Chapter 353: Oni meets Vampire.
Some hours later.
After having finished making his personal preparations and synchronizing his plan with the plan Scathach had created, Victor was back at Japan's most famous intersection.
The Shibuya Crossing.
"Hmm~ Hmm~" Victor was standing on top of a building, on his shoulder was Ophis who was sitting, she was back in her gothic dress, and on his left side he was holding Nero's hand.
"Let go of me, please..." Nero felt quite shy.
Victor looked at the little girl who was wearing an outfit similar to the outfit he had given her in Greece. She had a cute expression, red eyes, and white hair that fell to her waist.
Unlike before, she wasn't wearing a mask.
If Victor's acquaintances didn't know about Nero's incident, they would definitely think that this little girl was his and Violet's daughter.
"You're still not used to your new body, what happened a few minutes ago?"
Nero's face turned a little red, and her long white hair covered her face. She'd tried to use her strength as usual, but it turned out that she jumped a lot higher than she should have and hit her face on the ground.
Even simple things like holding a glass, or opening a doorknob proved to be quite difficult for the current Nero.
Whenever she tried to walk, or run, she'd put in more force than necessary, and end up walking through walls.
She had a new strength she wasn't used to, and it was causing damage to her surroundings and herself.
Because of that, Victor was holding her.
Even now, Nero was holding Victor with 'normal' strength...
Normal by her old standard, because if Victor were a human, his hand would already be pulverized.
"Well, this is kinda cute..."
Hearing a woman's voice, Victor looked back and saw Jeanne and Anna.
"Why are you even here?"
"Bored."
"I'm curious about this event." Jeanne answered truthfully unlike Anna who lied.
She was curious about the event too, but she would never say that.
"I see... I thought Scathach would give you guys trouble like she did the other girls."
"She doesn't trust us enough for that."
"... And that's justifiable, we haven't talked to each other in years." Jeanne said:
"And we are weaker than we were in the past." Jeanne continued.
"Tsk, I'm not weak, it's this damn bloodlust." She spoke as she glared at Victor.
"...." Ophis narrowed her eyes and hugged Victor's head.
"Mine."
"..." Anna's brow twitched slightly:
"I'm technically your Mother, you know?"
"Mother is dead. And my other mothers are Father's Wives."
"...." Anna and Jeanne were speechless when they heard what Ophis said.
"... Pfft." Anna put her hand over her mouth.
'Vlad has lost his daughter... The daughter of the woman he'd loved most... HAHAHAHA~, SERVES YOU RIGHT, LOSER!'
She was trying hard not to laugh like a madwoman.
"..." Victor showed a small smile when he heard what Ophis said, and then said:
"How can we trust someone who is hiding their real name?"
"…Eh?" Anna felt her brain grow colder as she heard what Victor said.
"You noticed, huh." Jeanne spoke.
"Jeanne!?"
"You can hide it very well, but your body is honest." Victor's smile grew a little.
"Micro expression, heartbeat, breathing, everything."
"When a person lies, it's easy to tell by these factors."
"...You're telling me that you can observe all this while talking to people."
"Yes, after all, I perceive time differently." He flashed a small smile, and then turned to look at a spot.
He started to see people coming.
"...Honestly, that is scary..." She was honest.
'Being in front of him means that any act will be practically useless. He will understand everything even if I try to lie... Wait...' Noticing an incongruity in the situation, she asked:
"Why are you telling me this?"
"..." Victor displayed a small smile when Jeanne realized an important point, after all, he didn't necessarily need to reveal this to her.
"... Who knows?" He replied as he stroked Ophis' head.
"..." Seeing Victor's attitude, Jeanne and Anna narrowed their eyes, but soon they remembered Scathach's words.
"Out of respect for you as old acquaintances, I won't meddle in this matter, if you want to talk to my disciple you can go ahead." Her smile grew.
"I don't care what you want from my disciple... But just know one thing, he's not a normal person. Your usual tricks will be completely useless, HAHAHA~."
Did Scathach trust the two women? A little, but not completely.
The only reason she didn't stop the two women from approaching Victor was simply because,
She completely trusted the man's ability to judge the situation.
And there was another small reason, Victor was not a child.
