Chapter 8: Sorcium

Loki: I know I said 2-3 but I’m having my exams next week so sorry bout that

----

Looking at the red card in surprise, Sun was speechless. The thing before him was a Sorcium card! Not just any Sorcium card too, it was scarlet!

Waving it around is equivalent to smacking a person with a gold bar to make him acknowledge you. It was certainly a prestigious item.

Both elderly men watched intently as Sun delicately held the card in one hand. One of the functions of a Sorcium card was to measure the depth of one's power. For example Virgil Arsoe had a rating of 168.8 in this regard, the average of Scarlet magi being 140.  With a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 9999 it can cover even the most absurd of existence.

It is generally regarded as an accurate way to estimate the power of a Sorcerer. Too bad there never was a sorcerer like Sun before.

Sun bound the card with ease. It emanated a soft luminescence that was tinted red. When the light show was over clearly printed on the back of the card was... "Min/Max Value exceeded."

The dumbfounded Virgil stared at the impossible text before him. Max value exceeded! Impossible!

"C-can we redo that?! It seems the card was defective." He muttered to himself whilst producing another Sorcium card, it was his own copy, it looked just as impressive if a bit worn. Chanting some words he reset the card and handed it to Sun. He being the guild master of Shard's mage guild had the authority to reset the cards.

Shrugging a bit in helplessness Sun took the offered card and bound it with his soul. Once again a soft red light emitted from the card. Once it died down the words "Min/Max Value exceeded" were prominently written.

"I-I see. That's certainly an interesting result." Virgil muttered mostly to himself.

Taking back his card from Sun he went to a corner still dazed and muttering things like "Certainly if it's like that the use of Sorcery would..."

Meanwhile Vulcus also had a surprised expression. Being old meant that he had learned more than a few bits of knowledge. He too had never heard of such a result. Even that hermit in dragon mountains carrying the [S class] talent [Unlimited mana] only had a result of around 5000.

Looking at the unassuming teenager in front of him, he couldn't even tell if the boy had magic power. He shook his head at the youth's talent.

Hiding one's aura was specially hard the stronger one gets, even he had trouble restraining his aura but this kid was making it look easy despite the seemingly impossible amount of power he held.

"Tell me kid, what is your talent?" Vulcus asked curiosity overwhelming his shock of the results.

On Sun's part, he was very nervous about what was happening. When the card showed some kind of result he thought he had been discovered however it seems the two old men had different ideas.

Sun hesitated as he pondered over the question. Should he lie? The man asking was a saint surely he would easily tear apart a flimsy lie as soon as he hears it.

"I gave an oath to someone not to reveal my talent so readily." He said, as if testing the sentence out. Given the disadvantageous nature of his talent his father had Sun make an oath on safeguarding his talent.

Vulcus nodded in understanding sensing the truth in Sun's words.

"Uhm, Sun-sama, Vulcus-sama. I hate to interrupt your conversation but Vi-sama has finished the staff. Would you like to see it now Sun-sama?" Rimmu said as he entered pausing ever so slightly at seeing two saints and the Virgil.

After a sigh of relief as he followed the Rimmu and Rayu, Sun left the two old men to themselves. Glad that he escaped those two relatively unscathed.

"What do you think of that one Virgil?" Vulcus said as he watched the leaving young saint's back.

"If he used a lot of mana it is indeed theoretically sound that the white flames would create a crystallization effect. Interesting... Now could this effect be replicated? It seems more experiments are ---" Virgil stopped muttering as he registered Vulcus' question.

"Sun-sama is quite extraordinary. I myself have gone to the site where he fought that Tiangou and I find myself mystified on his techniques. Somehow he was able to produce mana so pure it crystallized upon stabilizing. Quite incredible. What say you though Vulcus? How would you rate him?"

