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The Restaurant: Chapter 5: Devil
🕑 Added 2024-04-27 00:02:03 +0000 UTCIsekai Restaurant
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 5: Devil
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- Silas -
I looked at the man while my eyes twitched.
Didn’t he just say that we had done him a favour? Why the fuck was he cussing me then?
Was he being sarcastic?
I mean he did get punched but that was Touma dammit.
The man looked confused at my question. “You are a demon, right?”
Treating customers politely is something my Father had hammered into me when taught me about the restaurant and it was because of this that I didn’t snap at the guy who was obviously cussing me.
“Dear customer, I apologise for the inconvenience that you have faced in my Restaurant but I would like to request you not to use such language.” I asked politely, restraining my annoyance.
He looked taken aback at my response….like genuinely taken aback.
If I didn’t know the situation, I would have thought that I was in the wrong here.
He then looked closer, raising a hand and closing an eye. I saw several lights flash in his hand but I knew that the Restaurant would protect me so I didn’t do anything.
The guy then opened his eyes. “I see. There is a seal on you. No wonder.”
Right at this time Tohru came into the Restaurant and greeted me. “Good evening, Boss. I am here.” She suddenly paused, realising the oddity of the scene. “Did something happen?”
I shook her head and looked at Zeref. “I don’t know what you mean by that Sir but I am not a demon.”
“Eh! You’re not a demon? Are you of some other Demonic Race, Boss?” Tohru exclaimed, making everyone look at her.
“Why would you even think that? Did I do anything bad to you?” I asked, annoyance slightly ringing my voice.
She realised it and quickly waved her hands. “No no. It’s not like that Boss. You are one of the best people I know. I mean I didn’t even know demons could be kind, let alone as kind as you.”
“Alright hold it.” I raised a hand stopping her. “Why exactly do you think I am a Demon?”
She tilted her head. “Huh? I mean you are a demon because you are a demon, just like I am a Dragon because I am a Dragon. What else could I mean? Although you keep everything sealed, I can still smell a Demon from miles away.” She puffed her chest pridefully while I froze. Everyone in the Restaurant had gone quiet.
I mechanically turned towards Zeref. “What….what is this seal that you were talking about?” I asked, quite stiffly.
Zeref understood that there was something wrong with the situation and hesitated but spoke nonetheless.
“There is a seal on you which is sealing your true nature. It is quite an elaborate seal, not like anything I have ever seen before, although not difficult to remove.”
My breathing got faster and I could feel my heart thundering in my chest.
Zeref….I didn’t know but Tohru, was someone I knew quite well. I knew her personality and she would never….ever insult me like this.
With a shivering voice I asked him. “This seal….can you remove it?”
No one spoke a word and the man in question nodded and stepped towards me, placing a finger on my forehead.
I felt some kind of shackle release on my body and suddenly felt something on my back as gasps sounded in the place.
Turning back mechanically, I saw two bat-like wings jutting out from my back….that was the last thing I saw before the world around me went back.
___________________________________x__________________________________
I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling of my Restaurant.
Saitama was sitting beside me.
“Silas, dude, are you alright?” He asked in his usual monotone.
“Me? Ah yes. I remember I had this weird dream where I was suddenly a demon and even had wings behind my back.” I spoke as I got up. “Seriously, I must be working too hard to get dreams like that.”
Between my Restaurant, learning Jujutsu and Martial Arts, I was actually overstretching my limits. Did I faint while working?
Then again, Jujutsu was also not the fun and happy kind of magic I was imagining it to be and it was normal to have such dreams sometimes.
Me being a devil. I chuckled at the thought.
A voice awakened me from my thoughts.
“But that was real though.” I looked at Kensei Maa who was staring at me from the side of the couch.
Looking around, everyone was looking at me with worry but among them, my eyes caught one person.
Zeref.
….and my eyes widened.
“What happened to me right now?” I asked, almost growled.
“I removed the seal on you and those wings were released but you apparently didn’t have enough demonic power if any at all and thus fainted when it started running in your body. I checked and found that your demonic power reserves were negligible. In fact, you are a demonic being who doesn’t have any Demonic Power at all….well, almost. I did a quick fix on you by implanting a Demon Seed in your body. It’s producing Demonic Power and nourishing your body as we speak.”
“I am not a Demon. I can’t be a demon” I gritted out, perhaps more to myself than to others. I am a human dammit. I have been since I remembered it.
What the fuck Demonic Power and what fucking seal?
“I think you are misunderstanding something. Demonic Beings are not all mindless killers. You shouldn’t hold prejudice against them.” Zeref tried to explain.
Saitama placed a hand on my shoulder but I was having an existential crisis at the moment.
“I….I need some time alone. I will excuse myself. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
I got up and walked back to the second floor of the restaurant which also served as my home.
