The Cursed Iris

Sprout 3: I'm Not a Monster

Katsumi saw the group of bandits and his number was right. "Man, that sure is a lot of them."

I'm sure you can handle it, brat.

Katsumi look around in shock as if he had heard an old friend, "Other me, you're back!?" he said in shock.

Yes, yes. I'm back. Now listen, remember your training. Surprise attacks can be helpful when you're outnumbered. So, think what you can use as a surprise?

He thought about it, and something crossed his mind. "The fire bears."

Precisely.

Katsumi began to form the fire bears, and he smiled, "This is going to be good," he said as he gestured his hand forward. "Now go my children," he told the fire bears.

They ran forward, which bewildered the group of men, "What the hell?" one of them yelled.

"Now stage 1."

Katsumi activated stage 1 and he disappeared, then he reappeared in front of a circle of six men.

He surrounded his feet with the black flames, "Fire Demon!" he yelled as he began to spin around on his hands. "Cursed Sole, Arch Style."

His attack caused a circle of fire to appear as each spin caused him to hit the men.

They were knocked unconscious, and Katsumi corrected himself with a smile, "I made sure not to kill them, because if I did, then Chiyoko would kill me," he remarked. His seemed to feel good about himself since the training ended, so the new confidence of his is to be expected. The fire bears were doing their job and Katsumi took advantage of the confusion before the bandits regained their senses.

He took in a deep breath, Remember control, the other Katsumi said.

He released his breath attack, and he took out eight men at once. The attack was about to hit a tree, but Katsumi motioned it upwards. That shocked the men even more, "There's no way? He couldn't be one of them," another said. This one had a burly build, and a shaved head.

His comment had Katsumi curious. "What do you mean?"

"You couldn't be a fire demon slayer? Could you? You have to be those black flames, that control over them. Those are things that only the demon slayers have."

"Demon Slayers don't even exist anymore?" Katsumi questioned hesitantly, but he couldn't trust his own statement. He wasn't sure because he has never seen proof that they were gone, so they could possibly still be out there, maybe?

"They don't exist like I said, so why would I be one?" he said as he attacked the man. Katsumi's attack caused the man to fly back. He hit a tree, and Katsumi sighed. "Damn, I just wasted a move, but I took out at least fifteen of you," he said.

He set his fists on fire, "Now the rest of you," he said as he charged at them.

Katsumi began his attack, and they kept falling one after another. He continued, and he finally defeated the last bandit; he took in a deep breath, "That wasn't so bad. I think I completed this in fourteen moves to be exact," he remarked as he looked around at the unconscious men.

Get it together, your job isn't done, his other self said.

"What do you mean?"

Focus your senses, haven't you noticed the number of unconscious bodies?

Katsumi looked around, and he began counting; he finished and that's when he noticed. "One of them is missing."

A shriek came from behind Katsumi. He turned around, but as soon as he did, he was knocked back by an unknown force. He hit a tree, it fell, and Katsumi stood up. "Damn it, Chiyoko would've been pissed if she had saw me get hit like that."