Promotion Exam, Part 2

Hitoshī laughs. "Long monologue, kid! The son of Death?! The Prince of Hell?! Don't make me laugh! And I hate laughing!" Hitoshī rants. "Chishiki, go shut this brat up," Hitoshī orders.

"Yes, sir," Chishik replies as he touches his non-gloved hand to the ground again. Alchemy: Tar Floor." Chishiki says, as olive Cursed Power begins bubbling around Chishiki's ungloved hand and flows into the ground. A line of sticky black tar then stretches from Chishiki's hand towards Daniel, circling around him. The pavement in the circle around Daniel then turns into tar.

"Strange. I have no info on this one," Chishiki says to himself under his breath.

"Annnnd…that's a wrap," Hitoshī says. "I've yet to see anyone who's able to escape from Chishiki's Tar Floor."

Four chains and sickles all shoot out of Daniel's back at once. The chains then stab into the ground, and with a simple push, lifts Daniel out of the tar. Daniel dangles over the Tar Floor a couple of feet in the air, suspended by his chains that are protruding out of his back.

"Until now," Hitoshī finishes.

"If he avoids the floor this entire time this fight will be in favor of the child," Chishiki says.

"It seems like I should get in on this!" Hitoshī replies as he opens up his steel briefcase, revealing an array of mini hammars. Hitoshī pulls out two of his hammers before dropping his suitcase to the floor. The hammer in Hitoshī's right hand reads the Japanese character; "kyōyū," sharing. In his left; "omoiyari," caring.

Slayer Hitoshī tosses his two hammers towards Daniel.

In response, two more chains and sickles spawn out of Daniel's shadow and knock away the hammers.

But Hitoshī holds his hands out to the hammers -revealing the black magnets lodged in his palms- which fly back to his hands, like boomerangs, and attempt to strike Daniel, who knocks the hammers away again. Another glowing orange bullet comes flying towards Hitoshī, who manages to hop out of the way to dodge, despite his old age.

"Are you okay, sir?" Chishiki asks.

"Yes, I'm fine," Hitoshī answers. "I would actually prefer if you were to go into the house and find the half demon boy."

"As you wish, sir," Chishiki nods as he begins walking towards the dorm house again.

"Shadow Sickles: The Betrayal of One's Own Self!" Daniel shouts, and a dozen or so chains and sickles spawn out of Chishiki's shadow, attempting to stab the man, who doesn't have enough time to evade.

"Null: Return to Nothingness."

That's when, out of the blue, a woman with two bulky gauntlets on her arms appears behind Daniel and places a hand on one of his shadow sickles, which then all devolve back into Daniel's black Cursed Power, including the sickles attempting to strike Chishiki, who continues towards the house. Daniel looks to where the woman is standing, and sees that the tar below her feet is no longer there.

"Smokescreen: Assassin's Haven!"

Next, the area around Daniel fills completely with smoke, obstructing his view.

"Slayer Nuru, Slayer Hai, you're late!" Hitoshī snaps, referring to the woman and a man with ash-gray hair who walks through the smoke cloud, respectively. The two are wearing matching ninja outfits and black armor to Hitoshī and Chishiki

Daniel as well as the four Assassins then hear the buzz of electricity begin ringing through the air. In the blink of an eye, a black and yellow flash zooms over to Hitoshī, striking him in the chest with an electrified punch, before hopping away. Through the smoke, the four Assassins can see the faint outline of Nick.

"I see you've sent Mavis and Ash my way!" Nick remarks. "The deadliest Assassin duo since Johnathon and I."

"The famous Slayer Hachi…" Daniel comments.

"And who are you?" Nick asks as he turns to face Daniel. "I saw you fighting my Assassin friends here."

"A half demon ally of Luis," Daniel answers. "I believe you know me as "The Stalker." Long story."

"Uh-huh," Nick replies, before turning his attention back on the enemy. "I'm not going to question it at the moment. As long as you're our ally, I don't care. I'll take the two with gray hair, you take the girl. Careful, her Null negates Cursed Power," Nick orders.

"As you wish," Daniel replies, as more chains and sickles begin slithering out of his shadow.