Thankfully, Sakura was not at home. She had gone out to do shopping for her necessities since she stayed here now.
I quickly got out of the room and left the place through the backdoor, not going back to the Restaurant.
___________________________________x__________________________________
I walked out on the roads on the outskirts of Kyoto. The sky was cloudy and the nearby lights weren’t working but I could see everything clearly.
There were only some abandoned buildings around the place.
Unlike Kyoto, this town was quite rundown and one of the reasons why I could even get a place here.
I found an empty park and entered, emotionally exhausted.
Demon.
I am a demon.
How could I be a demon?
Wasn’t this some normal world? Why did demons pop out all of a sudden? I suddenly found the familiar world became completely unknown within just a few minutes.
The fact that I was meeting with people with supernatural powers all along had reduced the amount of shock I was under but it was still something I was having a hard time wrapping my head around.
Did mom and dad know of this?
Were my parents also demons?
I reincarnated into this world, lived eighteen years and now all of a sudden, I am a Demon.
Was I already reincarnated as a demon or did I become one later?
There were so many questions in my mind, so many things I wanted to ask but had no idea whom to ask, so many things I didn’t know and now….I don’t think I would ever know.
I sat down on the bench in a park, closing my eyes, letting the breeze calm down my thoughts. It was cold and I was still in my chef uniform. Hell I ran away so fast that I didn’t even have the time to remove the knives from my holster.
I let out a sigh and closed my eyes trying to cool my head.
But today was just not for me.
I heard a crashing sound behind me and looked back to see what looked to be a boy of fifteen or sixteen jumping from the first floor of the building and surprisingly a dog jumped behind him.
He looked at me and shouted. “Run, they are coming. Run.”
That voice?
“Tobio?” I was taken aback. “Tobio, it’s me Silas. Why are you running? Who is coming?” I asked, going forward to pick him up.
He had sprained his leg in that jump.
“Silas-san. Hurry, we need to run.”
“What happened?” I asked him as I picked him on my back. The dog didn’t do anything to me.
Tobio pointed towards the building. “There, run quickly!”
I looked at the place he was pointing and saw a car sized spider kind of creature carrying a boy and climbing down the building.
The boy however seemed weird. He pointed towards us and the spider jumped.
What the fuck?!
There are Cursed Users here?
I turned heel and ran quickly with Tobio on my back.
I noticed that my speed was faster than before. Even without reinforcing myself with Cursed Energy, I was covering several metres with a single step.
Was it because of my Demon heritage? If so then, for the first time in the last hour, I was feeling thankful for being demon.
Perhaps an equally surprising thing was that the dog was able to keep up with my speed.
The boy chasing us was joined by two more such monsters.
“Fuck! Just what in the blazes are those?” I shouted.
“That boy….he was my classmate who had gone missing. I don’t know but he is being controlled somehow.”
I needed to outrun them. Suddenly I remembered the wings I had.
Yes.
I had wings.
Come out.
Come out.
“Come Out!” I shouted loudly.
I felt the same feeling from my back and with the next jump, I was in the sky. The puppy
“What….what are you?!” Tobio squeaked.
“Trust me….I am having a very confusing day as well.” I explained as I tried to fly away, unfortunately it was easier said than done.
I felt something latch onto my foot.
I lost my balance and tumbled down.
Thankfully, our drop was cushioned by a fountain below.
I looked down to see….a spider web from that spider.
“Tobio, run!” I shouted. I noticed his dog had jumped protectively in front of him, a black coloured blade coming out from its forehead as it growled at the approaching monsters.
Was it a Shikigami?
I had heard about them but this one didn’t look like one.
What is it?
A pokemon?
I shook my head and turned towards the other side.
Those three monsters were running towards us.
I needed to fight.
“Silas-san.”
Dammit.
I wasn’t good at this.
I could fight some low level curses but I didn’t know about these.
Still I drew my kitchen knife and positioned it in front of me, taking a stance and took a deep breath, preparing to fight.
“Silas-san, please….he is not conscious. He is being controlled.” Tobio begged from behind me.
I heard him but concentrated on the situation in front of me.
My adrenaline was rushing to my head but instead of panicking, I was feeling calmer instead.
This cold weather, the water under my foot, the knife in my hand and my….wings out as I faced the enemy, as much as it weirded me out….it felt natural. It was as if a lock had been opened on my being. As if a haze that was constantly on my mind was lifted.
I remembered Nanami-sensei's words about Innate Techniques.
They are a part of my own self and they would manifest in things I am the most comfortable in.
What was I the most comfortable in?
I raised the knife in front of my chest and felt a pulse from it.
