrier around their base or castle. The one usually using this method is the Vampire clan and the Werewolf clan. Many people ignore their practice of sacrificing humans to create their barrier because it was a 'necessary' thing to do."

He nodded at Yasaka's explanation. While he doesn't like it, he can't change the way vampires and werewolves use humans for their rituals.

"Anyway, Kojiro-kun?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you have some free time tomorrow?"

"I can close the cafe for the day. Why?"

"I want to invite Sakura and you to go to our private beach."

"Oh?"

"Yup, it's been a while, Kunou, and I go to the beach. With Kyoto achieving peace after a long time because of the Stray Devil, we now have time to go to the beach. Do you want to come with us?"

"Sure"

"Good, then please come to the palace in the morning."

After saying that, Yasaka and Kojiro decide to enjoy their day, in each other's comfort while drinking some tea. He smiled a little as he enjoyed the comfort of Yasaka by his side.

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Yasaka walks toward her office and walks beside her is Nurarihyon, her advisor. When they arrive inside her office, Nurarihyon begins to talk.

"My Lady, I want to report about our target Diodora Astaroth."

"What about him?"

"My agent found him dead inside his mansion."

Yasaka leans her body toward her advisor after she hears the interesting piece of information.

"Oh? Do tell"

"Yes. After we clean the mess Kojiro-dono leaves after dealing with the mercenary, I order one of my agents to go to Diodora location but only find a red goo on the floor of his office."

"How did Diodora die?"

"I don't know. I can confirm that Diodora melted from inside his body. My agent says that Diodora died in agony."

"I see, Is there anything that can be connected to us? Because I know it was Kojiro-kun, the one that did it."

"Yes, I also know it was Kojiro-dono, the one that did it. As for the connection, there is none. However, there is a bit of an issue."

"What is it?"

"The peerage of Diodora begged my agent to take them away from the underworld."

"What?"

"Yes, Look like, after the death of Diodora, the spell that binds them to him is also broken, making them a free benign once more."

"So, not only that little shit corrupt a Holy Maiden but also make them his slave like a literary slave to him."

"Yes."

"You say that Diodora died in agony, right?"

"Yes"

"Good. Now for the former peerage of Diodora. What should we do about them?"

"About that, I have some proposal for you, My Lady."

"Do tell me."

"I want the former peerage member to become one of my agents. Only they can infiltrate the Underworld, and they also can defend themself (With training) rather well. I need some agents in the Underworld to check the Devil activity."

"Granted"

"Thank you, My lady."

"Good, dismiss."

After seeing Nurarihyon disappear from her office, Yasaka looks at the photo on the table that shows the remains of Diodora Astaroth.

"Who are you, Kojiro-kun?"

That is the question that always appears inside her head. If Diodora gets cut down, then she will accept it because it was something she knew Kojiro-kun was good at. She has been searching the entire record she can find regarding people with the name of Sasaki Kojiro and only two people that come up. The Sasaki Kojiro that fight Miyamoto Musashi and Kojiro-kun. Even Lady Amaterasu has some difficulty in searching for the Kojiro-kun past. Lady Amaterasu says that she knows that Kojiro-kun was born in Japan, but after that, she can't prove anything. Lady Amaterasu WILL know about the past of anyone born under her sun, but she can't find anything about Kojiro-kun.

After reading the report, Nurarihyon gives her, Yasaka knows that Diodora is killed by some powerful magic or something coming from a mundane method. She immediately throws away the chance that Kojiro uses chemicals or something like that to kill Diodora. The reason is that there are not many chemicals that can kill Devil, especially High-Class Devil. There are already many attempts to kill devils using chemicals by magicians but end up in failure or at least most of them.

Which only leaves him using a magic attack to kill Diodora. She knows a few spells that can do something that has an effect like in the report. However, by reading the report, then Kojiro-kun is not leaving any magical trace whatsoever, which is impossible because the spell is a high-rank spell that requires the user to put a massive amount of mana into the spell. The spell will also alert the Astaroth territory guard into his location. The only option she has is something called Magecraft. Yasaka never heard about something called Magecraft. She knows about this new branch of Magic because Sakura practiced her 'spell' with Kunou the other day. Sakura says that she is practicing her magecraft, which makes her confused.

Yasaka knows many teachings of Magic, but she never heard about Magecraft. She also never heard of magic users calling themself magus. The more she thinks about it, the more headache she gets. Yasaka sighs a little.

"You are just like a puzzle, Kojiro-kun. Every time I think I finally solve the mystery surrounding you, you bring more questions and make me question everything that I already gather. Fortunately, I'm rather a curious vixen because I will solve the puzzle eventually."

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Kojiro charges use in a week:

Day 1: Anti-Magic Weapon (13/300), Anti-Magic Armor (13/275), Penetration (11/100), Anti-Regeneration Weapon (1/200), and Simulation (8/500)

Day 2: Anti-Magic Weapon (14/300), Anti-Magic Armor (14/275), Penetration (12/100), Anti-Regeneration Weapon (2/200), and Simulation (9/500)

Day 3: Anti-Magic Weapon (15/300), Anti-Magic Armor (15/275), Penetration (13/100), Anti-Regeneration Weapon (3/200), and Simulation (10/500)

Day 4: Energy Generation (5/80), Mobility (5/100), Chemistry (5/150), Magecraft (11/175), and Doomsday Device (4/???@@#$)

Day 5: Magecraft (12/175), Doomsday Device (5/???@@#$), Martial Arts (5/90), Marksmanship (8/80), and Anti-Regeneration Weapon (4/200)

Day 6: Magecraft (13/175), Marksmanship (9/80), Anti-Regeneration Weapon (5/200), Anti-Magic Weapon (16/300), and Anti-Magic Armor (16/275)

Day 7: Magecraft (14/175), Marksmanship (10/80), Anti-Regeneration Weapon (6/200), Anti-Magic Weapon (17/300), and Anti-Magic Armor (17/275)