“I’m not the same girl you fought last time, you old coot!” Kejoro shouted as she leaped towards the masked man with unrivalled speed, closing the considerable distance between them in a singular movement. “Let’s see you keep up with me now!” Her re-enforced hair blade began slicing around just as quickly, aiming for the man’s vitals. Although to Niko, it just like the girl was just thrashing around aimlessly.

“You never learn, do you?” the man sighed as he ducked and dodged with surprising agility. “You’re so confident in your power that it blinds you” Catching the tip of Kejoro’s blade with his right hand, he pulled her in close, causing his opponent to flail wildly.

“Get ya wrinkly old face away from me!” the woman screeched, saliva trothing at the corners of her mouth as she tried to break free of his grasp. “Listen to me or I swear to god, I’ll fucking castrate you!”

Yet another sigh escaped from underneath the old man’s mask. “At this rate, you really will die today, Keji” he said, sounding somewhat disappointed. “I thought you had changed? Well no matter, let’s just call this a learning experience, yes? ”

“Huh? Have you gone senile, ya delusional old man? What makes you think you’ve won this shit? I’ve still got a whole lot of fight left in me! Just you wait till I get free, I’m gonna tear your…”

The masked man flicked Kejoro’s forehead nonchalantly, interrupting her furious yelling mid-sentence. Normally such an action would result in little more than a small stinging sensation for a couple of seconds, but when such a powerful individual was the one doing it, naturally it was going to play out differently. The flick was so strong that it sent Kejoro rocketing back, forcing her to smash into the wall imprinting a Kejoro-sized crater onto it. Niko could only really liken the scene to when he squashed a bug against a wall, but only more dramatic and much more destructive.

More importantly, the attack from the masked man had knocked the girl clean out, the moment it connected with her, which in turn let the bindings trapping Niko to fall to the ground, freeing him completely. Quite honestly, the teenager was surprised that the battle was over so quickly, despite Kejoro being such a powerful being. However, he was much more concentrated on the man walked calmly towards him. If he could fell someone of Kejoro’s power in one hit, then Niko could simply kiss the rest of his life goodbye.

Seeing him tense up, the man chuckled heartily. “Relax, boy” he said, dusting his opponent’s leftover hair off of his suit. “I’m here to help you. How’s your leg feeling?”

To Niko’s surprise, he no longer felt any pain from where Kejoro had skewered him earlier, despite the fact that the wound was throbbing and bleeding like hell a couple of seconds ago. This guy was just full of surprises apparently, but only one thing really mattered to Niko in that very moment.

“What the hell are you?”

The man appeared to furrow his brow in deep thought, though with the mask Niko couldn’t be sure of what facial expression he was making.

“I’m…a bounty hunter of sorts. Yes, a bounty hunter” he replied, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “I go around defeating evil spirits and the like, it’s a hobby of mine”

To be honest, Niko personally couldn’t really see the appeal of mass murdering spirits for fun, but at this point it was simply best to just nod and agree with him. After all he did just save his life and having this man turn on him would be catastrophic.

“Well, thanks for saving me. I fell for plan and got separated from my friends, you see” Niko replied as he glanced over at the unconscious Kejoro, who had now peeled off of the wall and was lying in a pile on the floor. “Thanks to you, I can see them again”

“Ah, anything to help a fellow human being, my boy. Well, I’ve got to get a move on, looks like Keji’s already given us the slip” the masked man said, nodding towards the pile of hair on the floor that had successfully as Kejoro’s substitute. “Maybe I’ll stop by Masahiro soon as well, I haven’t seen Big Sis Hanako in a while, it’ll be good to rest and catch up like old times”

Human? THIS GUY WAS A HUMAN !?!

“W-Wait, fellow human? Given the slip? Big Sis Hanako?” Niko stammered as the masked man bowed his head and headed towards the door. “How do you know Masahiro? What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it next time I see you, till then keep you head on your shoulders, Niko” the masked man said, calmly and walked out of the room and down the corridor, leaving the completely bewildered teenager standing there covered in stray hair, bloody trousers and in a state of absolute confusion.

As always, just when Niko thought that he was beginning to understand how things worked in his new life, he realised he, in fact, knew nothing.