Puck could sense the culminated mass of negative energy that made up Mahito's entire being, and as a Great Spirit himself, he was sure that Mahito was also a spirit. However, he had no idea how such a spirit could even come to form this way. The only way he could think of was if he was artificially created.
"Who are you!? I've never heard of any spirit being created with such a heavy amount of negative energy!" Puck shouted out, trying to probe information while also trying to be discreet about his own origins from Emilia.
"I don't answer to tiny cats~ But I can turn you into a larger kitty if you want~!" Mahito responded in glee as he suddenly rushed forward, his speed too fast for Subaru to keep up with. However, Emilia and Puck reacted in time.
"Don't underestimate us!" Emilia raised her hand and shot some more sharp ice shards towards the approaching Mahito, while also making sure not to hit Subaru in the back.
"You should worry about yourself first~" Readying his fist, Mahito aimed for her face, which was then blocked by Puck's barrier.
The narrow alleyway favoured Emilia and Puck in this situation as Mahito didn't want to let this battle spread to the main road, not because he cared about lives or anything, but because he didn't want this to turn into a major piece of news and jeopardise Luke's reputation if too many people did find out.
'This isn't even fun...' Mahito was just dodging the ungodly amount of ice shards flying his way. He doubted they could sense their souls, meaning their lives were at the palm of his hands. But he did have a way of turning this into something actually entertaining.
'Damn, he's fast. But why is he holding back? He's not using his weird power to change his arms to attack us...' Puck thought while holding Mahito back. Granted, he didn't believe Mahito was that big of a threat; he was just concerned for Emilia in case she somehow did get hurt.
"Puck, maybe he's not as bad as you think. I feel like he doesn't want to kill us." Emilia spoke out innocently, but funnily enough, she was right in a way. Her attacking speed was slowly faltering as she figured that he wanted to surrender.
Meanwhile, Subaru was busy covering his head and lying down on the ground, scared for his life with how many attacks were zooming past him. 'WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME! I'M GLAD I FINALLY MET THE CUTE GIRL, BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH!'
Looking back at Subaru cowering on the ground, Mahito grinned maniacally. 'Watching the kid fight would be a lot more fun~!' Mahito thought before retreating backwards towards Subaru, crouching down to touch his head.
"Hey, he has nothing to do with this! We'll let you go, so just don't hurt him." Emilia grabbed Puck and stopped him from attacking further.
"Lia, let me go! An act like mercy doesn't exist for him!" Puck tried to make Emilia aware of their situation, watching as Mahito was doing something to the kid.
"It's a shame I couldn't find out your secret~ But you're probably not that special anyway~" Mahito licked his lips as he prepared to use his technique. "Idle Transfiguration..."
But in an instant, the grin on his face vanished as his eyes looked around the new foreign surroundings. It was an area filled with darkness and miasma. There seemed to be no exit out of the place, especially when he couldn't even move his body.
'What the hell is this. I know the kid didn't use any technique when I touched his soul-' The moment Mahito finished saying his words, his eyes snapped towards a distortion in the space.
It slowly took the shape of a woman wearing a dark veil and clothes, covering her figure and face. But the more important thing was that her mere presence shook Mahito's composure more than he would have liked to admit.
He couldn't even make an intelligent thought in his head; his mind was fully consumed with whether the person was going to kill him or not. This feeling of primal submission was similar to the pressure released by the King of Curses.
Her hands slowly went over his face. He could instinctively feel that she was directly touching his soul, able to exorcise him whenever she wanted. He waited in fear as she examined his entire being.
"NothimNothimNothimNothimNothimNothimNothimNothimNothim." Finally, the woman started repeating those two words in a distorted and angry tone, like a broken recording.
Then, she casually slapped away his body, forcing his soul out of that dark place. When his eyes readjusted, he was back in the same alley, with the others looking at him, startled.
'Shit! That woman almost destroyed my entire soul!' Mahito kneeled on the ground, trying to gain his bearings. He wouldn't die, but he couldn't risk getting even more injured.
He put his hand inside his mouth and puked out two transfigured mabeasts, the ones from that forest weeks ago. Then, he jumped up to the roof and ran away to safety.
On the ground, though, one of the three individuals was in trouble. For Emilia and Puck, dealing with two mabeasts was easy, but with how close Mahito was to Subaru when he summoned his transfigured souls, he would be the first one to be attacked.
"No way... You can't be serious!" Subaru desperately backed away towards the wall, facing the hideous beast who was also facing towards him. As the other one got killed by Emilia, it lunged at Subaru, managing to swipe at his arm before also being killed.
The shock of the attack was enough to knock him unconscious as Emilia approached him, with Puck being upset and on guard.
"Maybe we should just leave him here?" Puck suggested, not wanting to linger here any longer, and especially not wanting to help a potential threat.
"No way, Puck, he might know something about my insignia, and I can't just leave him after that evil spirit almost killed him!" Emilia spoke out righteously, believing that he was a thief but certainly not related to the spirit.
Letting out a sigh, Puck relaxed his shoulders and let Emilia help the boy. "You've always been too kind for your own good, Lia..."
