Chapter 377: Fanboy (1/2)

The Arima Grand Resort was a palace hidden in a forest, the most opulent of the many accommodations in Arima Onsen Town. With magic now out in the open, Jason didn’t have to go to the bother of hiding it as he approached the resort, Shade transforming from car to a cloud of shadow right outside the lobby, from which Jason strode as the dark miasma was sucked into his shadow.

Ignoring the resulting stares, Jason made his way across an atrium larger than most homes, spotting someone hurrying to intercept him. It was a young man of maybe twenty, with an earnest, nervous aura. It showed plainly in the anxiety on his face, but his aura was solidly controlled. If Jason senses weren’t so much more powerful than the freshly bronze-rank young man, he wouldn’t have been able to read his emotions at all. Most interestingly, his aura contained no trace of monster cores.

“Mr Asano,” the young man greeted with a respectful bow. “My name is Tiwari Itsuki.”

Jason returned the bow, a smile playing on his lips. The young man’s aura shuddered with anxiety.

“I apologise for being the one to meet you but preparations are being made should events go unfortunately. Would you please follow me?”

“Of course,” Jason said, following the young man who did a mostly adequate job of hiding his nervous energy. “I wouldn’t be too worried, Mr Tiwari. I’m confident that the Asano clan has reconsidered their path going forward.”

“Truly?” Itsuki asked as he led Jason across a lobby full of people staring at them.

“I just came from a chat with Asano Noriko. It could have been a bluff but I believe the Asano clan will be packing up and going home without paying you that visit.”

“I knew you would do something,” Itsuki said.

“Don’t go crediting me too much.”

Itsuki guided Jason out of the lobby and into the internal halls.

“There’s no reason to be modest, Mr Asano. I’ve been following your exploits through the news, obviously, and all the network reports I could find. I actually asked my father if I could be the one to meet you. I’m taking you to the family’s private residence at the rear of the resort grounds.”

“I’ll have to disagree about modesty,” Jason said. “Always either be modest or wildly self-aggrandising. Avoid anything in between, for there lies mediocrity.”

“That’s… an unusual perspective.”

“If it comes up,” Jason said, “tell them to put that on my tombstone.”

“Uh…”

“I’m not what you expected?”

“Not quite. I’d heard some things from Asano Akari, but they seemed a little outlandish. I’d thought she was joking.”

“You know Akari?”

“I haven’t seen her in person since she left. I suppose I won’t be able to at all, now.”

“It might be a bit awkward, yes,” Jason said, sensing the sadness suddenly suffusing the young man.

“I see you didn’t use cores to reach bronze-rank,” Jason said, changing the subject. “Sorry, category two.”

“We have been using the otherworld terminology since we started training our people with the Hurin techniques.”

“The Hurin techniques? They named them after Farrah?”

“Yes, Mr Asano. I had long considered myself unlucky, being unable to absorb essences until I was nineteen. The timing was perfect for the new techniques, however, and I was sent to Sydney with the first international representatives for training. I was in the same training group as Taika Williams.”

“You know Taika? Have you and I met before?”

“I attended some lectures you gave on aura control at the Sydney branch but this is our first time actually meeting.”

“Sorry I didn’t recognise you. I’ve been rude.”

“There were over a hundred people in attendance and I was just a fresh iron-ranker. There is no need to apologise.”

“I did mostly leave training people to Farrah. I’m a bit rambling and unfocused to be a good instructor, which worked out better for you, I think, getting Farrah instead. I taught some people aura control in the other world for a while and they paired me with someone to keep me on track. That turned out to be a good idea.”

“Miss Asano told me that you are difficult to keep on any track you don’t want to be on, Mr Asano.”

Jason laughed.

“That sounds about what Akari’s assessment would be. That’s why they had my friend Humphrey riding herd on me.”

Jason face took on a sad, reminiscing smile.

“They way things are going, here,” he said, “I can’t wait to go home.”

“To Australia?”

“No.”

Itsuki looked at the expression on Jason’s face and didn’t probe further. They left the main resort building through a side door and Itsuki took the driver’s seat of a waiting golf cart. The resort was a sprawling complex made up of multiple huge buildings set into the forested surrounds, rising up the side of a large hill.

“You must have been quite active to reach bronze-rank in what? Five months?” Jason asked.

“I’ve done my duty as a member of the Network as best I can,” Itsuki said.

Five months was basically unheard of, even in the other world. Jason knew that ranking up in five months was only possible with a vast number of monsters. Even then, the boy would need an impressive level of talent and, more importantly, dedication. Only the kind of consistent conflict Jason himself faced living in an astral space could grant that kind of advancement, which meant the boy had to be all but living in proto spaces.

That kind of drive suggested an implacability rather at odds with the nervous young man driving the golf cart. Either he had unexpected depths or the off-kilter predilections of a serial-killer, redirected into monster hunting. Either way, he was someone worth paying attention to.

“If you don’t mind,” Jason said, “would you be willing to share your essence combination?”

Itsuki’s aura shuddered and his nervousness was made plain on his face.

“It’s alright to say no,” Jason chuckled.

“No, it’s just a little embarrassing.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Jason said. “I have a friend, once of the most skilled essence users I ever met. Someone who taught me, in fact. He has a story about a lesson he learned getting showed up by a man with the duck essence.”

“It’s not like that,” Itsuki said. “It’s just… my essences are dark, blood and omen, with a doom confluence.”

“Oh,” Jason said. “You really have been following my exploits, haven’t you?”

Itsuki’s face went red.

“I’ve never met a fan, before. Do you have any of my merch? The proceeds go to charity, which is the only reason I went along with Terrance and his nonsense.”

“Terrance?”

“Never mind. You didn’t get the knockoff stuff from China, did you? I’m sure the Network there is behind it, not that they’ll admit it.”

“Mr Asano, please.”

Jason laughed, slapping Itsuki on the shoulder.

“I’m just messing with you, bloke. Are you an affliction specialist?”

“Yes.”

“Nice. We should find some time to swap notes, maybe clear out a proto-space together.”

“Really?”

“If events don’t overtake us, sure. No promises, though. Events overtake me quite a lot. Just earlier I was setting off a bunch of car bombs.”

“That was you?”

“Yep. Only had to use three, because two of them were in the same car. They definitely weren’t just some couple going on holiday right, Shade?”

“I am quite certain of their sinister intentions,” Shade said. “Unfortunately for them, it takes a lot to catch up to you in sinister intentions.”

“Oh!” Itsuki exclaimed, almost driving the cart off the path. “You’re Shade, the shadow familiar.”

“I know,” Shade said. “I am starting to see why people telling you your name all the time is annoying, Mr Asano.”

Jason laughed as Itsuki went pale.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jason told him. “Do you have a familiar? They’re pretty rare on this side.”

“Yes, Mr Asano, I do. My father made sure I had the ritual training to make it possible. I only have the one, though, and it does not communicate. I don’t exactly know what it is.”

“We can take a look later,” Jason said. “See if we can’t figure it out.”

“I apologise, Mr Shade,” Itsuki said. “I’ve watched the ritual of your summoning many times.”

“Because that’s not creepy at all,” Jason said.