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{This is my first time writing a story. I never wrote one for someone else to read. I took inspiration from many different stories. I'm not claiming all the ideas i will use in this story as mine, maybe they have already been used in a much better way. Conclusion, I'm a novice. I'm not claiming that you will like this story. Hope you give constructive criticism.}
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{Oh and English is not my first language. You may find a few errors but I will try to convey the story in a way that most people can understand, atleast I hope so.}
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While wandering the streets of the city of Rikka, Muzan came across many students from many different academies.
Oh! That is also something that needs to be explained.
While the City of Rikka, or Asterisk, is a floating city, it's not simply a scientific wonder. Not at all.
It's actually an academy city.
This floating island or city (however you wanna call it) has 6 academies in 6 corners of it. These 6 academies compete with each other in duels and Festas.
The academies are Seidoukan Academy, Arlequint Academy, Jie Long Seventh Institute, Rewolf Black Institute, Saint Gallardworth Academy, and Queenvail Girls' Academy.
These academies pay quite a bit of attention to their rankings and strive to prove themselves superior to the others.
Oh, and dueling also needs to be explained.
This dueling is not done with cards. (I wish.)
It's actual dueling, with swords and weapons and sometimes even fatal injuries.
Dueling is the core, almost daily, activity for students to settle disputes or improve their rankings within the academies.
And the academies also determine their own ranking amongst themselves by seeing whose duelists—I mean, fighters—are stronger.
Duels are flashy, using specialized weapons called Lux, often involving magical abilities, fireballs, energy swords, and other stuff.
There's also Festas, which are like tournament arcs for the MCs. Sigh.
Festas are major, televised, and highly competitive battle tournaments held in the city of Asterisk, organized by the Integrated Enterprise Foundation.
This Foundation is also kind of a big deal.
Anyway! The Festa winners are granted any wish they desire, making these events the primary, high-stakes objective for students.
Oh, and just to be sure you understand, ONLY students are allowed to participate in the Festa.
Child soldiers, here we go.
Anyway, Festas also have different types. These include the Phoenix (pairs), Gryps (team), and Lindwurm (individual) tournaments.
'Man, I wonder if I should participate in one of these Festas or something. Maybe I can ask the Foundation or whatever for their technology?' Muzan thought to himself while eating a hamburger.
The ham will be eaten, the burger will be spit out later.
'No. I don't have to sh*t, I can just dissolve it all with acid and just spit it out through another mouth or pipe or…'
'...ok maybe I do sh*t.' Muzan grimaced, though it was an amusing thought.
Just as he was wondering if he should get another burger, maybe something else, he heard a boom from the area on his left.
'...that's the academy area, right? Man, these duels are actually pretty serious.' He thought, and with a small push from his feet,
He was gone.
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"What's happening over there?!"
"Did you see that explosion?! Maybe someone's dueling over there!"
"I'm gonna record this!!"
These kinds of conversations were prominent among people while they ran towards the girls' dormitory section of Seidoukan Academy.
Muzan, of course, ran with them.
'C'mon. No one's gonna recognise me anyway!' He thought while blending in with the crowd.
Finally, when he got to the explosion site, as expected,
It was a duel!
In a big clearing between the trees, there was a duel going on right now.
On one side was a beautiful pink-haired girl, and on the other side a normal-looking boy.
The girl looked fierce and flustered, while the boy looked stupid and wronged.
'Wow, even the average looks are pretty good in this world.' Muzan reinforced those words in his mind.
But more importantly, the girl was actually much more special than the boy.
Lances made of fire blasted towards the average-looking boy, who could only dodge them time and time again.
She was a Strega.
Stregas are rare, specialized Genestella who possess the ability to manipulate their internal energy, or Prana, to create supernatural magical phenomena outside their own bodies.
Unlike typical Genestella who only use Prana for physical reinforcement, Stregas can manifest unique abilities, such as elemental control.
Which is what this pink-haired girl was doing right now.
A fireball easily the size of a basketball went past the average-looking boy's head; he'd barely dodged it, again.
'So she's a Strega who can manipulate fire, huh? That's cool, ironically.' Muzan thought with a smirk.