Vulcus sighed while rubbing at his temples. "That kid was dangerous. I sat here all the while and I couldn't even gauge his strength. If I didn't know he was a saint and I didn't see the results of that Sorcium rating I wouldn't even think he can fight! No wonder even Levaria got fooled." Despite being young Levaria was no slouch at gauging enemy strength, an invaluable skill to any adventurer.

"An interesting young man has appeared I wonder how this will affect the world? Specially with the things that are going right on now at the imperial capital." Virgil mused.

"Unexpectedly informed are you? Why don't we talk about it while we drink I haven't seen your ugly face for some time now."

"Indeed after seeing you and experiencing your unique stench I need to wash it all off with alcohol." Virgil answered back without batting an eye.

After a few moments both old men were laughing away.

°°°_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_--_°°°

The first thing that Sun noticed as he followed Rayu and Rimmu was that as he was being led to presumably another luxurious room both Rayu and Rimmu were acting oddly. As if they were rats going into a cat's playpen.

The second was the sound of metal grinding metal. Somehow just like his guides he too was feeling restless.

Tink Tink Tink Tink

It was a constant metallic thunk sound that sounded out in a fixed interval.

Who was this Vy-sama that made his staff, Sun wondered. Why was it that these two high ranking merchants who were relatively at ease with saints nervous now?

He was led to a large metal door about twice his size. Looking at the door Sun couldn't help but feel nervous. A motif of a horned goat was carved in the door proudly staring down everything on it's nose was a ring of metal used for knocking. It was also much notably colder now than it was before.

Tink Tink Tink Tink

As if to add a more sinister background a blanket of fog seeped from the below door.

Rimmu and Rayu both stopped and looked at him as if urging him to enter. Sun looked at them with incredulous eyes? Where they trying to get him killed? What sort of evil with was this Vy person?

Slowly he approached the goat head motif and knocked on it with the knocker. A small banging sound was produced as a result. He did it thrice and waited.

After a moment the door creaked and opened slowly.

"Good luck Sun-sama." Was all Rayu said as he suspiciously backed away.

Chapter 4: My Glorious Martial Prowess?

The delinquents surround me, but that doesn't concern me as much as it would have had before,as the familiar heat from last time had returned filling my body with strength that rivaled a tiger.

"Don't be conceited, you are hardly able to face a kitten and you're talking about rivaling tigers." Spirit-san whispered in my ears.

I ignored him as I began preparing to move. The delinquents have surrounded me already and I probably can't run now.

"If you get hit by these rabble while using my power don't expect me to help you in the future... in fact I'll make sure your next rebound kills you." Spirit-san exclaimed. That, I cannot ignore. Can't you be more compassionate? That's way too brutal, you know.

"That much is to be expected from an usurper." He added. Oi I'm new, besides even monkeys can fall off trees. That's too severe.

"Shut up and kick ass little monkey." Spirit-san admonished, looks like he got annoyed from my whining.

Unlike what I expected, they didn't attack one by one on a single easily managed file. Instead, they all attacked as one. Like a swarm of bugs they converged from every direction.

Even with the strength that usurpation gave me I was not confident that I'd remain unmolested from such overwhelming numbers. As they charged me, I too charged at them using one of the thugs as a stepping stone I jumped over them.

With that mighty jump I successfully escaped the circle they made. They were all watching me with dumb looks in their faces. I don't blame them, what I did was probably only possible for professional athletes.

I sucker punched the one closest to me and then it became chaotic. However it looks like they now had a disadvantage in positioning. Whereas I can move as I wanted to they had to be careful not to hinder their friends.

Somehow, I was evading their punches and kicks and was able to give them back with interest. Adrenalin was pumping through my veins and all of them were moving sluggishly in my eyes.

I am not a very athletic person and I have next to no experience in fights other than being hit. Even so, I knew where the parts that hurt the most when hit are.

I hit those places with well aimed strikes as frequently as I could all the while prioritizing evasion.

Within a surprisingly short amount of time I had ,as spirit-san said, kicked ass.