The knife was the same one which was impaled on Tohru’s back and she had someone use it to make a knife for me. With a pulse, the knife’s shape changed from a Santoku Knife to a Cleaver, but I wasn’t paying attention to it.
With the haze completely lifted, I finally understood what my Innate Technique is.
I made the same motion which I used to cut meat.
My Cursed Energy roared. I don’t know if it was because of the seal or whatever Zeref had done to me but the amount was a lot more than I had before.
“Slice.”
The spider on the boy’s back….was sliced clean through the middle and the boy fell down on his face, tumbling several steps but not a hair on his body was cut.
I think I heard Tobio gasp behind me but my attention was occupied by the other two following him.
One of them had a rat type monster on him and the last one had a lizard type.
I turned the knife and made another motion towards them.
“Dice.”
Those two monsters which had jumped towards us were diced into a small square block and the boys under control tumbled down, unconscious but unharmed….at least by my blade.
“Are they?” Tobio asked.
“I didn’t cut them but I am not sure about anything the monster did to them. Let’s go away from here. They could have reinforcement and I don’t know how strong they will be.” I quickly kept the knife which had reverted back to the normal shape and told him before I picked him up on my shoulder, taking to the sky.
The dog jumped and grabbed the end of my trouser and I rushed towards my Restaurant.
Only there did I have the confidence of being completely safe.
We reached the Restaurant and I quickly shut the door after me.
The place was empty.
“Silas-san….just what are you?” Tobio asked, hesitantly.
“I am….well you can call me a sorcerer I guess.” I was not lying.
“Then those wings?” he asked. “Was it magic?”
I winced.
“That’s….trust me, I am also as confused as you are. Anyways, just how did you get in this mess and what is that Dog? Is it a Shikigami? Are you an Onmyoji?” I asked, diverting the topic.
I wasn’t comfortable talking about this topic yet.
“An Onmyoji? No.” He shook his head. “This….I got an egg from a friend and this Dog hatched from it….” By the time he finished the sentence, his voice had become too low to be heard. I guess he was realising the insanity of his words too.
Good for him that I had seen crazier things.
“So it’s like a Pokemon.” I asked.
“Wha….Pokemon? No. It’s….”
“A digimon?”
“What’s a digimon?”
“Sigh….anyways, you said your friend gave you the egg. Call them and see if they know anything.”
He nodded and called someone.
Apparently Sakura had heard the commotion and came down to see what was going on too.
She looked at me and I was thinking about how to tell her what I was….
I looked back at Tobio. “You can stay here. Call me if you want something. I need to do something.” I told him as I walked towards Sakura.
She understood my intentions and walked upstairs and I followed her.
A thousand thoughts were going through my head.
I had all but dragged her out of her home to provide her a safe place to live and now I tell her that I am a demon….sigh.
“Sakura.”
She turned towards me. “Yes.”
“I….” I hesitated thinking about how to phrase this properly but couldn’t think of anything so I decided to tell her everything in detail about what happened today.
She, to her credit, listened to everything I had to tell quietly and didn’t even try to run.
Was she not believing me?
“I….I am not joking you know.” I closed my eyes and willed my wings to pop out, attracting her attention.
I saw her staring at my wings and looked at her. “See….I am….a demon.”
“Hmm and?”
“Ah….what?”
“You are a demon. But you are also the same Silas who saved me from that hell….made by humans.” She replied, making me stunned.
“Not everyone is like that, Sakura. Several of the people who helped us were also humans.” I argued with her.
“Then why should all demons be bad?”
“....” I tried to say something but no words came to my mouth.
She came forward and hugged me.
I remembered just a few days ago, I had done the same thing.
“Before human or demon, you are Silas-san who couldn’t see a girl he barely knew in pain and did whatever he could do to help her. Even after knowing everything about me, the dangers of the situation, you didn’t back down and gave me a new chance at life. Never forget that.” She said, her voice even without even the slightest hesitation.
I was rendered completely speechless.
“Just like there are people like the other patrons of your Restaurant who are good humans and people like….him who are lower than monsters….I don’t see why there can’t be good demons too.”
“I….”
“Tell me Silas-san. Did your parents love you?” She asked and I might have been wrong but I saw a hint of hurt in her eyes at the name of the words parents.
“Yes.”
“Do your friends here like you?”
I nodded.
“And do you think they did all that just because you were a demon?” She shook her head. “No. They like you because you are you. You are Silas.”
Throughout the entire conversation, her voice was calm and gentle, not a hint of fear or disgust I was expecting. Hell, even I was suddenly afraid of my own self on the discovery and yet, she was still treating me the same way.
It made me feel a bit ashamed of myself.
I was actually able to get a life after dying once in my previous life. I got to meet such loving parents, I got this power and got to meet such wonderful people….and instead of being grateful for this chance….I was complaining….how pathetic was that?
