The forest was gorgeous because no one had dared venture into its contents to rape and pillage the wonderful overgrowth of plants and animals which had accumulated over the past century. There was no trash, smells or humans in sight. Squirrels and Dimorphodons were fluttering throughout the air without paying any mind to the two people standing a few meters away from them.

Wow, so this is what a real forest looks like then… Kanashi thought seeing its beauty, Jin's small wooded property and the pine forest Kanashi crossed through in the Venator Society couldn't hold a candle to what he saw before him. It looked nothing like the sprawling cactus patches or miles of dried bush he grew up walking around.

“?”

After the initial shock Kanashi noticed that there was no ominous feeling around the forest, that hair raising aura the poppet cast was nowhere to be felt. In fact it was the opposite. He felt like the forest was calling him into it like, “Come play with me Kanashi, you can climb all the trees and catch all the animals you want!” in a sweet female voice. He wanted to charge head first into the trees and take up that offer but found himself able to resist the urge.

“Jin do you feel anything?”

“Nope, it’s a very mundane forest.”

MUNDANE!? I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW- Well actually Jin probably knows alot more about forests then I do. This might be mundane to him while for me who's never seen one like this before It’s the embodiment of beauty. Alright you win this round Mr. Lutece.

“Well let’s get going then.” Jin said walking into the forest first.

With a deep breath and final look back to the overgrown grass plains they’d journey through to get here, Kanashi readied himself and marched behind Jin into the forest. Towards a fight he might die in.

# # #

It took about an hour's worth of hiking for Kanashi and Jin to find the place that the old man had informed them about. It would have been easy to miss because of the forest growing on top of the settlement making it look like just another bundle of trees to the unaided eye, but luckily for them Kanashi was a master at finding those things hidden in the leaves. With his magic eyes he easily found the cabins and impressed Jin with his prowess earning him the title Kanashi God Of Discovery!

Nah, just joking, it was of course Jin who found the settlement meanwhile Kanashi nearly fell into an old well and died but he was saved by Jins [Telekinesis] at the last second. The settlement's cabins were mostly withered and didn't have much left but its stone foundation and maybe a couple brick pillars. It was clear no one had been around there for a while, but in the further right corner one cabin was still standing, not well mind you but standing nonetheless so that’s where they decided to investigate first.

“It’s a cabin alright.” Jin muttered as he squatted down and poked the decrepit structures' old wooden floor boards. “I think it looks the same but I’m not really good at this stuff.” He said looking at the wood's grain and color compared to the piece of the Poppet in his hand.

“Your confidence might be taking me over because I'm pretty shocked you don't know about wood grain and the like.” Kanashi said while inspecting the cabins' beaten wood walls.

“I never got into Botany beyond the basics and a few other things I thought were cool. It just didn't interest me.”

“Well I can’t judge you too much, my mom is a botanist and… Was a botanist…” Kanashi stopped talking and looked down at his hand and the new scars across it for a moment before starting to speak again. “Yeah, She “was” a botanist but I never got into it myself either. I wish I at least tried to learn it so I could have spent more time with-”

“Hey look at this!” Jin yelled out a cutting off Kanashi's monologue.

Kanashi spun around and saw Jin had torn one of the still standing doors off its hinges and was inside the room it had sealed away. “Did you hear anything I just said?” Kanashi asked with a frown..

“Yeah I did, But listen man I’m gonna be honest with you friend to friend. There's no point in thinking about what was possible, only what is possible. When you lose someone you care about, nothing in the world will bring them back, not even revenge.”

“I’m surprised that you of all people are against revenge.”

“I’m not against it, I’m just telling you it doesnt help any. If you wanna get revenge that's fine by me but it’s a fruitless venture when you’re facing something rather than someone like you are. You can kill a man but you can’t kill a storm no matter how hard you try.”

“Oh, I guess I kinda understand what you mean....... Hey you said we're friends… Is that true or are you just trying to make me feel better?”

Jin turned around and looked at Kanashi with a new expression. He was smiling but not a confident or arrogant one. “You’re one of the few who I could call that.”

“.... Oh thank you.” Kanashi said, trying not to smile himself.

“But maybe that’s personal bias since you look like someone I used to know.” Jin laughed, sticking his tongue out. “Now look at this over here.”

Kanashi walked inside the strange small room and peeked at where Jin had indicated. He saw a mass of strange symbols carved and written into the cabin's floor and walls which a mirror reflected upon. “What the hell is that?”

“Runes, the same thing as on your katana's guard, But these aren't really anything in particular, just a lot of scribbles… Unless it’s a code, But then it would be near useless.”

“Do you know what they’re being used for?” Kanashi asked, trying to make sense of the weird symbols.

“No, I don't, which makes me even more curious about this Witch woman. She’s skilled.”

“...”

“NEVERMORE!”

Kanashi and Jin turned to where the voice had come from to see a large Raven gunning for Kanashi, “[Shield!]” Kanahis screamed out, throwing up a barrier.

The Raven swerved to the side avoiding Kanashis shield and with a spin now was aiming for Jin but instead was met with his forcefield upon which it exploded on.

“What was that?” Kanashi asked nervously.

“NEVERMORE, NEVERMORE!” More ravens cried outside.

“Golems, And there’s more of 'em’ coming.”

Kanashi flicked his wrist to conjure [Itachi] ready to fight as another Raven burst through the cabin's wall and shot for him.

“Got it?” Jin asked.

“GOT IT!” Kanashi yelled shooting a blast of mana at the bird which split it into two, The raven exploded into feathers and maggots which fell to the floor.

“NEVERMORE!” Another dozen or so Ravens were now aiming for Jin who raised his hand into the air, [Gravity Amplification: Crush] the Ravens were slammed down into the floor exploding upon impact.

“How many more are there?!” Kanashi asked as he heard more Ravens outside scream “Nevermore.”

“I’m not sure, They're coming in from beyond my range and if I expand it they’ll be able to enter my forcefield… But I think these runes have something to do with them.”

“Like a tripwire?”

“Maybe.”

“NEVERMORE!” The walls burst as hundreds of Ravens flew into the room Jin and Kanashi were, determined to kill them.

“Can’t believe some birds are making me use this.” Jin said with a sigh. [Unseen Colors]

The room was engulfed in a sudden flash of light the color of which Kanashi had never seen before. The Ravens were each vaporized as if being deleted from existence. It happened so fast time Kanashi couldn't even register what happened beyond seeing a bright flash of a color he'd never before witnessed.

“What was that?” Kanashi asked, looking around for the Ravens.

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“I took care of them, And now to take care of this.” Jin said, looking down at the floor board below him covered in runes. Lifting his leg he slammed his foot down and through the floor board with such force it made the entire cabin shake and then crumble on top of his forcefield which shielded Kanashi from the rubble as well as himself. “That should do it.”

“Well great, we're no closer to finding her than before.” Kanahsi said with a defeated sigh.

“No, we're closing in on her. That's why she would have these golem set up here.”

“What do you mean?”

“These golems were spawned when we entered the room with these runes which set off the “tripwire” like condition you theorized before. The tripwire set off a spell which then made the golems spawn. If we weren't close to something important she wouldn't have set this up.”

“So are we just gonna look around here then? How big of a radius would this be?”

“I’m thinking she’s very close to here.”

Kanashi suddenly had a lightbulb go off in his head and looked at Jin with a big smile, “Hey I have an idea.”

“What’s that?”

“This witch seems to be a literal witch, With ravens, black cats, mirrors and cursed dolls do you think she could be trying to set up the restrictions of her being a literal witch to be more powerful?”

“Yeah, that's possible but I don't think I’ve ever heard of that happening. There’s things like [Lycanthropy] where you can wear an animal's skin to become one but doing it to be a witch is pretty out of the box.”Jin said rubbing his chin, “But how does that help us now?”

“Witches are said to use mirrors as a way to watch people in folklore, Is it possible that the witch is using one of the cabin mirrors to watch us?” Kanashi pointed to a small mirror on the floor which was covered in dust and grime.

“!” Jin looked over the mirror, his red eyes narrowed to slits like a snake's pupil. “Hahaha! You’re pretty good at this Kanashi!” Jin said with a strong laugh and picked the mirror up off the floor. “I get it now, The runes looked weird because they were backwards, Like they would be through a mirror reflection.”

“So she could perform the ritual from afar without actually needing to come here?!” Kanashi asked to scan the room's remains for more runes or mirrors.

“It’s pretty smart huh? But now I know where you are.” Jin said with a malicious smile.

“How do you know where she is?” Kanashi asked, confused.

“Instead of a camera, think of this mirror as a one sided window. While I cant reach through and grab the person on the other end like I could a one sided window they still exist on the other side and so does their [Soul]. I now know what her soul looks like and can identify it amongst all the others.” Jin looked around the forest and then pointed to the east. “She’s there.”

“You can see her soul?” Kanashi tried to do the same with observation to no avail.