I heard the sound of clapping amidst the groaning of the fallen delinquents.

It was Mimisaki Takumi, once again. He was smiling savagely, I had a feeling that he was some sort of battle maniac.

"Splendid form and a powerful body. Why don't you be my subordinate, I promise I will treat you well." He said all the while giving me his fox like smile.

"Can I just refuse an be on my way?"

I asked exasperatedly. I'd rather distance myself from such troublesome people.

"Let's settle this is a fight then beat me and I shall be your subordinate, If I beat you then you will be mine!" He declared. Is it just me or did that sound gay to you?

"I'll definitely not be yours, you pervert" I called out to him.

Spirit-san gave a snort in the back of my mind.

Instead of waiting for Takumi to attack, this time it was I who took the initiative. I charged him with my fist cocked and threw a jab to his face.

Eh? I was suddenly hurled into the air, thankfully my reactions were significantly faster than it was before. I managed to flip in mid air and land in a crouch.

What was that?

"Oh, incredible. What type of martial arts have you practiced?" Takumi asked casually waiting again for me to attack.

That's when I remembered that Takumi went to last years Judo national competition, he got 2nd place I think.

Why was someone amazing like him doing something like this? It didn't make sense.

Either way I had to be careful not to be grabbed else I'd be thrown again.

'Any tips spirit-san?' I asked in my mind. I could just run right?

"Isn't this your initiation why are you asking for tips? I have to say though the kid in front of you is not someone to be taken lightly of. Since this is interesting I’ll allow you to get hit after all, you can’t run though." Spirit-san said with a bored tone.I felt that this Spirit-san was really mean to his kouhai but his words were acknowledged by me nonetheless.

So with nothing else to do and an opponent not taking the initiative, I was forced to attack again.

Unlike before I found myself driven into the ground in one swift movement. I was able to kick him back though to make some space.

Damnit, why was such a person attacking me again? In fact why was I even fighting him.

“If you win, I will give you something worth the effort.” Spirit-san whispers in my ear. Even if there’s something like that why should I fight this ridiculously skilled person? “You told me you wanted to be strong enough to protect your loved ones, what if this Takumi assault your Shiori? Will you watch unable to help? Be a man and beat this kid’s ass!”

Well there was some truth to those words at least. The problem was even though I probably was stronger than Takumi, he was trained to fight by directing the opponent's power to produce damage. In this case the opponent was me.

Looking at Takumi’s taunting face a bit of anger ignited through me. Just imagining the thing Spirit-san suggested made my blood start boiling specially after Aki taunted with the same situation.

Let’s try that one more time, with a kick this time. I charge up to him to make a flying kick. Of course being an untrained noob I failed. I think he was expecting the kick but got a nasty surprise in the form of an unintentional body tackle.

I’m glad I finally made some damage but I think I forgot something vital, Judo practitioner’s excelled in close range.

Chapter 7: Two Old Geezers

Sun paced inside his luxurious room inside the auction house. Today marked the fifth day of his stay, while it was indeed easy living where he is served with the most excellent of food and drink problems began occurring.

One such problem was the thing in front of him. Sun was currently facing himself or more specifically an earth magi made statue of his likeness. Suddenly Sun felt his plans of melding and vanishing has crumbled.

How could these statues be made so fast? A copy of it has been sent to the Fiongare city sculptor's guild already? Why wasn't he informed? Would his father and brothers recognize him from the statues? These thoughts were running around Sun's head as he paced around.

A series of knocks interrupted his thoughts bringing him back to reality. Opening the door the jolly face of Rayu greeted Sun.

The man eagerly announced. "Sun-sama, the auction is about to start.Come, Come." Thoughts about the statue left Sun's mind at the reminder of his awaited hour.

Rayu led Sun into a large antechamber. They arrived at the upper segment and Sun could tell that the section they were in was reserved for the influential people.

