London Mayhem (2/2).

The man screamed before answering.

"I-i don't know!!"

"Hmph right, I believe you." Saying that, Ichigo crushed the hand into a paste and moved his foot on the shoulder, before asking once again.

"Where, did you find, these books?" He put more pressure with every word.

"S-someone g-gave it to us. It's the same for all of us!" The man shouted back.

"You are saying that someone gave you these seven books and you didn't question their objectives?" Ichigo asked removing his foot after cleaning the blood on it.

"The-they gave one to each of us. We killed the other four to get their books as well." The man replied holding his crushed hand.

"Who are they and why didn't you stop using them of they didn't give you any results?" Ichigo asked, recalling Zangetsu back. The other man had bled out and was barely conscious.

"W-we don't know who they are. All of them were wearing black robes. We couldn't see their faces. Their voices were also unrecognizable. The first ritual in all these books were the same and they worked. It gave us our strength back." The man replied fearfully looking at his dead fellows.

"What do you mean by giving you your strength back?" Ichigo asked.

"We are, were all old. The first ritual required one sacrifice and it gave us our youth." The man said after looking around and failing to find an escape route.

Now that he looked, all three of them, well the few pieces of the thirds head, had white hair but their faces looked young. More like men in their thirties than the hair color suggested.

"The remaining rituals?" Ichigo asked back with disgust. These were old men who had lived their lives but still clinged on to it like some leeches. He agreed though that the promise of longer and healthier life would entice a lot of humans.

"None of the others succeeded." The man answered back.

"So you kept trying and trying until you succeeded? How many people have you killed with this... this greed?" Ichigo asked with even more disgust.

"Twenty seven." The man replied in a daze.

"Hmph, don't tell me that you realized your mistake and that you will never do it again. Too late for that old man." Ichigo said as he opened Hell's Gate. The gate opened quickly and he kicked the dead body and the dying man inside. He looked at the third one, pointed at the open gate and said.

"Do you see that? That's hell. You and your buddies will be spending a long time in there." Saying that, he held the third man by the neck and threw him inside as well.

Clicking his tongue, he made his way outside the room with the books and said.

"Inari, Kuku, let's go. We got what we needed. These idiots knew nothing." He said with a scowl. They made their way back to Light Wing and waited for Noah to contact them. They didn't need to because when they reached the Light Wing, Noah was already waiting for them.

"Did you get something?" Ichigo asked directly.

"No, they only knew that the ones giving away these books were wearing black robes and have given around 7 or 8 of these books here in London." Noah replied.

"Well this makes 8 of them. We can move on from London at least. Where will you go next?" Ichigo asked Noah, throwing the books he had towards him.

"We were told to go to Romania and warn the Vampires of these books going around." Noah answered.

"Have you guys even found anything about these books? Are they even real or just fakes with a few actual rituals in it made by whoever is distributing them?" Ichigo asked with a scowl. The reason he was willing to work with someone he didn't know was because he didn't have any information about... anything to be honest. Inari and Kuku were helpful in their own way but they couldn't give him the up-to-date information he wanted.

He could it by himself but that would take too much time, time in which he didn't know how many more would be killed and while he had already decided that he couldn't get all of them, he could focus on those in front of him and those whose information he got. He had lived his previous life, in his world, for others. This time he would try to live for himself and be a bit selfish. He would still help those who needed it, but he would not live his life to help others.

He was willing to work with someone who had information about such people and if they needed something in return, he would see what it was first. Noah and his companions didn't seem to like his tone at all and while Noah looked slightly peeved, his companions looked angry. He just glared back at them.

"Ahem. According to Azazel-sama, all the books he had checked were fake. The first ritual was the only actual one, but even that had a terrible price for the offered benefits. All the others were gibberish scanned and printed off of the human internet." Noah answered after taking be a deep breath.

"Do you know the location of any other groups?" Ichigo asked, clicking his tongue.

"The countries I told you about during the briefing have the largest number of such groups but Azazel-sama has already sent his agents and also informed the other factions of these groups. So, you do not have to worry about them. Azazel-sama also said that he will contact you soon." Noah replied with his frown getting deeper at Ichigo's tone.

After Noah said that, Ichigo got up to leave and go to their next destination. He didn't find anything new here. They would go to Wales and if they encountered any of these groups there, he would deal with them. Before they left the store, Noah spoke up.

"Ichigo-san, a piece of advice, if I may since you saved my daughter. It would be good for you to be respectful to those you are working with, lest you make enemies of everyone and find yourself surrounded." Noah said, looking at him with glowing red eyes, while his buddies openly glared at him.

'Hoh, he didn't just say that to you.' Zangetsu said in his head, laughing loudly. Ichigo clicked his tongue again and turned his body to face Noah and his companions. He released his powers slowly and with his eyes bleeding into red and black and horns growing on his head, said slowly.