Sakura was right in this regard.
I returned her hug and we stood there like that for a while.
“Thank you, Sakura.”
“Hmm.”
She pulled back a bit. “You ran away without eating anything. Please take a seat. I will cook something quickly. Will your friend be eating too?” She asked.
“No….let me cook.”
“Please….let me. Your friend looked like he was very scared. You should go and comfort him.”
I nodded, thanking her again.
Recalling something, I went to my room and brought the first aid box, a bucket of warm water and a clean towel with me and went down stairs.
There, Tobio was on a couch, rubbing his injured leg.
“Here, use this.” I passed over the things to him.
The boy was surprised at my sudden arrival. He was still jumpy from the incident and I didn’t blame him.
“Thank you.” He began cleaning his injury and bandaging himself up.
Suddenly recalling something, I couldn’t help but ask. “Were those people also on the cruise with Sae-chan?”
Yes. The girl who always visited my Restaurant with him had gone missing along with several other people on the cruise and he said that those people who attacked us had gone missing too.
What was going on here?
He nodded and then looked up at me. “Silas-san. Do you know what I can do to find Sae? You are….I mean you know magic right? So do you have any ideas?” He almost pleaded.
“I….am more of a recluse who has just started learning magic because I got lucky. I have no idea about the Supernatural world, let alone about something like this.” I shook my head.
He looked disappointed.
“Don’t worry, Tobio-kun. I am sure that you will find her soon.”
He nodded.
“By the way, did you live in the apartment where you jumped out from?” I asked, suddenly recalling how we had just met.
“Ah yes.” His voice grew dim. “They found me there.”
“Why exactly were they chasing you?”
He looked at the puppy following him. “I am also confused, Silas-san. Suddenly the whole world seems so alien.” The frustration in his voice was something I could sympathise with.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. You will get used to it. If you want somewhere to stay, you could always stay here. The house beside this was something which belonged to you previously. I still haven’t gotten to reconstruct it. You can use the rooms there..” I offered.
“This….thank you but I just had a talk with my friend. She said that she would take me to their safe house.” He replied.
I nodded. “Alright.”
At this moment, Sakura came out with two plates of food.
“Come on. Let’s eat something.”
I then looked at the dog.
“Does it eat?”
“I….don’t know.”
I looked at the guy weirdly and he was actually embarrassed.
Sakura brought some leftover pork ribs for the dog too. Actually, the puppy was quite friendly with Sakura.
We ate in silence.
Each of us had our own thoughts in our heads.
Around half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Tobio looked there and I nodded to him before checking.
It was a young girl with light brown hair. She had a slim and voluptuous figure. She was wearing a school uniform and looked at me surprised and dare I say a bit on guard.
“I didn’t know there was a devil in this area. From what I know, this area is neutral ground and no members of the Three factions lived here.” She asked cautiously but I picked up several words in her sentence just now. Devil. Three Factions.
Was that what I was?
A Devil?
But I didn’t let her know anything. “As you said, this area is neutral. I don’t see why I would have to take anyone’s permission to stay here.” I replied calmly but firmly.
A bird flew on her shoulder and glared at me.
I narrowed my eyes.
Suddenly Tobio came back from behind me. “It’s fine. Silas-san is someone who helped me and saved my life.”
Her cautious tone told me that I shouldn’t ask her because then she would know about my situation and can lead me to anything. Better not take risks.
Need to search for more information.
“In that case, I’ll thank you for saving my friend’s life. Come on Tobio. Let’s go.”
He left after thanking me once more and I closed my shop’s door.
The last few hours were emotionally exhausting.
Maybe a short nap will help me out.
“Sakura, I am very tired so I will go to bed early today.” I bid her a good night and left for my room.
- Silas -
I woke up the next day, feeling much better.
The sleep was exactly what I needed to get myself together.
I guess the events of yesterday caught me off guard. Maybe it had something to do with the curses I had seen and fought. I had always thought of them as demons.
I will have to apologise to the customers of the Restaurant, especially Zeref.
Now that I remember, he said something about my body collapsing from a lack of Demonic Power and he did something to fix it.
Sigh.
I got up and got cleaned and ready for the day.
Walking into the kitchen, I saw that Sakura had already cleaned the place and was cleaning the tables.
“Good Morning, Sakura.” I smiled at her.
She looked back at me and smiled. “Good morning.”
So, let’s see what to cook today.
I wanted to make something as an apology for the customers of the Restaurant for yesterday’s behaviour.
I did have a dish in mind.
A dish my dad had shown me, something made for French Royalty.
It was made from rabbit meat and coincidentally I had just the thing in my possession. I pulled out a large piece of Cheese Rabbit meat.
This thing actually had a very thick and flavourful meat, absolutely perfect for the dish.
The Lièvre À La Royale.
It was one of the hardest things I could make and now, with my new Skill Level, I think I could make it too.
This dish comprised five parts: Lièvre Ensemble, Rabbit Blood & Chocolate Sauce, Royale Custard, Chestnut Confit and a Fig-Apple Purée Sauce.
This should be enough as an apology.
__________________________________x___________________________________
I opened the Restaurant when I was done with the preparations.
The first one to come was Saitama.
“Silas. Man, are you alright?” He sat down beside me. If I didn’t know better, his rather bland tone would have made me feel worse instead but I knew that the guy cared in his own way.
Especially after Suzuki and Mikami had stopped coming to the Restaurant suddenly, the guy had started feeling lonelier.
I admit I was not different either.
Perhaps it was also because of this that I had started pushing myself too much into learning Jujutsu.
Those two idiots had really become quite close to us in such a short time and now without those two, only Saitama and I were left so we were quite close.
“I am alright. I just… it was too much for me to process all of a sudden. I am sorry that I overreacted like that.”
“Don’t mind. Don’t mind. It’s fine.” He waved casually.
One by one other guests started coming to the Restaurant.
“Silas-san, are you okay?.” Miu asked me, looking worried. She was with Naruto beside her.
“Nii-san. Here, this is for you.” Naruto gave me a good luck charm. I smiled and patted his head.
“Are you not afraid of me?” I asked, hiding my hesitation behind the smile.
“Eh? Why would I be afraid? We had to leave early so we couldn’t see them but Kensei-sensei told us that your wings looked really cool. Hey! Can I see them?”
“Naruto! I am sorry for him, Silas-san.” Miu apologised.
I chuckled.
“No no it’s fine.” I closed my eyes and willed my wings to pop out, earning a gasp from the duo.
“That’s so cool! Hey hey, can you fly?” Naruto jumped around me checking out my wings from all directions.
“I can.” I smiled.
“Really! That’s so awesome. I wish I had such wings too.” He had a shine in his eyes when asking for this. I laughed and brushed his hair.
“Then I will take you to fly out sometimes.”
“Yay! Don’t forget okay. I will hold you onto it.” He jumped.
Behind them, Hayato-san, Kensei-san and Shigure also came.
“Kensei….was right. Your wings….look cool.” Shigure gave me a thumbs up.
“See, I told you.”
“Hahahaha I heard that you can fly with them too? So many things can be done when you can move in the sky. A whole new world of martial arts. You missed yesterday’s class so we are going to train you till you fall today. There is no way we are going to let you waste all that potential.” He laughed.
I sweatdropped.
What do you mean train me till I drop?
You already did that before.
Cid also came in but he was not there yesterday.
“What’s today’s order, Cid-kun?”
“Oh, I would like some yakisoba please.”
“Alright. It will be done in a moment.” I looked towards the rest and took their orders.
Before preparing the orders though, I served the dish I had prepared for everyone.
“Here is something from my side as an apology for yesterday’s behaviour.”
“Eh, you didn’t need to do that.” Kensei-sensei shook his head but took the plate nonetheless.
Naruto, especially, was having a blast.
While I was in the kitchen several others came as well.
Nanami-sensei and Gojo-san, the latter coming after a long time.
Kisuke was next to arrive.
Sakura served them the rabbit dish and took their orders.
When I came out, the new arrivals were looking at me with different types of gazes.
Nanami-sensei’s gaze was….complicated.
Kisuke was looking at me as if he wanted to dissect me and knowing what little I knew about the man, that might actually be the case.
Gojo-san looked at me, pushing up his glasses. “Oh, you do look a bit different than before. So I heard you got wings now? How do they work?”
“I….” I willed my wings to appear and both Kisuke and Gojo-san looked at it in interest.
“How fascinating. They just appeared. You were not folding them back either. And they seem to phase through the clothes.” Kisuke said.
“I heard that you were under a seal of some kind. Did you find out anything about it?” Nanami-sensei asked, finally breaking his silence.
I nodded. “I think I might have a clue. Yesterday, a girl called me a Devil and said something about Three Factions. I intend to find more about it later.”
“Devils and a girl? Sounds like you had quite an adventure.”
“I went out and encountered something yesterday. Those things were like curses attached to people and were chasing a friend. I fought them and brought the guy back here. It was one of his friends who said that she didn’t know that there were devils in this area as this was supposedly neural grounds.”
“Curses?”
“They looked like curses but were mostly shaped like animals. A Spider, a rat and a lizard monster attached to three people. Tobio said those people were his classmates who had been kidnapped a while ago and now they reappeared like that. Those three looked almost as if they were puppets. I took him and ran but couldn’t run away on time so I chose to fight. I think… I might have awakened my Innate Technique.”
