~Toshiro Tatsumi~

The CEO of the Zaibatsu corporation sat at his desk, brows furrowed in concentration after the young healer had just left his office. Things were not going as he’d expected them to and if there was one thing Toshiro craved above all else, it was control. The healer he’d summoned being such a powerful individual did not factor into his plans.

Far from it, the blunder had the potential to ruin everything he’d prepared for. It almost made him fear that Tamo would find out about his ploy far too soon, but he reassured himself. No matter how powerful the healer was, he wouldn’t be able to detect the little ‘gift’ he’d left with his son. Yes, that was exactly the case Toshiro firmly decided, making up his mind.

Tamo really was in need of healing after that nasty fight that had netted him the Rare Augmented Regeneration core, at least his son had looked like he needed the treatment, and the Arthur boy was just an unfortunate coincidence that had come about when he tasked Selena with finding a strong healer to help his son.

That woman was too good at her job sometimes.

What possessed her to bring someone so competent into my home?

He was certain that he had hinted, quite liberally in fact, that he only wanted someone barely adequate for the job, merely a means to ease his son’s annoying pestering.

And he’s a fucking great healer, probably, no, definitely one of the best on Earth. And he has special blood too. Is someone trying to sabotage me? Who, why? That Chinese bastard told me he was looking for a special healer too. What the fucks going on?

These thoughts swirled around Toshiro's head before he clamped down on his curiosity and shut them up. If he second-guessed himself in every uncertain situation, he’d never have achieved the position he was currently in, albeit his current success was mainly inherited. Whatever the boy represented, was more trouble than it was worth.

Everything was going fine so far and he wouldn’t let his overly curious nature destroy his carefully laid plans. Even if the boy's blood smelt like it would taste like dopamine condensed into a beverage. It wouldn’t do to risk antagonising such a promising individual just to satiate his palate.

No, it was best to wait for the boy to just do his job, and hope that it was done quickly. That way, Arthur would be gone as soon as possible, and the only unstable element in his carefully crafted narrative would be out of the way before doing anything to damage his story.

Still, Toshiro couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong here, and his instincts told him that he’d have to be very, very careful in the near future. He’d learned to trust his instincts, enhanced as they had been with the arrival of the system, but it wouldn’t do him well to listen to them too much. He was human, not beast, even if the line between the two had blurred a little over the past few days.

And besides, he chalked up most of his nervousness to the individual he was currently sharing his office space with.

“Shade.”

He called the name out into the empty room and waited nervously for something to happen. Toshiro felt cold sweat drip down his back and goosebumps rise across his flesh, as he had every previous time when he saw a pool of shadows gather in the corner of the room before a figure suddenly stepped out of it.

The strange being looked like its body was made up of liquid darkness and the cold pressure it exerted immediately brought the room’s temperature down by a few degrees. Toshiro tried to keep the fear out of his voice when he next spoke, but he wasn’t altogether successful.

The shadow mage, if that was what the ethereal creature truly was, unnerved him a lot more than he’d ever admit.

“You saw the healer right? What do you think of him?”

When the shadow mage replied, its voice was distorted so that he couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman speaking. Frankly, Toshiro didn’t really care. He just wanted the person gone as soon as possible.

“He is strong. Beyond that, I cannot really say anything. Perhaps it would do well to invite him into our circle.”

The mage's voice seemed to be layered with multiple others, creating an annoying buzzing effect when it answered Toshiro’s question, almost like he was conversing with a giant fly rather than a person. If only that was all he was. It would have made his life far simpler. The blood mage waited to see if the shadow mage had anything to add.

The mysterious bastard didn’t.

“So, should we leave him be?”

Toshiro couldn't help but have a little disgust leek into his voice when he asked his question. The shadow mage just nodded its head before once again opening its annoying mouth.

“Yes, we shall leave him alone, and simply observe.”

“For now.”

With the last ominous line that sounded far less cool in reality than it probably did in the mage’s mind, the shadowy bastard, true to its magical affinity, faded into the darkness beneath his desk, leaving behind a nervous, if slightly amused Toshiro. The office was silent for a moment before he began to chuckle.

“Well fuck, that’s one creepy bugger alright,” he said into the quiet room, “And a cringy one too.”

Toshiro wasn't sure how strong the shadow mage was. Maybe as powerful as he himself was with all his unique advantages but he knew for certain that he didn't want to get into a fight with the strange individual. Still, Toshiro had at least received confirmation that his decision was the right one. He would simply wait and leave the healer be, being careful to not risk extending the man's stay at his place by even a minute.

And hey, if he’s in a good mood, I can maybe even ask for some of his blood.

~Arthur Ward~

Arthur hurried to keep up with the brisk pace that Selena maintained and was about to speak when the woman turned around and glared at him, putting a finger to her lips. Arthur got the message loud and clear. No talking and certainly no questions, at least not until they got to wherever the woman was taking him.

Perhaps she didn't want to be overheard by Toshiro or any listening devices he had set up in the compound, which only reaffirmed Arthur's suspicions that things were not nearly as simple as they seemed.

Heck, nothing had been since he arrived at this strange villa, and Arthur asked himself once again if it was the right decision to come here. He shook his head, throwing off his uncertainties. Worrying would get him nowhere and if things got a little too sticky for his liking, he would just jump ship and get the hell out of here.

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Whilst he wasn't sure he could beat Toshiro and his corporation in a straight fight, he was certain he could at least escape from them with his life intact easily enough. After all, if there was one thing he had in spades, it was a shit-ton of health and an absurd potential for survival. And I can probably steal a lot of stuff in the process. If they’d given him a monster core so easily, he salivated at what their true treasures were.

It seemed that they had quite a way to go yet. Selena seemed to have no intention of slowing down and continued at her brisk pace. Once again, Arthur tried to memorise the layout of the house. It didn't take a genius to tell him that the information might be of use to him in the coming few days.

And so, Arthur was a little surprised when Selena diverged from their earlier route, opening a door that led outside the villa. He followed her into the cobbled pathway nonetheless. Their destination was now in sight Arthur realised, as he looked up to see a small house in front of him. Actually, calling it a house was an overstatement, it was more a glorified shed that had been remodelled a little.

It was within the villa's large shadow and Arthur knew that this was most probably where the unfilial son Tamo lived. Close to his father, and yet as far as possible from the powerful man as he would probably allow. Selena looked back at him and gave him a tense smile that seemed to be filled with anxiety and stress, as well as a little undercurrent of hope.

She pulled out a large iron key from her purse and placed it into the door's lock, quickly twisting it and pushing the entrance open. The door swung easily on well-oiled hinges and revealed a small hallway that was covered in shadows. It looked ominous, and Arthur briefly wondered why it wasn't properly lit given the owner's obvious wealth.

Dismissing it as a quirk of the young blood mage, he turned around to look at Selena who was carefully securing the door behind her, re-locking and then bolting it in place with a chain. Arthur saw the security measures as a little extreme as well as useless given the fact that even a determined level 30 individual would be able to get through it easily enough.

Well, she probably has her reasons.

None of that was important right now, however, as the woman had a lot of questions that she needed to answer.

She told me that Tamo needed help killing a monster, which from what his father said was obviously not the case.

Rather the opposite in fact and Arthur didn't see any reason as to why the woman had lied to him in the first place. It was the first warning sign he’d been given that the situation in the villa was not as simple as it first appeared.

Arthur sighed wearily.

Why did everything have to be so complicated when it came to people? It wasn’t that he was unused to such machinations, only that he’d hoped that for once his expectations would be subverted. Just as he was about to say something Selena interrupted him by raising her hand.

“I know you must have a lot of questions, no thanks to me, but please, wait a short while longer- at least until you meet Tamo. You’ll get all your answers then.”

Selena's voice was quiet, more subdued than usual, much like it had been when she'd met him after he’d absorbed the Augmented Regeneration core, and Arthur realised that the woman must have been thinking about Tamo that time as well. Either that or she had some weird personality quirks.

She seemed to be a lot more invested in the man's health than an ordinary secretary should be and Arthur filed away that piece of information for later examination. A lover? Human emotion made the simplest of circumstances into cesspools that were nigh impossible to traverse and this was already one fucked up household.

Arthur nodded his head slowly in answer to the woman's request, swallowing his curiosity. He could wait a little longer before getting some answers. Selena smiled at him, a real one for once, grateful for his consideration, before walking towards the stairs.

He climbed up after her, surprised at how shoddy the woodwork was in the house compared to the villa he’d just left. The floorboards actually creaked! They arrived shortly in front of a wooden door and this time Selena knocked before entering the room instead of just waltzing in as she had in Toshiro’s office.

