Mercy

## Hidden Truth

A group of young men were seen walking down an alley way, each of them dressed in high school uniforms, talking and joking amongst one another. One was seen lighting up a cigarette and passed it amongst the rest.

"Hahaha! Did you see Fujiwara-chan during gym today?" The skinner one, the one leading the group of young men exclaimed as he took the cigarette, taking a large puff off of it. "Man did she look cute! And that rack of hers, sheesh! Say less! Hahaha!"

The group of young men laughed along with their leader, some grabbing cans of beer from their backpacks, cracking them open and all leaned against a wall in the alley. They each had smug and proud grins on their faces. the largest one let out a loud belch from the pit of their guts.

"Hm?" The tall young man muttered as he saw something. "Did that shadow just move?" He said out loud before a pair of hands appeared from the wall behind him and covered his mouth. His eyes widened but before he could react the hand swiftly, snapped his neck, killing the young man on that very instant, letting the corpse just drop down.

"What the fu-!" The leader yelled as his "henchman's body" fell on top of him. "Wo-woah b-bro?" As he reacted the same hands appeared and grasped the head of the others and snapped their necks, quicker than before! "B-boys!?!" He could feel it but quickly the young man ended up throwing up, looking at the corpses of his friends.

A large beast with an oversized head, having what seemed like a white mask let out a roar from it's very core! Reaching upward, the beast brought the arm down, aiming at the young man!

"Not so fast." A calm voice let out an order before five needles shot out and stabbed the Beast's arm, forcing it in place! "Hm a third grade cursed spirit. It took five needles to stop." She then glared as she saw the arm of the beast twitch. "I see..." the young lady brushed her pink hair out of her face pulling out another needle from her pouch. "Alright idiot, take it from here."

"Yooooooshaaaa!!!!" A loud battle cry was heard as a young teenaged boy let out, appearing and slamming a right fist against the Beast's masked face! "Alright! We found this guy pretty quick! Yo! Mai! You were ri-" before he could respond the cursed spirit's fist slammed into his cheek, yet unable to even move him from his position. "Hm?"

"Raaaaahhhhh! You litt-" as the cursed Spirit spoke, the young man Slammed a kick directly into the centre of it's face, the sheer force and magnitude of the kick ripped the spirit from inside out, causing it to busy and die.

"Man, dumbass spirits should learn not to touch me already." He said cockily, cracking his neck.

"Something's not adding up though," the pink haired Mai thought to herself as she observed the surrounding area. "A curse that weak couldn't have projected half that cursed energy we've been following. So there really must be something else going on here. But what are we..." Just as she mumbled to herself from the shadows surrounding the young man a gang of nine cursed spirit's arose! "Gio! Get out of there!" She exclaimed trying to warm her classmate of the danger.

"Hm?" Giovanni looked up only to be barrage of blows fr the nine identical cursed spirits! Each of them pinched, kick, scratched at him, trying to kill the young man, like wild a pack of wild beasts jumping at their prey.

"Seriously how troublesome are you things?" A lone voice says as a young man with long hair appeared at one end of the alley way, holding, slowly drawing his sword. "Both Spirits and my idiot partner, nothing but trouble, **Shadow Blade: Waltz**." He announced his attack, with that single instant there was only a slight pause before he appeared on the other side of the alley, sheathing his sword. A guest of wind filled the air as blackened sword strikes cut cleanly through each of the cursed spirit's bodies, down the middle.

"Next time maybe you two don't go off on your own like a pair of idiots." As he spoke coldly his sandal strap broke causing him to fall face first.

"Hahahahaha! Watch your step Shu! Next time you'd probably end up falling onto your sword!" Giovanni laughed, cleanching his gut, pointing at his fellow sorcerer.

"I wouldn't have tripped if I didn't have to come save your dumbass on the first place you Grade Four nobody!" The young Sorcerer replied, getting back to his feet enraged by the mocking of his classmate.

"Oh yeah!? Let's settle this already you overconfident little shit!" Giovanni yelled in return, pulling his sleeves up, readying himself for a fight.

The both of them slammed their foreheads into one another! Pushing each other back a step or two as their rage continued. Growling and eyes full of rage, clearly the two despite them working together just now, we're not the closest of friends. Before they could go any further two swift fists appeared and slammed into their heads, knocking them to the ground!

"Will you both shut up!" Mai yelled at her teammates who were on the floor now. "In case you two didn't notice, seeing as you rushed to destroy those spirits, they didn't radiate the same amount of cursed energy that we're been tracking. What does that tell the both of you?"

"Ummm..." Both of the young men paused and looked up toward the sky, with Gio losing his focus and simply staring at a cloud while the other was legitimately thinking on how to answer the question.

After letting out a big sigh of disappointment Tatsu shrughed her shoulders. "It means those were nothing more but pawns, lesser spirits used to either distract us or weaken us. But seeing as nothing's come out yet, it's probably the lesser." She said picking up her needles from the floor. "Whatever, let's get going back to the rendezvous point before sensei gets mad at us for being late again. Seriously I expect this level of unprofessionalism from Gio but you too Shinji?"

The long purple haired swordsman stood to his feet and adjusted his scabbard. "I slipped is all, it won't happen again. I'll make sure of that, so don't worry so much."

With a chuckle into his hand Giovanni murmured, "that's what you said when you slipped and fell into the pool back at school, and then you kept falling in every time we go to the pool!." He laughed pointed at Shinji.

"Oi! I said shut up already! Unless you want the next thing I cut being your neck you stupid grade four trash!"

"I would like to see you try you won of a-" before Gio or Shinji could continue both of their ears were grasped by Tatsumaki'd hand, dragging them away. Unbeknownst to her, a small shadow squirmed, slithering it's way into her shadow.