“It’s a part of my [pure eyes], I can see and read the souls of people. I can tell when someone is lying or track someone down in a crowd if I know what their soul looks like. Unfortunately a part of that is seeing everything's soul. From an Ant to a Basilisk I see their souls with the same visibility. But now I know the shape, color and “vibration” of her soul so I can tell which is hers. And she’s right there about half a mile away.”

“Let’s get her!” Kanahsi said excitedly, beginning to run where Jin had pointed.

“Wait, slow down!” Jin called out and Kanashi stopped with a frown.

“I thought we could get this over with…”

“She knows we’re coming so there’s a high chance she could set a trap. Make sure you stick next to me okay?”

“Okay!”

# # #

“Man you really weren't wrong about the whole Witch thing.” Jin said, raising his eyebrow.

“I think this is a bit too much myself, I mean come one anyone would have been able to spot this if they actually looked…” Kanashi said, looking at the massive red mushroom in front of them. It was about a dozen feet tall and as big around as semi trucks tires with identical but smaller mushrooms growing around the base of it.

“Yeah, It’s pretty stupid.” Jin laughed, reaching out to touch the mushroom.

“Is she inside it?” Kanashi asked using observation. Instead of seeing a person's aura he instead saw what looked like a small black box inside the mushroom, But it was the size of a full room while also being small at the same time which greatly confused him. “What the hell is that room thing?”

“It’s a Liminal Realm, she’s using the mushroom as a foundation to help hold its form. You can do the same with a shadow but it costs a great amount of mana to keep running constantly. Remember earlier when you said you wanted to know how to get out of a Liminal Realm?”

“Yeah?!”

“Well this is how, You cast your own Liminal Realm and over power theirs. [White Water: Space Cutter] a burst of light came from Jin's hand which had rested on the mushroom's trunk. The Mushroom shattered like a glass bottle and then a wooden hut exploded into reality with a nasty looking old woman inside.

“Cool…” Kanashi muttered with a smile.

“That’s called a [Liminal Division], by creating your own Liminal Realm you can cancel out the other persons, there’s specific methods of [Liminal Division] like the [White Water: Space Cutter] I just used. That’s sort of a Lutece family speciality, or well a Hojo Clan one technically but that doesn't really matter.” Jin cleared his throat and pointed at the old women in the hut who was scowling at them. “Now go kill her!” He said with a thumbs up.

“WHAT?!” Kanashi yelled out in surprise.

“Go on and kill her, This is your mission.”

“I dont wanna kill someone! That wasn't part of the deal! I thought we were gonna arrest her or something!”

“Nah she’s too dangerous to be left alive, Now go kill her.”

“I’m not a killer! I’ve never killed anything bigger than a roach!”

“Then become one right now and change that.”

“I’m not go-”

Suddenly a large black tendril shot out at Kanashi who narrowly dodged by jumping to the floor and then rolling himself back up. “Itachi!” He called, flicking his wrist and summoning his Katana.

“Why don't you people make it easy for people trying to make a living anymore…” The old woman said in a horse voice.

“Only the strong are allowed to live how they please, Someone like you is relegated to follow the flow of common society. You messed up the moment you got caught.” Jin said, standing up in the air and looking down at the witch.

“She messed up the moment she killed someone!” Kanashi argued.

The women sent another black tendril out at Jin who frowned and smacked the tentacle away and then activated his spell [Light Piercing Arrows], From the sky a hundred arrows made of glistening energy shot down onto the tendril making it explode into nothing.

“He’s your opponent, Next time you try that I'll kill you!” Jin said in a stern voice while pointing at Kanashi who appeared behind the witch.

image [https://imgur.com/VN0WBEn]

“Damnit!” Kanashi yelled out as he swung his sword aiming for her neck but hesitated at the last moment. Using that momentary failure the witch dodged with such speed Kanashi didn’t even register the action until he felt her fist imbed itself into his stomach. He was sent stumbling backwards and vomiting profusely.

The witch cast another tendril and sent the two at Kanashi who stomped his foot down using [Mudd] to create frogs and toads which used their tongues to restrict the tendrils. Kanashi jumped forwards and emitted a large blast of mana from Itachi which aimed straight at the witch.

“NEVERMORE!” A raven dove down from the sky and took the blast itself shielding the witch.

Kanashi not relenting charged forwards and swung Itachi for her waist which another raven intercepted while she stabbed him in the neck with her overgrown and twisted gnarly finger nail.

“!” I can't breathe?! Kanashi felt all the air leave his body, his lungs were not working, and any air he tried to suck in came right out. Suddenly he was teleported up in the air next to Jin who grabbed him by the neck and healed him.

“She crushed your windpipe, Be more careful next time.” He said and then threw Kanashi back down to the witch.

Why did he throw me?! Kanashi wondered, seeing the floor beneath him, “I guess I’ll try to see if this works then, [Shield!]” Kanashi created a shield in front of him a few feet above the ground which stretched like rubber when he hit it. It then bounced him upwards a few feet, and while falling upside down he looked at the witch and made a finger gun out of his hand. [Mana Pistol!] from Kanashis finger tip a blast of mana shot out and smashed into the Witch, sending her through her wooden shack and into a tree's trunk with a loud “crack.” “Got her!” Kanahis yelled excitedly before falling to the ground and bouncing off his head.

“He copied my rubber shield from before?!” Jin muttered in surprise. But he still purposely didn't use enough mana to kill her…

From where the witch had been shot four tendrils stretched out for Kanashi and grabbed him in its slippery grasp.

“Shit!” Kanashi groaned, feeling his body being squeezed. “Can you help?” he yelled looking up to Jin who shook his head no.

“Fine then!” Kanashi growled and then turned to the Witch “Agggh!” He groaned Enhancing his body and pushing against the tendrils as hard as he could. His entire body rippled with veins from him straining with all his strength until finally the tendrils snapped and he fell to the floor panting. “!” Sensing something incoming, Kanashi looked up to see a pointy red shoe smashing him in the nose and sending him backwards. “Gahh!” He yelled as blood flew from his nose.

“How dare you do that to me!” The witch bellowed, She looked even older then before now appearing as if she was closer to a hundred years old rather than eighty.

“Why are you so old now?!” Kanashi yelled, wiping the blood from his face.

“OLD?!” The witch shrieked and sent more Tendrils out at Kanashi.

“You think I’m dumb enough to let these things get me again!?” Kanashi asked using [Mudd] and having his frog and toad golems restrict the tendrils, he then leaped forwards and punched the old witch in her long crooked nose which sent her backwards with a splash of blood and broken teeth. “Please give!” He cried.

The Witch leaned forwards and bit into Kanashis arm with her few remaining mangled teeth.

“Gaah!” Kanashi screamed falling to the floor with the women on top of him and shaking her head like a dog does when trying to maul something “What the hell?!” He asked ripping his arm away and taking the women's loose teeth with it.

“Remember not to forget what I taught you! Don't be like a black belt in a street fight who forgets his training!” Jin called down.

Kanashi thrust his hips upwards and knocked the women off the top of him. He then kneed her away and rolled to the side and to his feet.

The old woman who was now nothing but long sagging skin hanging off crooked bones glared at him.

Well this was easy, Probably too easy. Jin thought with a frown. “Good now kill her!” He called down.

“Ignore him! I don't want to kill you, just please give up and make this easier for everyone!” Kanashi said to the witch between pants.

“GURAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” With a primordial scream the Witch leapt at Kanashi and knocked him off his feet. The witch then sat atop Kanashi with a splinter of wood in hand ready to bring it down on his heart.

Why won't she give up? Why can’t I kill her? Am I really this week? Did I train these past two weeks for nothing? Kanashi thought as tears welled up in the corners of his eye. No matter how hard he tried, he was not yet a killer.

image [https://imgur.com/0X17waf]

“Tch.” Jin spat giving a genuine frown, He instantly teleported behind the witch and flicked the back of her head. “Begone.” He commanded as her head exploded into green goo which didn't land on Jin but fell straight onto Kanashis face.

The witch's body slumped to the side, falling over and Kanashi felt bile rise to his throat. He rolled over and vomited violently. “What the hell man?” He groaned looking at Jin.

“I should be asking you that.” Jin said.

“I told you I didn't want to kill her! I Can't kill someone!” Kanashi responded, wiping the tears off his face.

Jin leaned down and looked Kanashi in his eyes. Jin's red iris swirled like a pool of molten blood which was reflected in the calm crystal blue Iris of Kanashi.

“Killing someone is no longer an option, it's a necessity in this new world you’ve woken up in. It’s kill or be killed. You might think a fight is over when the other is down but they can and will use your kindness to kill you.” Jin said.

Kanashi knew what he was saying to be true. It seemed for once Jin was being a real teacher instead of a friend explaining something.

Kanashi used his hand to cover his crying face. “I’m sorry, Next time I'll be sure to finish the job!”

“What’s done is done, the only thing that matters is what you will do next.” Jin said with a smile patting Kanashi on the shoulder.