It seemed that Tamo did not have access to his father’s vast security network and so didn't know that he had guests in front of his room. Or maybe he just valued politeness. Arthur saw nor heard any response to Selena's knocking, but that didn't seem to concern the woman, who pushed her way into the room.

So maybe he doesn’t.

Arthur paused at the threshold of the room unsure what exactly to make of the sight in front of him. Like the rest of the house, the room was shrouded in darkness and very dimly lit. What little light there was, however, was enough for Arthur to see the state of the room.

He didn't like what he saw.

Everything was in complete disarray, and Arthur was certain he could see splashes of red that looked suspiciously like blood all over the furniture. And the smell was god-awful. What the hell had happened here? Selena however looked like she was completely at ease, more so than Arthur had seen her anywhere else, in fact.

She looked back at him and smirked at his hesitation.

“Don't worry. There's no monster in here,” she mocked him.

Arthur frowned for a moment before deciding that since he’d come all the way here, it wouldn't hurt to take the final few steps, even if it physically hurt him to willingly enter into such filth. He walked into the room and took a moment to take in his surroundings before his eyes settled on the figure resting on the bed.

Tamo Tatsumi he guessed, except that, unlike his much older father, the young man in front of him looked like he already had a foot in the grave. The only part of his body that was visible below his bandages were his eyes, and they were sunk into his face like hadn't been sleeping for weeks.

Arthur winced at the sight.

This man definitely needed some healing, even a blind person could see that. Or SMELL it. Arthur was surprised that his father hadn’t called in another magician when Arthur went AWOL for two days. And yet despite his otherwise injured body, Arthur could see the fire of life burning brightly in the man's eyes, to the extent that his pupil actually looked red.

Or maybe that was just their natural colour. Arthur didn't really know and he frankly didn't care. No one seemed to want to say anything, so Arthur broke the awkward silence.

“So it seems your father spoke the truth,” he said directing a pointed glare at Selena.

“You really do need some healing.”

Selena just looked back at him nonchalantly, not reacting at all to his accusing stare. It was Tamo that eventually spoke, his voice a weak croak that was difficult to listen to and even harder to understand.

“Yes, it seems my father didn't lie for once,” Tamo confirmed, “But he also didn't tell you the entirety of the truth like he always enjoys doing. Trust me, that's so much worse than lies.”

The man began to cough and Selena quickly rushed to him with a bottle of water in her hands. After drinking the liquid, the man continued with his speech.

“You see, I’m sure you already know that I and my father awakened with the rare blood affinity, right?”

Arthur nodded his head.

“What he failed to mention, however, is that we both also awakened with an affinity for curse magic.”

Arthur leaned forward to catch the man's words better, not caring that he hadn’t even introduced himself and he felt his stomach drop at the mention of the other affinity. It was one he had never heard of before, but Arthur could guess where this conversation was going. Even an idiot would figure it out given the hints so far.

Tamo too observed the changes in Arthur's stance, now one of wary disposition instead of the curiosity of before.

He smiled.

It seemed the healer they’d brought was smarter than he’d expected. It would make his job much easier.

“I see that you already have an inkling of what I’m about to say,” Tamo whispered, the strain of using his voice to speak normally too great.

“Your suspicions are correct, at least if you’re thinking what I think you are.”

“My father placed a curse on me as soon as the system initiated. At least I think that's when. Maybe he was afraid I’d abandon him as my sister had and so he tied a curse of compulsion to my blood. I’d always feel like I’d have to listen to him and gradually, even my personality would have changed over time. At least if things had gone according to his plan.”

Arthur wasn't shocked or even surprised by the revelation. In fact, he’d expected Tamo to say something of the sort as soon as curse magic was mentioned, even if the truth did disgust him a little. He gave voice to the thoughts running through his head.

“I don't really want to burst your bubble, but though I am a healer, I have no experience dispelling curse magic of any sort. I don’t think I even can with the healing magic I have to offer.”

Tamo just smiled at Arthur’s words, the movement of his lips barely visible through the bandage that covered them. He might have even chuckled but that could have just as easily been a groan of pain.

“It seems you're mistaken about something. I never called you here to deal with the curse. That problem has already been dealt with, though I am still suffering partially from its after-effects, as you can clearly see.”

“No. I called you here for something totally different.”

Tamo looked briefly at Selena, and she took it as her cue to speak.

“I already told you we needed your help to kill a monster, right.” She had an amused smile on her face as she said those ambiguous words. Tamo coughed quietly before elaborating.

“I want you to help me get back at my bastard father.”