“How interesting. You said you awakened your Innate Curse Technique. Did you take them down? How strong were they?”
“I….don’t know.”
I seriously didn’t know.
“Eh? What do you mean you don’t know? Ah, then how about this, how were they compared to the curses you fought the last time?” Gojo-san asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. All it took was one attack from my new Technique and they were down.”
“Hoh! One attack you say. Now I am really interested. Let’s have a spar after dinner today. I want to see what else you gained from yesterday’s debacle aside from your Cursed Energy increasing several times over.”
The spoon in Nanami-sensei’s hand fell on the table with a clank as he looked at me as if seeing a ghost. “Several times?”
“Around three times more really.” Gojo-san waved his hand and took a bite of the dish. “Hmmmm yesss. You overdid yourself with this one, Silas-kun.”
“Thank you. Glad you liked it.”
“By the way, Silas-kun, if you need any help in investigating your new….heritage, you can always come to me for help. I would love to work with a….devil, you said.” Kisuke offered.
“Umm….thanks….” And no thanks.
I am a devil….not an idiot to accept that proposal.
The guests of the Restaurant all behaved normally. Some were curious while some were casual.
Cid for example told me that their world has many races of people like humans, elves, demi-human races like cat people, dog people, etc.
I guess when considering that my Restaurant was connected to so many weird places, my new identity almost seemed normal in comparison.
By evening when there was no one in the Restaurant, I went outside to test out my new Innate Curse Technique from a spar with Gojo-san and learn more about it.
- Unnamed Yakuza -
“What is the situation there?” He asked over the call.
There was a period of silence on the other side before a reply came. “Everything was wiped out, boss. There is nothing left here….except the bodies.”
He gritted his teeth.
It was their sixth base in the past few months. Just who the hell was it? Who was doing all this?
“Did you find any clues?”
“Nothing. All the bodies seem to have died the same way, drowned in water.”
He slammed the table in front of him, breaking it in two.
“Dammit!”
This was surely some magic user but who?
He knew about the supernatural due to his connection with the Utsusemi Agency. They were the actual background leaders of this gang and he was just a convenient face for the organisation.
It was obviously not for free as he did gain a lot of benefits from the whole deal.
They had given him the knowledge of the greater supernatural world and magic and helped him awaken Flame Pulse, a Sacred Gear.
He raised his hand and a wisp of fire flickered on his palm.
The Utsusemi Agency were the exiles of the Five Principal Clans, who basically controlled a large part of the whole country’s supernatural world.
Even the exiles from those clans had enough knowledge of magic to make someone like him from a roadside thug to the leader of one of the top gangs of the entire Tokyo.
The magic taught by those people and his Sacred Gear helped him solidify his position as one of the strongest yakuza leaders. He basically ruled over this area. The only other gangs he couldn’t take over all had supernatural backing of their own or had Sacred Gear users and the Utsusemi Agency didn’t want to ruffle too many feathers, especially now that they seem to be doing something big. Everyone was being extremely secretive.
All his targets were selected carefully so that he didn’t set onto the toes of someone strong.
This was a rule which had helped him not only survive but also flourish till now then how….how did he mess up?
All people dying from drowning….this couldn’t be done by normal means.
It had to be the work of the supernaturals.
Was it some youkai?
Those pesky things could be vicious but then again, Tokyo was a strictly regulated city and Youkai didn’t gather there.
Was it other gangs?
Was it some crazy sacred gear user?
“Alright, take care of the bodies and then return. Don’t wander around the area.”
“Yes boss.”
The call was cut and he put a hand over his face.
“I thought that I would get a promotion after overtaking that restaurant with two leylines which the boss had been after, instead I get fucked up like this. Shit! If I find out who did this, I will burn them to the ground.” He growled, sending a fireball on the broken remains of the table, completely erasing it.
Tch.
Now the carpet was ruined.
“Someone clean this mess!” he shouted loudly and brought out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a sip.
A minute passed but there was no reply..
“Dammit, can no one hear me? Clean this shit up already or someone else will need to clean your ashes, Genzo, Taku, where the hell did everyone go?”
Suddenly a voice came from behind him.
“To the afterlife.”
He felt a chill run down his spine at the voice and jumped ahead trying to create a distance between himself and the unknown intruder and threw a fireball right behind him, creating a small explosion. Rolling on the ground, he looked back at the intruder to see a wall of water.
He hadn’t even sensed him.
The wall turned into snakes of water and rushed at him, he threw several fireballs at the snakes and tried to dodge.
With his experience, he understood that this was not a foe he could fight and tried to run but one of the snakes wrapped around his legs and dragged him into the air.
Other snakes of water bound his whole body and one wrapped around his neck.
