-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Doom Fest(7): An assassin in the train-

Kenshin’s hesitation about if he should go look at the monster that had somehow gone from stage one to stage two vanished in a second the moment he received Trixii’s call. In the past, he hesitated a lot to have a confrontation against a family of a province, but now, he would be going against a guild that controlled a region as large as a small scale city.

Granted, the family didn’t actively seek trouble with his family, opting to send assassins directly to him, but could same be said for a guild that dabbles in child pornography, and god knows how many more dark dealings? Definitely not!

They will use every sort of tricks in their sleeves to track him down and force him to submit. In such a case, if those guys targetted Mrs. Yui, Ellie, or others, what would he do? Even Chiba wouldn’t be able to fight with one of them, let alone a few at the same time. He had fought with the whole gang, and he was very clear about their strengths and weaknesses. These guys could have wiped the floor with the asses of nearly any hunter available in Mito, even Suguro.

‘Before they reach me, I will find and destroy them.’ With his mind made and heart set on the task, he boarded the train available to Mito and left as soon as possible. While inside the train, he dialed Joy’s number. The guy picked up after a long ringing, “Kenshin!? What happened?”

“Joy, where are you?” asked Kenshin with a calm tone. His tremendous willpower kept him calm and cool despite the rapidly escalating situation, allowing him to plan ahead of time.

“Me? I am… well… I am in a… ahem…saloon. What happened?” he sounded flustrated while answering, Kenshin realized instantly what he was doing and couldn’t help but sigh in annoyance. Talk about a horn dog, this dude sticks it wherever he finds a hole.

“Stop whatever you are doing and go back to the house. We are being targeted by a guild’s assassins… you know what to do, right?” Kenshin said with a calm voice. His eyes moved around the only passenger in the compartment, who was a well-built man in a sports attire with a headphone on, probably listening to music.

Miles away, Joy, who was receiving a sensual massage at the hands of a pretty lady, sat up, throwing the white sheet down that covered his backside. Signaling the pretty lady to keep quiet for a second, he said, “alright, I know.” Then he cut off the call and looked at the lady with an apologetic look, “Meere, I think we should do this someday later… I have to go.”

“Eh, alright. No problem.” The pretty lady smiled serenely, something that was very rare in her line of work. Joy gave her a pensive look before saying, “you know if you want, I can…”

“We already had this discussion, Joy. Let’s not have this talk anymore, okay?” the lady cut him off with that smile still not leaving her face, she gently caressed Joy’s face with her soft hands, “my status… I don’t want to ruin your standing in society. I know you don’t care about this stuff, but I do. So, let’s not have this discussion anymore, okay?”

“I won't give up, you hear me, I will never give up.” Joy said in a conviction before dressing himself up and leave the room, leaving behind the beautiful woman with a sad smile. How often she dreamed of a romantic encounter with a handsome man when she was young, and yet, her wretched fate landed her in this place. And now, when she had already gotten used to this new life, she finally encountered the one she always waited for… such was her tragic life.

“I wish you met me five years ago, Joy… maybe life would have been different from now…”

Unknown to the lady’s lament, Joy ran downstairs of the apartment complex he bought for her and to the parking. This time he didn’t bring Kenshin’s car, or more like, he couldn’t. Ever since Kenshin in his drunken stupor rambled on and on about how his car was being dirtied and used for picking up girls, Ena had taken it upon herself to guard its keys with her life.

Kenshin cut off his phone and pocketed it, silently dropping it into his inventory. Then he looked at the only man in the compartment and slowly stood up from his sitting position. As he did so, he started to mutter, loud enough for the man to hear, “I got the intel that seven assassins were dispatched to kill me. Among them, four people headed towards Mito… then what about the other three? Definitely, they would send at least two to try and crack into the Hunters’ Academy… then what about the last one? Where is he heading to… who is his target?” then he looked at the man, who was looking at him from the corner of his eyes and said leisurely, “you know something about it, buddy?”

“You said something?” the man looked at Kenshin in the eye, and then suddenly, his black eyes flashed gray. A sick yellow aura emerged from them and started to slowly cover Kenshin’s body, starting from his legs to upwards.

“Petrifiction Gaze, eh? A very nifty as well as a practical technique for an assassin,” Kenshin mumbled still looking at the man’s eyes that rapidly widened when heard Kenshin calmly describing his skill’s name as well. He abandoned his carefree posture and jumped back, assuming a defensive stance. The bag behind him shredded to pieces, revealing two short tantos.

“As expected, you are a formidable opponent indeed…” the man said coldly, his voice didn’t contain any emotions, completely unlike the passenger persona he adapted just now, who asked him in curiosity, “I don’t know how you know about my skills, but since you know it’s name and function, you must have also known that it was an absolute technique, once cast, can’t be avoided or undone by anyone aside from me,”

“Indeed, it would have been absolute normally… but unfortunately, it won’t work on me.” Kenshin said calmly as a light red aura burst from his body, covering it in a thin layer of film. The yellow light that was rapidly covering his body from legs to up, reaching to his thighs, suddenly stopped and gradually started to recede.

“What?” the man, as expected, was surprised beyond belief. He lost his cool and looked at Kenshin flabbergasted. This had never happened in his life, since the moment he received this skill, he had never failed to petrify someone. In his guild, he even got the moniker of ‘The Male Gorgon,’ one of the B ranked assassins who had never failed to kill his target.

“Surprised, eh? You should be. Anyway, you have shown enough of your skills, now it’s time for you to die.” Said Kenshin as he flashed his sword, sending an energy arc toward’s man’s neck.

“Not today. I am not that easy to kill.” Saying so, his body started to turn transparent as he started to vanish rapidly. But a few seconds later, his transparent body suddenly became solid as he looked at Kenshin in horror.

“Vanishing Path, a movement type skill, that makes you invisible while you run away with high enough speed to touch upon the boundary of sound. At the same time, it makes you immune to all crash damages, as you become intangible, able to pass through solid walls. Again, another useful skill for an assassin… damn, aren’t you pulling out useful skills one after another like it’s nobody’s business?” Kenshin rambled, looking at the man in annoyance.

“Who, who are you?” the man could only ask in horror as he looked Kenshin in the eye, but this time he didn’t dare to use his skill. He was too afraid to do anything.