"And you would do good to know who you are talking to before running your mouth Noah-san." He said with his double layered voice. He particularly enjoyed the flinch and the grimace on their faces as the pressure slowly crushed them. He quickly reigned in his powers before they actually destroyed something and left the establishment. They made a few blocks away before Inari asked him.

"Did you really have to do that?" She asked, holding his hand.

"We are slowly getting famous and one thing I know about gaining fame is that it also attracts trouble. Every once in a while, I'll be grand standing like that to keep said troubles at a minimum." Ichigo replied with a sigh. He knew that even if he didn't try to find any trouble, it will find him.

That and he was a bit frustrated lately. He hadn't had a good fight in a while and his mornings were also very trying. He was slowly losing patience at the antics of Kuku and Inari as well as of late. There was only so much a man could handle before he lost it. Inari and Kuku were constantly testing his limits, he didn't know how much longer he could control himself. It was no longer even a question of feelings because he knew he liked Inari and that Inari liked him as well.

Kuku, yea no, he wasn't touching her, period. Inari on the other hand, he licked his dry lips, remembering the scene he saw and the feeling he felt this morning. Ugh, he was frustrated and pent up. He could explode any day now, just waiting for that one fucker that would push him over the edge. And once again, Zangetsu was not helping with his constantly making fun of him and his 'indecisiveness' as he called it. So, why hadn't he just let go and embraced her? He didn't know. For some reason he was still conflicted, he didn't know why he was but what he did know was that this inner conflict wouldn't last long at the rate the things were going.

Hah, he would have to tell Inari about this and also ask what she wanted. Before he could continue with his brooding, Inari spoke up.

"You were a bit too aggressive just now Ichigo. We have known each other for a while and I know that you normally have good control over yourself. So, what happened?" She asked tilting her head.

Kuku was walking a bit behind them, giving them space to talk to each other. He didn't want to know why she was doing that. He thought about lying or diverting the topic to something else before realizing that Zangetsu was right. He was being an indecisive little bitch. There was nothing stopping him from returning her feelings, especially since he was attracted to her as well. So, he decided to be blunt. He leaned in close to where he knew her ear was hidden and said.

"You think a straight man can function properly after seeing and feeling what I did this morning. Stop tempting me Inari." The first sentence was whispered and the last one was growled out, like a beast.

He felt her lean into him, before looking up at him with a flushed face. Her orange eyes shining, he felt like he would lose control if he started at them for more than a few seconds. He thought fuck it. Whatever happens, happens. Rather, when had he become someone who cared for the consequences, he had always been one to act on his feelings and so, he finally did what he should have done a while ago, he leaned down and kissed her slightly open lips. It was a chaste kiss, more of a lip touching than lip locking. It... wasn't enough, not nearly enough. Now that he was beyond caring, he wanted more.

He held her cheeks and deepened the kiss, a full on lip locking. Still not enough. Before he could go further, he heard a cough and snapped out of the haze taking over his mind. Then he realized what he did and rather than turn back and apologize, which he felt would be stupid, he slowly pulled back and said after taking a deep breath.

"We will continue this." Looking at Inari's lost expression, he barely held himself back from going at it again. He held her closer and looked towards Kuku and felt that he should make it clear.

"Kuku, I like Inari. She helped me when I needed it most and before I knew it, I was falling for her. I..." He opened his mouth didn't know how to say it. How do you reject a girl's feelings? Why was it so hard to just say that he wanted to enter a relationship with Inari and couldn't return her feelings as well. It was a simple line damnit! So why wouldn't it come out of his mouth!? Gaahh!! Why was this suddenly so complicated!

Fortunately for him, Kuku had already known what he wanted to say and seemed to have already guessed that this would happen. She only smiled and said.

"Don't worry Ichigo, I know what you want to say."

He released an inner sigh of relief and started to smile a bit. He felt like another burden he was carrying needlessly was shed off. He felt lighter before all of that came crashing down on top of him after he heard her next sentence.

"I'm perfectly fine with sharing." Kuku said with a big smile and a happy voice. He quickly lost his smile and looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. Wait, did he even hear her correctly. She was perfectly fine with being friends, is what she said right? She couldn't have said what he thought she had, right? There was no way she was talking about entering a three way relationship with him... right?

Waitwaitwait. He was doing it again. He was trying to get answers by himself when he could simply ask the involved party.

"W-what?" That was not what he wanted to say, though it summed up his current mental state very well. Before he could say anything else, Kuku answered him.

"I said what I said. If you are willing to have me, I'm perfectly fine with sharing you with Inari. Only if you are willing to have me as well." She already knew that Inari was fine with that idea as well, they just had to convince Ichigo. She said with the same smile, but currently she looked downright sexy. With that thought, he paled. He was holding a woman who he had just confessed to, in a sense, while another woman was... was, what was Kuku trying to do again?

Fuuuck! He was confused again. How did it turn into this? This isn't how it goes right? What the fuck was happening?!