If Sun were to guess based on the attire the people below were lesser nobles. They wore tasteful and colorful robes and gowns fully showing off their wealth. If he were to be honest though Sun found them unpleasant, exchanging pleasantries from the front and stabbing from the back it was that kind of game the nobility played.

They were chattering gaily as Sun watched from above as if a sovereign overlooking his subjects. Even though he disliked nobles he wouldn't refuse the money that they will eventually bring.

During the past few days Sun had holed himself up in his given room and delved deeply into Devon's book, specifically the potions portion. Seeing a potion never before sold in the market made Sun's entrepreneur spirit blaze in greed. He needed money to buy the ingredients though.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we have a treat for you! As you know the newest saint Sun-sama is our guest, this auction is proud to present to you 100g of the S Class monster Tiangou's powdered horn." Rimmu announced proudly.

Hearing that a tick began to form above Sun's eyes. 100g? That's what's left of that humongous horn?

"This here powder is considered a super class magic conductor! Using this you can improve any magic item without fail? 100% guaranteed!" Rimmu boasted luring the crowd in with his words.

Improving any magic item with 100% accuracy?! Sun's eyes widened. How powerful was this powder? The usual item enhancer was called Magic Dust which is commonly used by tinkerers to enchant items. The more enchantments the better the item turns out but the harder it is to enchant.

For example his [Firewand++] was a normal Firewand with two flame enchantments. If you were to enchant it again with flame enchantment it will turn into a [Flamewand] because the core will evolve. Flamewands costs about 800 gold coins. Why the marked difference? If the enchantment fails the core breaks,the usual success rate is 5%.

As expected the words Enchantment without fail has gotten the crowd in a frenzy.

Besides Sun,Rayu chuckled a bit. Having such an item even though the auction will only take 4% from the earnings they will still make a killing.

"1000!"

"2000!"

"5000!"

"10000!"

The nobles called out in succession, trying to outdo each other in hopes of getting such a prized item.

Sun's heart was beating so fast it was a wonder that it didn't just leap out of his chest! Originally getting money for Verdun City's Merchant Academy was something of a pipe dream. Right now though he was hearing such ludicrous amounts over 100g of leftover horn shavings.

His heart clenched at the thought that if he sold the horn whole how much would it have netted him?

"40000!"

"100000!" A voice rang out from behind Sun. He didn't notice the man behind him! How long had he been there! It was fortunate that he was so absorbed in the auction he didn't have time to jump in surprise.

The crowd quieted at hearing such a high bid or perhaps because they recognized the bidder.

Vulcus the indomitable saint, Levaria's master. Someone who can flatten a city with but a simple gesture. This was a man that you simply did not oppose.

"100000! Going once! twice! aaaaand Sold!" Rimmu said his voice sounding loud and clear.

The man standing just behind Sun was a tall elder with flowing black robes etched with golden markings, a sign of enchanted equipment. The old man had a regal bearing compounded by the extremely large sword he was carrying. The sword was larger than the man itself and about half as thick,it was covered in cloth so sun couldn't see anymore details. He looked to be about 60 or so but Sun knew this guy was around more than two centuries old.

Standing tall and proud his aura was not lacking when compared to the behemoth that was Tiangou. It might seem weird that a man in his 60's compare to a mountain size monster but in Sun's mind it was so.

When his mind finally loaded he finally realized the number that was called out. 100000! For leftover materials!

Sun felt conflicted about such an amount. On one hand it was a stupidly large amount on the other it was such a large amount he couldn't carry it even in the storage bag.

That meant it would have to be banked, that seriously put a cramp in his plans of going incognito.

Seeing his conflicted expression Vulcus felt that he needed to explain "That battle with Tiangou left Levaria's equipment in a sub-optimal condition, don't think of this as charity." As if he was telling Sun not to sweat it as it is only a small exchange between saints.