In the same way that she wanted Victor not to see her as a fragile woman, she also didn't want him to be a fragile man who depended on her for everything.
After all, it was very easy to depend on someone to do things, but very difficult to take the initiative to do something.
Victor must see, observe, learn, experience and deal with the situation himself.
It was this trust that Scathach Scarlett had with her disciple.
Trust that Victor had never broken because he is who he is. She knew that if it were up to Victor, he wouldn't ask anyone for help when he came to Japan and started causing chaos.
He was that kind of person.
Someone very much like her.
Because of this, she and the girls themselves volunteered to help.
It wasn't out of obligation, or because he was her disciple, and her daughter's husband, but because they wanted to. Their relationship was based on trust, and trust didn't need words, it needed action!
That was one of the reasons Victor didn't ask anything when the group showed up. He'd completely understood what happened when the girls showed up.
'Ugh, this is going to be difficult...' Jeanne thought. She didn't know how to try to convince Victor to do what she was going to propose, after all, what she was going to propose was just madness.
Looking at Anna, she nodded slightly. The two of them knew each other well enough to understand each other's thoughts without needing to talk.
They decided they would wait and watch the man himself more.
"Father..." Ophis squeezed Victor's head tighter as she felt people coming.
"Don't worry, my daughter. Unlike before, I am here." He stroked her head.
He displayed a gentle smile and looked at Ophis:
"...no one will dare do anything to you while I'm here."
"Mm." She nodded her head and hugged him tighter.
"..." Nero looked around, and remembered the scene that happened a week ago.
'They don't dare get close to Victor...' She observed several Yōkai keeping a relatively wide distance from Victor, and looking at the man with a fearful expression as cold sweat broke out on their heads.
'The man's presence alone is enough to make them all shit themselves in fear.' Nero laughed in amusement when she realized this.
Honestly, it was quite refreshing for her to be on the side of the 'strong'.
She even felt like she could breathe better.
"Sigh, finally this event is coming, this past week has been pretty intense."
'Ugh, that voice...' Nero, Victor, Ophis, Jeanne, and Anna looked towards the voice.
"Hahahaha~. I still remember our girls dried you to death."
"Shut your mouth, female Oni are just too thirsty, and I was 20! Have mercy on my soul!" Shuten Douji felt quite terrified, he thought he was going to die from snu snu.
"Yeah, Yeah, Mr Lucky is talking." Ibaraki douji was quite grumpy.
"Are you still upset!?"
"Not just me, all the men in the Clan are upset."
"It's not like I took these girls because I wanted to! You know our traditions, the women who choose!"
The two men's Oni Clan population was 8 to 2.
That is, among ten people, eight were women, and two were men.
"Tsk, all this because you are thin and handsome." Ibaraki douji spat on the floor.
He knew that their leader was popular because he looked quite different from the common Oni. He was thin, tall enough, and didn't have much muscle.
He was an 'ikemen', a very handsome man.
And for the Oni women who were thirsty, he was a delicious dish walking. Most of the women of his Clan were tall, muscular, and had a warrior-like attitude.
They were like less muscular versions of Ibaraki Douji himself.
And because of that, Shuten Douji was quite popular, he was damn irregular!
Their village also practiced a rather old-fashioned kind of tradition. Women chose their mates, and if any man was offended by this, they were supposed to fight the man chosen to prove he was a better fit.
But no one would dare to do that, after all, Shuten Douji was the leader of the Onis for a reason.
He was strong, and everyone in his village knew it, but that didn't mean they couldn't get angry and talk about it.
"Ugh, I cursed you, I hope at the next harvest festival, you don't get any partners." He struck a prayer pose and began to speak a buddha mantra.
"I really hope God hears you this time. You talked the same shit last year, and the number this year had practically doubled! I wouldn't be surprised if half the village had my sons now."
"And you're praying to the wrong god! Buddha will not accept such destructive thoughts!"
"Really? But didn't he banish Sun Wukong?"
"Are we really going to talk about this now?"
"Meh, we have nothing better to do."
"Could we-... Hmm?" Sensing several eyes on him, Shuten douji looked towards the gaze.
And he looked at the tall man confused:
'Do I know him from somewhere?'