***

"Shit, I can't snap through all this smoke!" Austin cries from his place on the rooftop wielding his sniper rifle. Austin then pulls his glasses off and folds them onto the orange handkerchief around his neck, then pulls on his high-tech goggles, switching them on. "Much better," he says. "Now, as per Nick's orders, I'll focus my gunfire on Slayer Hitoshī. He's our biggest threat."

***

"I can't believe I'm stuck being the final line of defense with two little girls…" Mikey grumbles as he sits at the top of the stairs which lead to the second floor of the dormhouse, sulking with his knees tucked into his chest.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL US?!" Jamie snaps.

"There, there, Mikey, this just means that we have the most important job…" Ella answers with a small chuckle as she awkwardly pats Mikey's shoulder, causing the boy's entire body to tense up.

"Eek!" Ela shrieks as she retracts her hand away from Mikey. "I killed him!"

Mikey remains silent, not moving…not even saying anything…

Jamie raises an eyebrow at the boy. "Yo, Mikey, you there?" Jamie asks as she crouches down beside Mikey and waves a hand in front of his face.

Mikey remains still and silent for a moment longer.

"Bliss…" is all that Mikey eventually utters out.

***

"So John, Ash, shall we dance?" Nick teases.

"Your disgusting habit of informality never changes," Slayer Hitoshī sighs. "Yes, Slayer Hachi, let us begin."

Nick starts off the bout between him and Hitoshī and Hai by electrifying his body and dashing towards Hitoshī, piercing the man in the chest with his Bumblebee Sting. 

"So I'm not worthy of going full speed at the start, eh?" Hitoshī asks as he spits up a glob of blood on Nick.

"Hachi found Hitoshī through the smoke?!" Hai cries.

"Ash, you should know better than anyone, that against high ranking Cursed Power users, your Smokescreen is useless," Nick explains. "NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE, I CAN SEE YOU WITH CURSED POWER SENSING!"

"And you should know better than anyone that against Assassins, Cursed Power Sensing is useless," Hitoshī smirks as he slips off of Nick's spear-hand, slamming his right hammer down on top of Nick before retreating into the smoke, turning invisible. "Assassins are masters of Cursed Power Hiding, you may have forgotten that over the years."

Nick then feels a small bit of pain course through a small portion of his back. Nick turns and peers over his shoulder to see Hai behind him, stabbing Nick in the pack with a large dagger. At least, he tried to. In reality, Nick's Cursed Power Barrier is so strong that, even with a Cursed Power Barrier reinforced dagger, Hai was only able to dig the very tip of his blade into Nick.

"Woah, excellent Hiding, Ash!" Nick exclaims as he turns around to face Hai, the dagger leaving a small bit of blood dripping from Nick's back. "It even beat my Sensing-" Nick continues as he spears both arms out to his sides. "But you forget one major thing, that against me…you're at a disadvantage."

Hai shudders in fear as he peers up at the might of the strongest Pro Slayer.

"SMOKE IS AN EXCELLENT CONDUCTOR OF ELECTRICITY!" Nick shouts as instantly, tendrils of lightning shoot out from Nick's body, flying every which direction, and spreading outwards, due to the conducting smoke cloud, so much so that Hai's entire Assassin's Haven is filled with bolts of lightning. Meanwhile, a glowing orange bullet flies through the smokescreen, snipping Hai straight in the forehead, which begins gushing blood.

Hai howls in pain as he drops to the ground, charred black from Nick's lightning, defeated. And so, as Hai's smokescreen begins dissipating, Hitoshī is able to stamp Nick with his left hammer, before hopping backwards.

"Shit!" NIck cries as he peers to two stamps on his suit jacket.

Nick and Hitoshī both simultaneously let out a grunt of pain and drop to the ground. "Damn…I'm strong…" Nick mutters. "Good thing I already told Austin to call off the gunfire on Hitoshī after stamping me."

Nick stands up to face Hitoshī, as Hitoshī does the same.

Hitoshī reaches into his briefcase and pulls out a few hammers, juggling them for a bit and flooding them with his silver Cursed Power as he does so, before flinging them towards Nick. Nick electrifies his entire body and dodges and weaves through Hitoshī's hammers, before catching them, electrifying them, and launching Hitoshī's hammers back to their sender. Despite Hitoshī's old age, he's able to impressively and effortlessly dodge Nick's counter attacks, then catch his hammers using the magnets logged in his palms. Nick winces from the pain of Hitoshī catching his electrified hammers.