Sun opened his mouth as if to say something but closed them again. He needed to be careful with what to say, his opponent was a saint after all. It was quite possible to be discovered if he was careless.

"Where is Levaria anyway?" It was the only topic that Sun could think of that shouldn't steer towards dangerous territories like 'Let's spar' or 'Where is your saintly aura'

"Ah, that willful child. She holed herself up with training as soon as she arrived. It looks like you made an impression on her." He said with a sigh. "That reminds me."

He bowed really low embarrassing Sun thoroughly. It was one thing for wealthy people to bow to him it was another if it were saints.

"Thank you for saving my willful disciple. This saint owes you a favor in the future."

What can be said against something like that? Sun was speechless.

“Bah, you shouldn’t embarrass the young man Vulcus, bowing out of nowhere like that!” An old man arrived as well. He was wearing simple robes and he sported a long beard. “My name is Virgil Arsoe, I’m the Shard City mage guild leader.” He introduced to Sun.

Vulcus stopped bowing and gave Virgil an annoyed look. “You Magi...” He said before stopping, perhaps realizing that Sun was considered a mage as well.

Virgil gave Vulcus a victorious grin before he began speaking. “ I am here on behalf of the United Magi to present to you your Sorcium card. Congratulations kid, I saw your work on that desert If it isn’t a bother won’t you tell me more about it?” He said producing a scarlet card and giving it to Sun. The old man grinned shamelessly as if asking such a question was natural. Perhaps it was, Sorcery was driven by knowledge not talent so the more you know the more powerful you get.

“These card’s are impossible to fake and can act as identification as well as a bank card, isn’t it convenient? Bind your soul to it first and it's all good.”

Sorcium cards were divided into 3 colors, Blue for newly minted sorcerers, Silver for advanced sorcerers and scarlet for those who reached mastery. For Sun who was a saint it would have been an insult to present to him a blue card.

The overwhelmed Sun could only nod in response.

Chapter 3: How I became a delinquent?

My father used to tell me that pain is the proof of existence. It let's you know when you're being hurt and more importantly it let's you know you're alive.Without it people will live only in haze of useless living.

Don't give me that look, I'm no masochist... at least I think I'm not. I'm definitely not enjoying the situation I'm in.

Why am I saying such weird things?

Well, The night after I ate the bead that grandpa gave me I slept well. At around 3:00 though I woke up in cold sweat, feeling cramps all over my body. Have you ever had a cramp? Imagine having a cramp in every muscle you have all at the same time.

There was pain, then there was torture. I think even without telling you know what I'm feeling.

It felt as if my bones were cracking under the pressure of my muscles and that my muscles were tearing itself apart. Black blood was running from my nose and due to my struggling I fell off from my bed to the hard wooden floor of my room.

At around 5:00 am or so the pain receded. It felt longer than it did really. Like that I decided to find the old man instead of waiting for him.

"∆∆∆∆∆∆∆~" As usual I couldn't understand the whispering so I ignored it. I looked at myself in the mirror covered in sticky black blood, I couldn't help but think that perhaps I bit off more than I could chew.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Oddly enough, I felt really good an hour later. My muscles were sore as sore can be but they felt energized somewhat. I just chalked it up to a blessing and went to that park.

I looked around for a bit hoping that the old man was somewhere around these parts.

Even though I said I'll look for him I actually have no experience in this sort of routine. I read a few detective Conan manga as a kid. That's the extent of my knowledge regarding detective work.

That's why I spent the morning wandering around like a fool. Just as I was going to give up though things changed.

"Fufufufu, You look well." The beggar said to me, from the back. You probably misheard it but I gave off a manly bellow from the suddenness of his appearance.

The beggar, should I be calling him master, looked like he did from that time. Unchanged really.

"Grandpa, what was that thing you gave me?" I asked. His eyes wrinkled as he gave me a wide smile,gesturing towards a bench all the while.

As we got seated he began talking.