This could be a possible experiment.
But then sh*t actually got real when the girl made a fireball easily larger than the average-looking boy.
"Woah."
"Princess is getting serious now!"
"Please!!! Ste—" 'Yeah, I just tuned that out.'
'But more importantly,' Muzan thought while looking at the very fast-approaching attack from the side, and it's directly aimed at the pink-haired girl.
'Is this an assassination attempt on the Princess or whatever?' He calmly extended a finger towards the girl.
In case the girl didn't dodge in time, he could always make her fall or change the attack's direction or something.
But that was unneeded.
"Look out!" The average-looking boy came to the girl's rescue, throwing himself over her and pushing her away from the attack's path.
Muzan slowly pulled his hand back; his help wasn't needed.
The boy stayed there, surveying the surroundings, but then the situation turned awkward when he found his hand on the girl's very sensitive areas.
'...So this is the kind of story this is, huh.' Muzan smiled in pain at the very unnatural way such things turn out in these stories.
'Sigh, oh well, the show's over.' He sighed and turned away.
Behind him the sound of chatter didn't quiet down, but the show was over for him.
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"Man, this world is full of sh*t!" Muzan cursed while walking, kicking a rock around the road.
Apparently all the technological advances are based on the energy and element called Mana.
Everything that's different from what he knew used Mana to achieve that difference.
The holographic screen? Mana. The forcefield shields used during duels to protect the spectators? Mana! Even the robot and automaton technology is using MANA!!!
And let's not even talk about the weapons.
"Sigh, this world sucks." He kicked a rock a bit too hard and it flew away.
The rock struck against a walking man's shoes.
"Ah, sorry about th—" Muzan started but cut his words off in the middle when he saw the absolutely ugly, livid expression on the man's face.
"You brat, don't you know how to walk without causing other people—" the man wanted to say a lot.
But who was Muzan?
He was the demon king.
So he ignored the guy and walked away, not giving two f*cks about whatever human superior bullsh*t that man was going on about.
He could tell that man was just a human and not a Genestella.
The reason?
Eh, it's nothing much; their scent is quite different, and Genestella usually carry a weapon with them.
Ironic since they're not allowed to use them just whenever they want.
Anyway, where was he again? Ah, right,
Cursing the world.
"This world sucks." Muzan continued without a care in the world if someone heard him.
But then, he saw something.
No, it's someone.
It's that same man from before!
Same stupid haircut, same brown sh*tty clothes, same livid expression,
but now he was taking it out on a little girl.
The man was yelling at the poor girl about some "need to make use of you", "you want to save your father, right?", and "do as I say," something-something-something.
Yeah, no. Muzan did NOT need to hear any more than that.
He went behind the man, grabbed him by the shoulder and directly threw him into the conveniently placed fountain behind him.
"Man, there's a limit to being an a**hole." He said to the very disoriented and wet man.
The girl, on the other hand, looked like she'd seen a ghost.
"No! Uncle!" She screamed and ran towards him to help the man out.
"Uncle?" Muzan frowned in disgust.
"Ugh, being her uncle and you do such vile things?" He looked towards the man who was being helped up by the frightened girl.
He had kinda figured out what was going on, including the fact that maybe, POSSIBLY, he'd misunderstood.
But he couldn't break character now, so he decided to go with it.
And Muzan saw how the ba*tard, after getting out, actually shoved her away.
"Oh wow, you're a completely different breed, aren't you?" Muzan actually didn't know what to say about this.
"I—cough—I wil—cough"
The man sputtered and coughed, and after having a few breaths, pointed towards Muzan's face and declared,
"I WILL HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT ON A HUMAN!"
If it was possible to have an angry face emoji as a face, this man had done it.
No, he'd exceeded it!
But funsies aside, assaulting a "normal" human is actually considered a very big crime.
You see, Genestella are strictly forbidden from harming a normal human, and if they do, they face much stricter and more severe punishment than normal human offenders.
This is exactly what I was talking about. This is how the normal humans are controlling the Genestella. It's funny, really.