The water wall subsided to reveal a figure in front of him.
“I have been trying to find you for the last three months and by now I am at the end of my patience so let me make a few things clear first. The more you delay answering any of my questions, the more these bindings will tighten. If you lie, they will bite your limbs off one by one. So it is my earnest advice that you do not waste any of my time anymore. Answer me, who do you work for?” The figure asked.
“I….Hanezu Himejima. I work for Hanezu Himejima, the vice leader of the Utsusemi Agency….mmph.” He shut his mouth, eyes wide at the information he had revealed.
He didn’t want to reveal it because he knew that they would kill him if he did then how….hypnotism. Mind Magic….dammit, how did he get inside his mind?
He had trained to not let something like this happen?
This….whoever this figure was….was way beyond anyone he had seen before.
“On whose orders did you kill the Evans family?” the figure asked, no inflection in his voice.
The Evans family?
Those restaurant owners?
Was this because of them?
Dammit!
He had checked them out and found nothing related to the supernatural factions on them except an independent magician.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pang of burning pain from his leg. On looking down, he saw that his leg had been bitten off by that snake.
“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“You can continue shouting or answer my question. If you do the former, you will lose your other leg as well.” The figure said.
He gritted his tongue to control his pain and answered.
“The U-utsusemi Agency! They wanted the….restaurant….be-because of the leylines under it.”
“Who killed Rufus Beige?”
“Wh-who?”
“The magician Rufus Beigie.”
Was it that damned magician?
Wasn’t he retired already?
“I-it it was the Utsusemi Agency. They….said he was retired and….they took him down.”
He breathed as the world in front of him was blurring.
The blood loss was getting to him.
“Now for the last question….” A heavy pressure fell on him as the building started cracking and he finally realised what the figure in front of him was….a devil. It was a real Devil.
The voice which hadn’t shown any emotion till now was heavy with killing intent enough to knock him out had he not been bearing the pain from the loss of a limb.
“Where is Silas Evans?”
- Suzuki Satoru -
He closed the door to his room and slumped on his bed.
How did this happen?
How did he get stuck here?
All he wanted to do was spend the last hours and give Yggdrasil a well deserved goodbye and then maybe go and live in Mikami’s world which seemed still livable.
Everything was planned. Mikami even found out where they could get some fake documents and in return, he could sell the technologies to make money for themselves.
It was the perfect plan.
Even Silas supported them.
Alas.
During the last hour of his time he reminisced about everything in the game. He even took some liberties with changing the programming of some of the characters.
Albedo….
A green light surrounded him and he calmed down.
But he was not a selfish guy. He even made some maids for his bros at the restaurant and was going to show them the videos to let them bask in the glory of A VMMO’s maids created by some of the most brilliant minds in the world, his guildmates.
Mikami liked the cheerful and calm types so he programmed Aureole Omega and Lupusregina Beta for him. Saitama was becoming more robotic and he wanted to tease him with CZ2128 Delta. And for the man who made his exit plan viable in the first place, he changed Yuri Alpha and Narberal Gamma because he remembered him wanting to hire waitresses for his restaurant.
While he couldn’t give him waitresses, a promotion video was good enough, right?
Otakus would totally swarm the place once such a video went online.
Sigh.
Now though, even if he could give him the waitresses he wanted, he had no way to get back. Life took away from him when everything started to look better.
Was he really going to lose everything again?
Dammit!
He punched the wall in frustration and one of the cupboards moved revealing a door on the other side.
….
….
This door?
Wasn’t this?
Then the thought struck him. Wasn’t Silas’ Restaurant connected to many other worlds? Did it mean that he could go back?
He quickly went ahead but paused in his step.
His current form would draw too many eyes. He remembered how scared people were the last time a dragon had peeked inside.
He needed something more….normal. After thinking of something, he created a full plate armour with Greater Item Creation Skill to cover his entire body and used Perfect Warrior to completely drain his mana away in case it had clues that could give away his new status as undead before he has a chance to explain himself.
Checking himself in the mirror once more, he seemed alright for now. Maybe, he could pretend to be cosplaying so he can explain everything first?
Yes.
Sounds like a good plan.
Just in case, he informed the residents of Nazarick to not enter his room unless permitted.
- Mikami Satoru -
He put the stone on the grave and markedit with her name.
Shizue Izawa.
The face of her smiling in her last moments appeared in front of his eyes.
Too bad monsters can’t cry or at least Slimes couldn’t.
The last few months of his life had been full of ups and downs.
One day he was planning to start a Game Company with Suzuki and the next thing he knows, he gets stabbed and becomes a slime.
He did find some friends in this place but damn if he didn’t miss his life back there. Especially now that he was feeling this pit in his stomach.
