She quickly ran across rooftops again; she went to various shrines, hoping for something but getting nothing.
"Ha~… I don’t even know where to look at this point. I’m just walking around… Tokugawa said I was most likely spirited away by a god or something, but… gods don’t have access to their arcanum? It’s similar to when Cirrus met Nyx. If that’s the case, grr!! Dammit! No matter! I’ll just keep going to Lord Susanoo shrines here in Japan and if that’s not enough, I’ll go to this Greece and pray at Artemis’s shrines!"
She kept exploring the Tokyo area until it was night.
"Grumble! Damn, I’m hungry now. I guess a break will be pretty good." She jumped down into an alley and blended into the crowd.
She walked around for a while until a scent got her attention.
'Oh? That smells pretty good!'
She followed what her nose told her was delicious, and that was a rundown-looking restaurant.
"… At least my Immunity rank is pretty high." She enters the restaurant to find it empty aside from the man who runs it.
"Welcome, what can I get you… um miss, are you perhaps lost?"
"No, I smelled something good. So I entered." She went and sat down at the counter. "Can I get your best dish? And make it large."
"Sure thing!" he said with enthusiasm.
Ai waited for the food to be ready when the door to the restaurant opened. In came a young boy 17 years of age. He had a very child-like face with curly hair and a mole above the left side of his lip.
"Hey, can I get some ramen? Firm please!"
"Right away, sir!"
The young man went and sat a seat over near Ai.
"So… where are you from?" he said, glancing at her.
"If you’re trying to pick me up, you know I’m already married, and I have a child."
"Is that so?" he said with great surprise. "You look really young!"
"Thank you, but I can say the same for you. You're what? 15… 17?"
"17 actually, and your, I say... 19? No 18!"
"Around there, tell me, are you with those guys who were following me for about 10 minutes ago?"
"… You were followed?"
The door opened again to an enormous, tall, brown-skinned man with short black hair and a thin mustache. Even with loose clothing, one could still see the extremely developed muscles underneath his clothes.
"Ah, Baki!" he said with a big smile. "I didn’t expect to see you here!"
"Mr. Olivia? Why are you here?"
"Well, I’m here for her."
Baki turned to Ai, who was still waiting for her meal.
"Are you a criminal?" he asked.
"I never broke any laws, and if I did, it was because of that man named Yujiro."
"!!" Baki was a bit stunned to hear his father’s name leave her lips. "W-what did you do?"
"Food is here!" the man said, putting down a large bowl of ramen.
Ai broke the chopsticks and began to eat, not bothered at all by their questions.
"Baki, the U.S., tasked me with bringing her in to sign a contract like your father."
"W-what! You're that strong!" he said, looking at her with amazement.
"Very, from satellite images, we found that she was the one who struck your father, sending him through six buildings. We only barely found her since I received word of a man called Musashi cutting down police officers here."
"Unless you have a good reason for bringing me in, then leave. I don’t wish to answer questions when I am busy," Ai said, blowing on the ramen.
"I am sorry, miss, but I have my orders."
"Oh?" She glanced at him. "Then stand at the door and block it. You can say you are doing your job by not letting me escape. Then how about that?"
"That is fine. I can wait until you are finished eating." Olivia stood by the door, waiting.
The restaurant was dead silent. The only sound was the man cooking and Ai eating the ramen. The man then brought Baki a bowl of ramen as well, but his gaze never left her.
"Ah~ delicious!" She reached back and put down 2000 yen. "Keep the change!" she got up and as she was about to leave, Baki got up as well.
"Miss… can I ask for a fight?"
Ai looked him up and down quickly.
"Mmm… Outside, you Olivia, step aside if you will."
He got out himself, and they all left the restaurant.
Out on the street, Baki stretched while Ai simply kept her hands in her pockets.
‘I can’t feel anything from her… Did she really send my dad through six buildings? She doesn’t look anything special aside from her purple eyes and bleached hair.’ Baki thought examining Ai methodically.
He looked at her and really wasn’t in any position or stance. There were several openings.
‘I just have to take it!!’
He kicked off suddenly like a cockroach. His first move was a light-speed jab, a move he used to knock out Musashi with.
Thud!
"…Eh?"
She wasn’t even looking when she grabbed his right fist.
"Nice punch, if only you were faster." She then grabbed his fist tightly.
"!!" It was as if his hand was being held down by Hanayama and Olivia at the same spot.
The grip was airtight. The more he struggled, the more energy he wasted. Since he couldn’t remove his fist, he jumped up and went in with a left jap, but she then swung him up as he weighed as much as a feather.
‘T-this feeling!! It’s like his!!’
Baki remembered his fight with his father, he did not like what was gonna happen next.
"Maybe some other time."
"!!!!!!!!"
When next his eyes registered were a complete blur of his surroundings, he felt this way before when he fought his father, but far, far, far more severe, as the next time his eyes could not see a blur, it was the open night sky, followed by the passing of wind.
Whoosh!!
Whoosh!!
Whoosh!!
"Ah. I think I pissed my pants again." Baki said unintentionally smiling as he plumets to the earth.
Back on the street, Olivia was stunned beyond belief. One second Baki was throwing a jab, and the next he was gone.
"You better catch him. I threw him about 8 stories high. I heard that was the minimum height at which fatality is 100%," Ai said, waking away.
"W-what!?" He looked up to see a color coming down.
‘She’s really a damn monster!! How can she throw Baki that high with such a small frame!!’
Olivia watched as she blended and disappeared into the crowd of people. He looked up and watched where Baki was going to fall, and after a few seconds, Baki was in sight, and he caught him.
"I got you kid!!!" Olivia shouted grabbing him.
Thud!!!
When he caught him, he was breathing heavily and his body was shaking.
"Huff!! Huff!! S-she’s a real monster, Huff!! Huff!! I didn’t think someone could be stronger than Dad."
"Yeah…" Olivia looked at the crowd. "Me neither."
While returning to Tokugawa’s home, Ai could finally pin down what had been looking at her for a while now.
'It's not north, south, east, or west of me? It has no emotion to this gaze?' She closes her eyes and stands still.
"..." She could feel this empty gaze from above her. "Oh? Lets see if it can keep up with me."
She ran as fast as she could to the very outskirts of Tokyo and looked up into the night sky.
Her pupils sharpened and sharpened till they were as thin and sharp as the edge of her blade.
She saw it slowly getting her into view.
"Found you, you stalker!" She got one of the chopsticks from the ramen shop and held it as if it were her katana on her waist. "(When the bell tolls 108 times, gather the eight serpents.
No offerings of sacrifice to the earth, wind, fire, water, thunder, poison, light, and darkness.
I offer you steel and the clear sky.) [Murakumogiri]!!!!!"
From up in space, several satellites were trying to find Ai again, but from what the other satellites picked up around the time was a strange phenomenon that even reached the nearby cities.
They parted the clouds in a vertical line over the skies of Japan. The end goal was the destruction of what was keeping surveillance on her. The effect?
WHOOSH!!!
WHOOSH!!!
WHOOSH!!!
Fierce winds reached the surrounding area of her slash.
"There, finally, I can get some privacy." Ai then went back to going back.
For many, the winds were very odd, but for the martial artists, they felt a being beyond their comprehension wash over them. Most felt an unnerving feeling; some felt joy at such a being existing; and one felt an unbearable amount of fury.
"That damn bitch!!! I want to fucking fight her!!!" Yujiro’s blood was boiling over as he had been training himself for a long time.