Meanwhile, Mahito dragged his body back towards the inn. He climbed into the room through the window, surprising Higuruma, who was busy learning on the table.
Higuruma's blank expression shifted considerably as he looked at Mahito's dishevelled figure resting on the floor. "Did you finally get humbled by someone?" He asked Mahito in a casual tone.
"Just shut the hell up-" Mahito closed his eyes, focusing on repairing his soul, his voice and attitude clearly shaken up.
"You need to go to Luke... Tell him that a kid in a tracksuit is the vessel of a powerful sorcerer..." Mahito choked out, in great discomfort but still wanting to warn his friends.
"Sorcerer?" Higuruma caught on to the particular term used. But, not wanting to disturb Mahito's healing any more, he got up and left. He would rely on his own observation on whether this was another Jujutsu sorcerer.
Back towards the kid in question, Subaru had woken up and was now chatting with his two saviours. "I'm telling the truth. I really didn't steal your insignia, nor do I know who that guy was." He was busy clearing his own innocence.
"All I remember was a small girl in yellow clothes running through here. Maybe, she knows." He had surprisingly gotten over his near-death experience quite well, not wanting to bring it up again. 'At least, my mental fortitude increased, I guess... What a lame starter power up though...'
His internal lamenting got interrupted as Emilia brought her face reeeeaaaaal close to his, forcing her face to look intimidating to the point where it just looked cute instead.
Seeing that Subaru didn't break eye contact, she concluded that he was telling the truth. "Really? Then, I've wasted too much time here!" Her attitude took a complete change, becoming flustered. "Puck, quickly, we have to go!" She started walking away.
But, Subaru, wanting to stay close to Emilia, decided to offer his help. "Let me help. I know what the girl looks like, and if that guy comes back, he'll run away again after seeing me." He looked like he was proud of saying that last statement.
"..." Emilia didn't know whether to agree or not. She didn't want any more harm to fall on him. She also didn't know why he wanted to continue being close to her. Surely he was afraid of her being a half-elf.
"Alright then. But, I don't have any money in case you were looking for a reward for offering this." Emilia tried once again to deter him from following her, but Subaru still agreed enthusiastically.
'I don't know why I ran away like that, but I guess it's another one of my abilities. This is why I need the girl who summoned me to explain all my powers! But Emilia is also really cute~' Subaru thought while walking along with Emilia, happy that she accepted his offer.
Meanwhile, Higuruma had met up with Luke, who was still on his patrol. "Luke, Mahito got injured badly. According to him, a kid in a tracksuit did this to him, and he's a vessel for a Jujutsu sorcerer. However, I don't think that's the case."
"Huh? A kid in a tracksuit?" After thinking for a second, I almost broke out in a smile. 'They're clearly talking about Subaru, and that sorcerer must be Satella. I knew Mahito would try to touch Subaru's soul.'
"If that's the case, then follow me. I want you to meet a recent friend of mine. You're gonna like her a lot~" I started walking towards the direction of the slums, signalling him to follow me with my fingers.
"Are you not concerned? I don't believe it's the work of a Jujutsu sorcerer either, if that's what you're thinking." Higuruma walked beside me and shared his thoughts. He was also under the belief that Mahito had misjudged the situation due to fear.
"Don't worry, he'll recover. Besides, Mahito was most likely just talking from trauma. He had a similar experience with a powerful sorcerer before, so he's just being biased." I shrugged my shoulders in nonchalance. It's not that I didn't care about his health; it's just that it wasn't a serious issue.
"Alright. I'll believe you." Higuruma simply accepted my reasoning and silently walked beside me towards the slums. He didn't actually need my directions, however, since he had already memorised the geography of the capital.
Through the corners of my eyes, I silently kept checking around to see if I could see Subaru and Emilia walking around, to no avail. "Hey, just in case, see if anyone matches that description while we walk." I whispered to Higuruma to avoid suspicion.
Later, it was almost dark when we reached the slums. I deliberately walked slowly to allow Subaru and Emilia to arrive in time. I wanted Higuruma to beat Elsa here and prevent Subaru from dying, but also let him see that he was just small fry and not the overpowered main character that he thought he was.
But this was obviously very risky since not dying in the first arc could dramatically affect the story. However, I reasoned that since I was going to change a lot of things inevitably, I wasn't going to let Subaru suffer just because he 'had to'.
"You really are taking your time, Luke. Are you sure you can just quit your patrol like that?" Higuruma walked painfully slowly as he followed him. He had constantly checked for the kid and even managed to spot him with a girl at one point, but Luke told him not to engage. However, enhancing his hearing with Cursed Energy, he managed to hear snippets of their conversation. He then knew they were looking for an insignia that had been stolen by a girl.
"When you see why I brought you here, Hans would only have compliments for me~" I gave a smug grin as I saw the loot house in the distance. I glanced at him and saw that he had simply nodded at my response, and proceeded to start looking around at the people living here.
"There's nothing we can do for them. Fate was just unkind to them, that's all." I patted him on the back, knowing he was still emotionally confused from his recent summoning. He cracked a small smile and thanked me before focusing on the path ahead, already having deduced that I brought him here to fight someone.
I walked up the steps and put my ear to the door of the loot house, trying to hear if anyone was inside. I could hear some clanking of glasses, meaning Rom must have still been inside.
"Alright, here's the deal. I came here a week ago to see if a particular assassin was going to cause trouble, and I was informed that a highly valuable trade was going to occur here. You see where I'm going with this?" I nudged Higuruma lightly, not wanting to lie any more and let him fill in the dots on his own.
"You think this assassin's presence a week ago was too convenient to be in such close time proximity to a high-level deal. Additionally, you also expect that one of the items of trade will be the insignia that the girl connected to the boy was stolen from." He finished my reasoning aptly, placing his trust in me that I was telling him the truth.
"Yup, you got it. Now, we just jump in when we hear something bad. And to let you know, we can stop pretending now, good acting skills by the way~" I waved at a distant house, letting Subaru and Emilia know that they were following us.
If Higuruma could spot them, then there was no way Subaru and especially Puck would fail to spot us, too. Subaru recognised the suit that Higuruma was wearing, and Puck could sense the large amounts of negative energy flowing inside us. However, it wasn't of the same intensity as Mahito.
"It was my fault they spotted us in the first place, my apologies." Following proper social conduct, he admitted fault and lightly bowed his head. Then his expression slightly changed as if he sensed something.
Meanwhile, Emilia was berating Subaru childishly, saying that it was his fault they were discovered. "Lia, now is not the time for this. They clearly knew we were following them the entire time." Puck sat on her shoulders and interjected, keeping his eyes on us.
Subaru, on the other hand, waved back at us, feeling that at least we didn't seem to be dangerous. "Emilia-tan, we had to reveal ourselves eventually anyway. Maybe they didn't want to embarrass us and chose not to call us out immediately." Subaru started walking towards the loot house, beckoning Emilia and Puck to follow him.
Thinking that the explanation made sense, Emilia dumbly nodded, causing Puck to sigh in disappointment. "Well, at least he'll serve to be a good meat shield for you if they do decide to attack." Puck whispered quietly in her ear as they walked forward, prompting her to berate him again.
"YO! My name is Natsuki Subaru, and this is Emilia-tan. I hope there's no hard feelings, we just thought you two were the best leads for us right now..." Subaru spoke confidently but also warily, because Puck did say that the two possessed massive amounts of negative energy.
"So... What are you two doing? You look like a knight, so I'm assuming it's hero stuff." He asked, more directed towards Luke, who looked to be more socially available, rather than Higuruma, who was silently standing right by the door, looking almost creepy with his dead-fish-like eyes.
"Yeah, we're just hunting down an assassin. We got a tip that she'd be here." I said casually, much to the shock of the three. "They're doing an item trade right now, so I think she'll strike when she confirms its presence."
"That must be my insignia then!" Emilia exclaimed, glad that she found it, but worried because they would now have to face an assassin.
I glanced at the back towards Puck, who was looking at me with great suspicion. "Hello, Great Spirit, why the wary face?" I asked casually, still focusing on what was happening inside the house.
"Hmm... Just wondering why I'm getting the same vibes off you like from that spirit we just encountered." He responded, trying to probe my reaction. He was very likely certain that Higuruma and I were at least related to Mahito, but he probably still wanted to make sure with Emilia still around.
Before I could respond, all of our heads snapped towards the door as we heard the sounds of glasses breaking. Taking that as our sign, we kicked the door open, and there she was.
"Well, look who it is~ That one naughty knight from last week, followed by the half-elf~" Elsa was standing there with one of her kukri blades, standing in front of the scared Felt and Rom that were standing on guard nearby, probably having dodged Elsa's first attack.
"I did a bit of digging on you, and I've confirmed that you're that new spirit kni-" Before she could finish speaking, someone interrupted her with two words.
"Domain Expansion", Higuruma summoned the gavel in his hands and spoke out, his shikigami, Judgeman, appearing behind him.
"Deadly Sentencing." He slammed his gavel on the podium multiple times as our surroundings started changing to become something else.
'All of us inside? How is this gonna work?' I thought to myself as I stepped back, watching in awe as the Domain materialised, dreaming of the day I would achieve it too.
"Puck, what type of spell is this!? It's so amazing!" Emilia asked Puck, her eyes practically sparkling as her surroundings transformed so rapidly in front of her eyes.
"Domain Expansion? Is this one of those things where you transform the area to a favourable one to boost your stats or something?" Subaru called out, also witnessing the incredible spectacle before his eyes. But, there would always be someone who ruins the mood.
'Transforming the area to a favourable one? Interesting ability, but I won't let you complete it~' Elsa smiled seductively as she lunged towards Higuruma, aiming for his stomach. "I want to see if your bowels look as beautiful as your spell~!"
Higuruma, however, looked completely unfazed as he stood still. As the blade neared his head, her entire momentum completely stopped, shocking her.
"All violence in this Domain is prohibited." He said simply. Then, Elsa was teleported to a podium facing him, while the rest were left to watch from the sides.
"Now let's begin your trial."