In the main city, a family had gathered for celebrating their daughter's sweet sixteenth birthday. Around a hundred people, from the area, relatives, and friends, were gathered in an auditorium for the party.
It was still noon but they had cut the cake and were preparing for getting lunch. The catering guys had stood stalls of around thirty food items.
The birthday girl hugged her boyfriend and her female friends giggled. Her parents were attending to the other relatives while she sat with her boyfriend on the stage.
Relatives came and wished her happy birthday, then they left her alone with her friends. She was happy, this was the best moment of her sixteen years. She had everything.
She looked over the stage and saw the stalls at the end. Little kids were running outside the auditorium in the playground, using the magic slide, and watching the magic show.
A smile spread over his lips as her boyfriend slid his hand across her thigh, pulled back, and grabbed her waist from behind. He leaned closer and whispered, "I love you."
She giggled. "Yeah, yeah! You have said that three times now!"
"But you have not replied yet. I will keep saying unless you—"
She grabbed his thigh, pulled herself, and kissed him on the lips. Her friends went silent and so did her boyfriend's friends. The relatives paused, their smiles faded, and her parents watched her as she kissed him.
She pulled her lips away and looked at him with puppy eyes. "I love you, I do not need to say it, you know it."
He was stunned. She dared to kiss him in front of her parents, his parents, her friends, his friends, and her relatives.
He looked at her and thought, If she is not embarrassed to kiss me, why should I?
Then he tugged her waist and hugged her. She threw her hands over him.
The friends snapped and started giggling again. Soon her siblings started laughing.
The boyfriend's parents glanced at the girl's parents and raised their glass of sake.
He started wearing a mask to cover his strange, sinister grin from others. If anyone spots him smiling like that, they would go away from him.
And if by any chance, someone from the Saibai clan spots him smiling like that, they will recognize him instantly.
The same would apply to the scientist and the brother of the body he had possessed, but since he was in the mage prefecture, that would not be much of a problem.
He glanced on his side ad saw the magician levitating rabbits. It made him click his tongue.
Tamashi raised his finger near his waist and cast a spell. "Rot in hell."
He sent a black beam of light that entered the pair of rabbits.
Then he crossed the garden and entered the auditorium.
He stood in the corner and watched the kids running around like crazy shits with bowls of noodles in their hands.
"Impatient, but pure. They are not of any use. But it would be a problem if they ran."
A kid was running behind his friends to the lawn when he crossed Tamashi.
His hand fell on the boy's shoulder. The boy still tried to get out of his grip.
When he could not, he glanced up at him and did the mistake of looking into his dark, scary eyes.
His job was done. Tamashi lifted his hand off the boy's shoulder and looked at the food stalls.
"Looks like my research paid off. That is the food for over a hundred people."
Eating the food of his hundred people was not his goal, but a hundred people played an important role in his plan.
He saw that the cake was cut, and the teenagers were heading toward the karaoke rooms on the first floor.
"Got to admit… the building structures are amazing here."
He was debating whether to follow the teens upstairs or start with the old men around the stalls.
"The old men will be petrified with fear and even if they ran, they would not outrun me. Teenagers will be the first ones to run, the fear would not petrify them. So the problem is the middle-aged men…"
H glanced around the hall when his eyes fell on the birthday girl.
He took out a photo from his pocket and cross-checked it with the girl who was shaking hands with someone on the stage.
He kept the photo inside and saw the boy wrap his hand around her waist.
If his face was not covered, everyone would have seen his smile.
"Boyfriend, huh? New love, teen love," he muttered.
The girl took off with he boyfriend to follow her friends to the karaoke room upstairs.
He kept staring. This is it, he thought, my chance. Teens alone in the karaoke rooms.
Suddenly he felt a hand over his shoulder and his grin faded.
"Who are you?" He didn't recognize the voice. But the owner of the voice was angry with him– or at least not pleased
Well, sure since he was wearing a dark dress at a party and he was uninvited.
I should have chosen something common.
But he had to wear the mask to cover his face. What if someone reported him for smiling at them?
"I am a waiter," he said.
"You do not look like one though. Can I see your card?"
He did not turn, he watched his prey– the birthday girl– going out of his sight.
I do not have time for this. He turned and grabbed the man's hand, then lowered it to his thigh.
"Hey, what are you—?"
He watched his hand turn black around the forearm. He panicked and could not cast magic to stop the man with the mask.
The next second was all it took for Tamashi to do his job.
The man calmed and wore a normal expression on his face.
After Tamashi let go of his hand, the man turned and walked away from him as if nothing happened between them.
He relocated his eyes to the girl, she was already in.
His grin climbed back on his face. "It starts with you then," he said.
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