A glass of sake with some fried tempura would be just the thing he needed to drown his sorrows in. Maybe play some games with Saitama and Suzuki….
He wondered how his friends were doing. Did they miss him?
Suzuki would be so disappointed.
They had planned so much to get him out of that world of his.
But as the saying goes, the best laid plans of men and mice….
Maybe he can do the same with Silas or Hayato. Their worlds were not that developed as well.
Saitama on the other hand….his friend seemed as if he was losing his emotions bit by bit. Would he be alright?
There was also Shizuka-chan….the drunk homeroom teacher. She was quite cute too. He had promised to meet her again….
Did she ever come back to the Restaurant and ask about him?
And Silas….
Sigh.
Why were all the good things in his life being lost one after another?
He mimicked Shizue-san’s face in a form comfortable for him and returned back to the village.
“Rimuru-sama, Rimuru-sama. T-t-there’s something in your hut!” Gobta came running as soon as he reached close to the village?
Something in his hut? Did someone attack when he was not present?
He picked Gobta and flew as fast as he could towards the hut which was in the middle of the village. If there was something in his hut, it could be a danger to the entire village.
On reaching outside the hut, he saw several people gathered around it, some had makeshift weapons in their hands.
They all saw him and quickly kneeled.
Rigurd at the forefront kneeled and apologised.
Sigh… these goblins or rather Hobgoblins were too serious. They needed to chill a bit.
“Wait here for me. I will check inside.”
He walked directly into the hut and what he saw there made him rub his eyes in surprise. To verify that he was not dreaming, he tried pinching himself.
No pain.
Ah….it was a dream.
“Notice. You have Pain Immunity.”
Eh….Great Sage-san?
“So this is not a dream?”
“Notice. This is not a dream.”
Wow, Great Sage-san confirmed then it must be real but seriously….
Was that?
No way.
But then again, Silas’ Restaurant could connect to any world.
Did it?
He walked shakily towards the door and touched the familiar handle but stopped.
He needed to take care of the crowd gathered outside.
He quickly went and addressed the ones gathered outside.
“Don’t worry. This is something that was planned recently by me. Carry on with your own work. I will be out for a while. Oh and ask the dwarves to build a wall and a stronger house around and do not touch this door.”
“Hai, Rimuru-sama.” The Hobgoblins saluted.
- Interlude - Rin Tohsaka -
One and a half months….
A month and half had passed since the Matou family had suddenly disappeared.
The mundane authorities didn't even find the destruction until half a month had passed, probably because of the bounded field put in place, the whole place looked like it had been run over by some kind of natural disaster.
Kirei and her were the first ones to investigate. Someone had put some kind of bounded field over the area and had been staying there for a while.
The field only broke after they left and they were aware of the whole incident later.
In fact it was a combination of many barriers of different kinds, one of them being the usual one which the Matous used and two other unrecognised barriers.
The place looked like it had first been destroyed and then some kind of ritual was done there.
There were traces of some unknown curses and the worst part was that….they looked old….years even decades old so it was something which the Matou was doing.
Suddenly, the entire investigation took a turn.
Was the place destroyed by an outsider or just due to some failed experiment?
The curses tainting the place was so bad that it had started affecting the surroundings. The entire place was tainted with extreme malice as if the air itself was tinged with the essence of curses.
The most horrifying fact was that the curses were extremely similar to the ones during the Fuyuki Fire which she had to report.
Both the Clocktower and the Church came down upon the place almost instantly, investigating the whole thing minutely.
Still, even with so many investigations, no results were achieved.
They couldn’t figure out who was behind the attack or even how they achieved it. All valuables from the house were missing. Every tome, every magical object….everything.
If she was truthful, she didn’t care about anything that happens to that creep bastard Shinji or the old skeleton of the Zouken family but she was worried about Sakura.
There were no bodies found on the site but neither Shinji nor Sakura had returned to the school even after a month.
Just where had they disappeared?
She was awakened from her thoughts by the bell ringing and went down to check.
On opening the door she didn’t find anyone except a package and a letter on top. She went outside and found no one.
Carefully checking the whole package for any spells, she found none and brought it inside
She opened the letter first.
“Hmm, no name.”
‘This is a small gift to prepare you for what’s about to come in a year. Use it well. A lot depends on it’
A year?
What is going to come up in a year?
Suddenly she remembered.
The Grail War.
She quickly opened the package and her eyes opened wide….
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Author’s Note:
I am back with some more Restaurant shenanigans.
Silas finally found out about his heritage and awakened his Innate Cursed Technique.
We will explore more about it in the next chapter.
The story is finally approaching the place the snippet had started at.
And someone’s searching for Silas in the background.
Guess who it could be?
Anyways, I will drop another chapter of this next.
Enjoy the new chapter,
Good Day, Peace Out.