"In every type of written human history there are mentions of Gods, Spirits, Divine beasts... Things of legend, of myth." He said, his voice was soothing and it was even of a higher quality than even the teachers at school. He definitely got my attention.

"Every culture has it's religion espousing virtues and what not, more importantly praising godlike beings, warning us of monsters that lurk in the dark."

"They were real. In fact they were something of more substance than you and I. They are existence that the world was meant to hold. We humans are just as animals to them as animals are to us." He continued. What was he saying? Gods and spirits were real? Divine beasts? I'm not a particularly religious person so I looked at him with a bit of skepticism.

"Humans of course worshiped them, at first. As you know however human nature is a fickle thing eventually we grew envious of their power.People discovered ways to bind these divine beings and use their powers."  If I didn't experience the things I did because of that bead I'd have called this grandpa crazy. Instead I chose to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Bind them? So the gods disappeared because humans took them as slaves?" I asked.

"Don't be silly, gods are akin to sons and daughters of creation. No matter what we do we can't take them on so casually. We took the weaker spirits and divine beasts though. Usurped their power, took their divinity and made it ours." He said giving me a toothy grin. I didn't say anything as my mind whirled through what he was saying to me.

He gave me time to process things, I eventually asked. "Didn't the gods get angry?"

"Fufufufu, of course they did! They descended to the earth from the heavens,when spirits and divine beasts began falling one by one. They smote those who dared to steal from the heavens but... they were too late to act.  Within the time they ignored us, four great humans emerged, holding power on par to even the eldest of gods. Thus these four forced the gods into hiding ending the era of the gods." He stood up arms wide open and exclaimed.

"Young man, you are a person who received a sealed divinity. You are someone who devoured what was meant for the heavens!Thief! Usurper!  They call us. It doesn't matter how lowly a name they give us because in the end we were conquerors!" Grandpa stared right into my eyes.

His formerly black eyes shining bright blue. I felt my very soul stirring up as if excited from his speech.

"That bead I gave you is something leftover from days of unrest. Given your unique usurpation I thought it would be best for you." He said calming down thankfully.

Unique usurpation? I felt dizzy all of the sudden. My mind can't handle all this revelations. Is this how a manga protagonist feel like?

He sat down again and began to explain.

Usurpation is the ability of a human to take and use the divinity of divine beings. It differs from person to person, some people has a variation that makes their usurpation unique to them.

It can be classified into three basic categories. Domination, Integration and Coordination.

Anyway Domination is the type of usurpation where the usurper overwhelms the divine being and controls them in some way.

Integration is the type usurpation that deals in taking the power of divinity into yourself. Basically it's buffing yourself.

Coordination usurpation is any type of usurpation where the usurper needs to coordinate with the bound spirit or beast that they had. However if you gain the cooperation of a spirit or divine beast then you'd theoretically be stronger than someone using the other two types.

Apparently my usurpation fell into the Coordination bracket. Obviously the class of usurpation where you need the help of the usurped isn't that highly valued. In fact I'm surprised it can even be called usurpation.

Gods, spirits and divine beasts should in default loath their usurpers so they won't cooperate with someone essentially stealing from them.

"Are you sure I'm not using integration?" I asked the old man, I'm pretty sure that I became stronger than ever that one time I used the bead's power.

"Oh, these eyes of mine aren't yet obsolete young man. I clearly see you are a coordinator." He said a matter of factly. "Which reminds me, has the spirit in the bead talked to you yet?"

"It tries every now and then but I usually couldn't understand it unless you count that time when I first ate the bead." I explained, perhaps he knew what to do?

I myself feel like having some kind of spirit with me is a bit off putting. By the way the term spirits encompass a large amount of beings.

Unlike gods who are borne from worldly concepts like 'heat' or 'thunder' spirits are borne from human thoughts. Ghosts, Ayakashi and whatever isn't a god could be considered as spirits. There's also divine beasts, but those are just creations of gods like that Cretan bull in Greek mythos.

