What Shiki did not know was that the girl inside the sealed room might be as ignorant of current events as he thought.
*
As Shiki began his assault on the facility . . .
'Someone new is here.' In an empty void, a cold, seemingly emotionless voice sounded out.
'And they're not with the wastes keeping us here.' An almost gleeful but cruel and sadistic voice responded.
Minutes passed.
'Presences keep vanishing.' The emotionless voice sounded out again.
'The newcomer seems to be going on quite the killing spree . . . How envious.' The gleeful voice poutine responded.
Yet, unquenchable hatred could be felt from her voice, buried rage and bloodlust struggling to be unleashed.
'They're like an all-consuming void of emotion, I can only tell something is there because it is too empty.' The gleeful voice continued with unrestrained curiosity dripping from her tone.
'I like the silence of his mind . . .' The emotionless voice trailed off.
Silence settled in.
'You like something?' The gleeful voice now sounded more shocked than gleeful.
'After dumping all your emotions onto me . . . Since when do you feel things like liking?' It questioned.
Once again silence took over the void-like space.
Each second felt like an eternity.
'I don't know?' An uncertain response delivered more like a question aimed at nobody in particular.
Something seemed to tin the previously completely emotionless voice, a trace of confusion, perhaps even . . . expectation?
'***************************************************************' The very emotional voice launched into a string of very colorful language it had collected over years of mind probing.
The emotionless voice offered no further comment.
Soon however, both voices, or rather, the two consciousnesses behind them turned their attention back to the object of interest that set off their discussion in the first place.
'The mind of the strongest guard has gone silent.' The emotionless voice made an observation.
'Shame I didn't get to do it myself. His two lackeys followed him to oblivion as well, actually, his woman seemed to have gone before . . .' Sadistic joy creeped into the gleeful voice's tone.
'He seemed quite composed but the inner turmoil was absolutely delicious.' It commented with a sick joy.
The two consciousnesses then tracked the mind void, as they called it, sweeping through the prison that held them, silencing every mind it came across.
Minutes trickled by . . .
'The mind void seems to not have silenced that man's mind . . .' The emotionless voice suddenly commented.
'Ahhhh . . . The architect of our suffering . . . Well . . . My suffering since you dumped everything onto me.' The previously gleeful, sadistic or hatred filled void now sounded more complex yet somehow theatrical.
'Is it . . . bringing him to us?' The animated voice questioned, barely contained expectation, filling the consciousness behind it.
'That seems to be the case.' The emotionless voice definitely did not sound nearly as emotionless though it was hard to pinpoint any particular feeling from their tone.
Yes . . .
As one might have guessed, these two voices are two consciousness inhabiting the body of the facility's prisoner and research subject.
And now, both of them seemed to be developing a rapidly increasing and quite possibly not very healthy fixation with Shiki who had clearly come looking for them.
Two very different voices debating each other in the same mental space . . . Not exactly the picture of mental health.
In fact, as of yet, most of the boy's knowledge on Onikuma Maiko came from the facility's records.
The girl herself was under so many seals for the duration of his stake out that directly observing her never led to many results.
Once again, Shiki found himself desiring more powerful sensory methods.
The advantage of having all the data ahead of time while everyone else remained in the dark . . . It was fruit so sweet and addicting he simply could not bear to give it up.
That said, he also recognized his growing dependency on the information gap between him and his foes.
Not using it would be foolish but the boy felt the need to learn and get used to acting without it.
*
Back to the present, Shiki stood at the door well, more like a gate, to Onikuma Maiko's cell.
The head researcher, Dr. Kumogami, still trembled in the corner, bound, terrified and at the mercy of anyone that came by.
Cracking his neck, Shiki got to work undoing the seals.
'They have Seal Keys to unlock these but that won't undo them, just open them temporarily. They put these seals on the room and on the girl with the expectation that they would never be removed.' The boy concluded.
As for him, merely unlocking the seals was not good enough.
Only by getting rid of them entirely would he be able to demonstrate sufficient "sincerity", as he called it, to the girl inside.
'Either way, if Onikuma Maiko proves to be ungrateful, the match up with her favors me greatly in terms of compatibility so subduing her ought to pose no issue.' Shiki thought to himself.
Back, the seals, the boy peeled away the first layer, making the metal gate unlock with a heaving *clank*.
Light from the room he was in spread into the dark, lightless cell and revealed the appaling sight, one his sensory abilities had previously recorded.
The entire room was covered in dense sealing script but that was not what called attention.
An iron maiden like device was suspended in the center of the room, held aloft by thick chains binding and wrapping around it while anchoring the device to various points in the floor, walls and ceiling.
The "iron maiden" itself was small, fitted to its similarly diminutive captive.
It tightly clamped down on the body inside with a claustrophobic grip but, as if that was not enough, "sealing nails", special metal rods were inserted into the device, through the body of the girl, coming out of the other side.
Shiki went down to one knee and touched his hand to the sealing script on the floor, closing his eyes with intense concentration.
Meanwhile, two consciousnesses filled with curiosity and anticipation, each in their own way, meticulously observed him working.
After a few minutes, the boy's chakra began scraping out across the room, dissolving the sealing script.
The moment that happened, the chains holding the iron maiden like metal sarcophagus shattered with Shiki flickering forwards to catch the falling device, perfectly killing the momentum so as to not hurt the one inside him unnecessarily.
Honestly, that level would likely not even register to the girl by this point but the care did not go unnoticed in the slightest.
Setting down the sarcophagus, the boy once again began the deep chakra scan to learn how to best undo the sealing.
'Quite thorough. The rods do most of the sealing work as "nails" but the device can be opened without removing to gain access to the one inside.' Shiki analyzed.
'However, opening the device without first removing the "nails" makes it all but impossible to remove them afterwards without killing the sealed individual, allowing for access with a minimized threat to security.'
'Therefore, I must first undo the sealing around the "nails" and remove them before cracking open the device itself.' The boy concluded.
'This is turning out to be quite an advanced case study in fuinjutsu . . .'
'The quality too . . . Feels like Uzumaki make but . . . With Uzushio still standing, the shared knowledge should not be enough to make something like this.'
With that epiphany, all kinds of alarm bells began ringing within Shiki's mind.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -