Expectations

Arriving at his house, Arai parked his car and unlocked the doors. Mai and Maki got out of the car themselves and held hands. The house they looked at was normal but if one was a sorcerer they'd be able to see the numerous amount of seals and barriers here.

"Come in." Arai said going first. Taking out a key, he unlocked the door and went in.

The twins looked at each other before following him inside.

The day went by but contrary to Maki and Mai's expectations, nothing happened. Arai just left them to the living room and showed them a house tour. Pretty much where their room, kitchen, bathrooms and everything they need.

"Isn't he treating us too well?"

"Yeah, a cold guy like that not abusing us. There's definitely something fishy here."

'I can hear you.' Arai thought while sighing. He obviously had a purpose to adopt these two children like they said. It was not like he just decided to choose 2 children from the Zen'in clan but he didn't have any plan to hurt them.

At least not yet.

They were too precious, within them they held knowledge that he needed.

More so one than the other as his target was the more irrational out of the twins.

Maki.

It is because she held something that had in common with goals.

A Heavenly Restriction.

And not only that, but she had one so similar to someone who put him on this path in the first place.

Toji Zen'in.

A pact where one would not be able to have cursed energy nor technique but in exchange would gain an immense amount of physical strength and senses.

Of course when he heard of someone like this. He immediately tried finding them which wasn't hard but obtaining them was a completely different story. The Zen'in clan was annoying party to approach and contact. With all their politics and traditions.

The Zen'in clan didn't want just one of the sisters gone so the condition was that they both would be taken by Arai. He accepted as he wanted to go into the natural phenomenon that of twins.

It was fascinating.

The day soon came to an end, Maki and Mai went to the same bedroom as they wanted to sleep together which Arai agreed upon. Their room was bland as the wall was painted in a bland white color and had no decorations.

It simply had a bunk bed, a desk with a chair, a closet and drawer.

A display of Arai's terrible taste in decorations.

Maki who slept above peeked down to see her sister asleep. 'Gosh, how can she sleep in this situation?' Maki thought but smiled seeing the peaceful face her sister made. Still, she was tense. Living in this new environment, it certainly was different than that of the clan where all they did was bully servants.

That included them.

Now it was quiet, too quiet in fact. The man who adopted them didn't make a move. At least not yet, if he was then what was he waiting for.

'I just hope that everything will be fine.' She thought as she slowly fell asleep.

Not knowing that the moment she entered slumber, Arai opened the door with a cursed spirit beside him. It's presence was blurry as if a fog covered it with yellow glowing eyes and hair flowing to the top.

"Go back." Arai ordered and it followed disappearing.

His eyes narrowing down to Maki's sleeping figure. "Seems like the curse worked well, it's unfortunate that it only works on weak opponents." He grabbed hold of her face and activated his technique making his eyes turn green.

"If only I can sleep as peacefully as you two." Arai chuckled.

"Let's do this." He muttered using his technique to enter her mind.

But as time went on, he realized something. His powers weren't activating, it was as if she hadn't had a mind of her own. He could not enter her mind.

Arai was confused and pondered. "That's odd, my technique is working correctly so the problem isn't me but her. Is it because she is a twin? That's the only thing that differentiates her from other people."

Arai had already tried this on people with Heavenly Restriction so he knew it wasn't the cause.

"Maybe..." He looked at Mai who was in deep slumber.

Arai held both of them and activated his technique. This time it worked as he felt his mind being transported elsewhere.

The next thing he knew, Arai was laying down on the ground. The sky was a clear beautiful blue with bird flying together.

This was the mind of not just Maki but Mai as well.

"Twins have the unique constitution to being linked together. Whether it would be their growth or mind, they would always be linked. That must be why I had to use my technique on both of them, when I did it only on Maki it's as if I used a key to open the door when in reality the door needed two.

He got up and looked around to see that he was on a beach with the ocean in front of him and him on the sand. Behind him were houses devoid of any life as it was calm.

An Innate Domain represented the state of the individual.

Everything here had a meaning, the ocean represented something, and so did everything here as well. Finding meaning to them though was a hard task, even Arai had not found the meaning to his so how could he found this place meanings.

But his eyes soon narrowed down as he could feel something. Knowledge rushed into his mind, it took a moment for him to register it as he smiled.

[Heavenly Restriction: In exchange for an immense physical strength, no cursed energy nor technique being gifted.]

"So this is it." Arai analyzed the restriction. "From what I've seen, Maki doesn't fully fulfill the conditions of this restriction. She still has cursed energy though it was a very little amount which means that she doesn't fulfill all conditions. Is that why she isn't as strong as Toji? I assumed that it was because she was young but maybe that's not it. Seems like I have something in common with her."

Maki was not the only one who didn't fulfill the conditions of Heavenly Restriction. Arai was doing something similar to her, only that he did it purposefully and temporarily. His contract that he took from Nao Nakayama was originally one where he would not be able to speak nor see.

But since he delved more into Heavenly Restrictions, he had experimented a bit and found out he could temporarily disable conditions. Of course that would make it so the benefits of the contract would be less effective so the amount of cursed energy he wielded was less than it was supposed to be.

"I was planning on taking her Heavenly Pact and replace one of mine but now it seems like I shouldn't. That old man didn't let me see her before finalizing the contract so I couldn't know of this. Still, this is good since it gave me good info."

Arai's attention turned elsewhere as he heard a voice. There he could see the twins laughing and playing in the water. Their faces was full of joy as they enjoyed this moment. Seeing this, Arai decided to leave not wanting to bother them and have them enjoy their dream not wanting to taint the scene with his presence.

Arai left the Innate Domain and found himself in the real world and saw Maki still sleeping.

"If I can have someone of Toji's level as an ally than that'd be good too. Don't let me down, Maki."

And looking down, Mai had a peaceful face. She looked much more like a child then her sister, more innocent and shy. But in an environment where sorcerers needed to fight and face death, an attitude like Maki was more desirable.

"I can't believe they would give up on these two girls. They have so much potential, still it is true that they are restricted due to their circumstances."

Maki was not the only gifted one, Mai had a technique that was practically revolutionary.

Creation.

She could create anything from cursed energy and they would not disappear after having their cursed energy run out unlike a manifestation. She could literally create something out of cursed energy. A very powerful technique.

But the Zen'in clan gave up on her due to the limited amount of cursed energy she had. She had even less than Arai had before he took in Heavenly Restrictions.

"Still if I can get rid of those flaws, then they'd be the best allies possible."

Arai walked out of the room but not before looking back one last time.

"Don't let me down, girls."