"Oh? Is that right?" Muzan asked, not hiding the mocking tone in his voice.
"But what if I say I'm actually a normal human?" He stepped towards him.
"You cannot fool me, you scum!" The man said angrily.
Oh, he's using such words.
"No human can throw a man that far! And you're wearing one of those uniforms!" He said, pointing as if condemning him right then and there.
"Pft—wait, these? I just saw everyone wearing these clothes and bought the one I liked." Muzan chuckled and said.
He wanted to say more, but the girl had come between him and the man and was now giving him puppy-dog eyes.
No, wait, he thinks that's just her face.
"Please d-don't trouble my uncle." She said.
Her words and her expression truly didn't match. Her eyes held a whole different string of words.
Something like a plea. Not for help, but to not help.
Muzan stayed silent, and the man kept talking, trying to shove the girl away and face him again.
And then, Muzan smiled.
"Oh, you're a good girl, aren't you?" He patted her head, stunning her for a few seconds.
And in those seconds he walked towards the man, grabbed him by his head and,
fwoosh! Vanished! (He felt like he was doing this a lot these days.)
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(In the Infinity Castle.)
Muzan threw the man down on the floor of his personal dimension.
"What?! W-what is this?! Where did you take me?!" He screamed and looked around, looking for an exit.
Muzan, on the other hand, just smiled.
"I'm warning you!" The man said while stepping backwards.
"If you don't let—" he wanted to continue his yap session, but Muzan silenced him with a flesh bag over his head, but this time,
there are no holes for breathing.
"You know, I've made many vows, and many promises." He started speaking while the man struggled to breathe, trying to scratch the skin-made bag from over his head.
"I've made a vow that I won't be hurting innocent people, or eating them for that matter." If it was possible, the frantic way the man was scratching at his head cover just got worse.
"And I personally don't like to eat the truly vile kind of people, you know? The very VERY bad kind." He chuckled. "My doctor said they're bad for my health."
And then Muzan released the flesh covering the man's head and picked him up.
"And that only leaves the middle filth, the guys too bad to be considered good and not bad enough to be considered bad for my health." He chuckled lightly and dangled the guy. "You're so mid, man."
The almost unconscious guy was held by his hair and mumbling "monster" over and over and over.
"Monster? Surely you jest, my good man." Muzan laughed loudly.
"When people worse than you and me walk the earth, why can't there be space for another like me?" And then Muzan's jaw opened, and the man's soul almost left his body as he saw the horrific sight before him.
"Well, bottoms up."
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The girl, Toudou Kirin, had been searching frantically for the older student and her uncle since the afternoon until evening, yet she hadn't found a single trace of where they might've gone.
She still remembered it clearly!
One second her uncle and that student were there, and the next, poof! Gone!
She had searched everywhere; she couldn't find even one of them!
In the end, she slumped down and sat against a tree, her knees pulled to her chest.
She didn't know how to feel. While she didn't like the way her uncle treated her, it was all to save her father from that wrongful accusation!
But what was she supposed to do now? How would she save her father now?
"Kirin!" She suddenly heard a voice in front of her and, when she quickly looked, she saw the stern face of her uncle.
He was looking at her disapprovingly and started scolding her.
"What are you doing here?! Do you not know how you have to use your time?! Haven't you learnt anything?!" He started.
"You need to remain in first position in the academy and win all your duels! You cannot do that unless you give it your all!"
Kirin was stunned. Her uncle was behaving normally.
At least the normal she was used to.
"B-but, what about that student," she started but was cut off by her uncle grabbing her arm.
"Just what are you daydreaming about?!" He said and started dragging her away.
Even though she could easily break free, she was used to being led around by her uncle.
"You need extra practice today!" He said while dragging her towards the Toudou residence.
Kirin felt weird; she didn't know how to feel about this.
Her uncle was back. That was a good thing, right?
And what no one noticed was the white-wearing, black-haired "student" just around the corner of the tree line.
"Hmm, Toudou Kouichirou and his niece, Toudou Kirin." Muzan smiled while walking away from the tree line.
"I guess I know what I'll be doing for a while in this world."