"Hm, is that so? Let me take a closer look." He said eyes peering into mine, and I felt as if an unknown force slammed into my very being. I stand rooted to the ground even though I felt like I was hit by a wrecking ball.

Grandpa lifted his hand gingerly using his index finger to trace a symbol over my right arm. As soon as his finger touches my skin a burning feeling followed. Not in my skin, I felt it burning my soul. It's hard to explain the feeling so I'll refrain for now.

When grandpa finished parts of my skin blacked to form what looked liked an eye.  The eye blinked at me.

I groaned piteously from the pain and the implication of what he'd done. Shiori's going to kill me.

I looked at the tattoo of an eye on my arm, I definitely looked unsightly. I'm going to be branded as a criminal for my entire life? Is this my karma finally telling me it had enough and I should suffer more?

"You probably offended heaven in another life. Salutations it is good to finally talk to you.~" A voice whispered in my ear or perhaps more accurately my mind.

"Gueh?!" I exclaimed,I'm hearing voices in my head. Grandpa looked smug, he probably figured he succeeded.

I addressed Grandpa first, since I can probably talk to the voice in my head whenever.

"You gave me a tattoo! Can I have it removed?" I asked him desperately.

"Young man, that mark is a auspicious one! Worry not I am a meticulous worker, I was successful in opening up your spirit perception. That tattoo will vanish once your own perception can handle the strain, for now live with it and take care of it.”

“What are you saying? How can you mark someone so casually?” I asked him again.

“If you’re like that then It’s best that I leave for now. Come find me when you’re calm. I’m sure that spirit-kun will answer all questions while I’m away.” He said giving me a toothy smile before a gust of wind forced me to close my eyes. When I opened them again that old man was gone.

Was I simply going crazy?

“If you ask me, you were crazy to eat a sealed divinity without knowing what it is.” The voice in my head told me.

“You! Do you know how to get rid of this?” I ask pointing at the eye staring back at me.

“Oh, dare you take that tone with me? I am after all something above your mere human existence.” The voice asked in a jolly tone but I could hear the hint of steel behind it.

I felt like he was testing me, it didn’t matter I’ll answer as I should. “Even though you say you’re above me isn’t it you that is sealed inside me? Tell me if you know a way.”

“Hahahahaha! I approve you do not cower, this lowly spirit will then answer your question. This ‘Tattoo’ will move according to your wishes simply think it and it will move somewhere not so obvious.”

I sighed in relief. I did as the spirit said and the eye swam through my skin as if it was water. I eventually placed it near my chest.

“Now before we discuss important matters, what will you do to your unwanted visitors?” The voice asked me. Unwanted visitors? Saying that my head swiveled there was no one I can see.

“Tsk, tsk. I heard you’ve done in the three bosses.” An arrogant voice called out. A guy was hiding from one of the trees that littered the park.

When he emerged a couple of thugs also came out. One, two, three... “Fourteen all in all.” The voice in my head gave out helpfully.

Mimisaki Takumi. That 2nd year guy, who was rumored to be trying to overthrow Aki. Another delinquent, unlike Aki though and his cronies this guy had a charming face. In fact if he isn’t seen with other delinquents you’d mistake him for an upstanding student, I heard his grades aren’t bad at all too.

“Why don’t I see what kind of strength you have.” He said giving me a charming smile, his eyes forming a U-shaped. Oi don’t say something so dangerous so cheerfully.

“What do you say little monkey, why don’t we show them the meaning of superiority?” The voice in my head cheerfully suggested as well.

Thus my life as a delinquent began earnestly.

Note: Tattoo's are not common in Japan, usually it is only Yakuza that have tattoo's. Visible tattoos are disdained to the point that having one can get you fired in your company. This is due to japanese culture, they once used tattoo marking as a sign of punishment for criminals. Hope that clears why Yamato is so adamant on removing the tattoo.