Danso got ready and decided to step outside the headquarters. He ran into Chiro while leaving the headquarters.
"Where are you going, Danso?" asked Chiro.
"I am going to eat breakfast outside," replied Danso.
"Oh, alright," said Chiro, walking past Danso and patting him on the shoulder.
Danso walked towards the bus station and waited. After a few minutes of scrolling on social media, the bus finally arrived. He climbed up the stairs and found a seat near the window at the back of the bus. He sat down and stared outside the window, calming himself down and resting in peace, something that had been far and few between in the past few years for him. The speaker emitted a loud noise, alerting Danso that he had reached his destination after five minutes of travel. He got off the bus to see that he had reached the place he wanted to go, and smiled pleasantly. Danso walked towards his destination, The Battle Restaurant.
"This place got famous in the past few days, didn't it?" thought Danso with a smile on his face as he opened the door.
"Hey, Danso!" said Kevin. "Long time no see!"
"You saw me three days back, what do you mean?" said Danso in a straight face, removing all sense of positive energy from his face.
"Same thing! It doesn't matter! So what do you want?" asked Kevin.
"I am paying for my food again, and I want the usual," said Danso.
Kevin gasped and passed out yet again as Sasha came running to the counter.
"What have you done?!" yelled Sasha.
"Nothing. I just said I'll pay for my food again," said Danso.
"You have changed, Danso!" laughed Sasha while trying to wake Kevin up from his sleep.
Danso handed over the money to Sasha, and Kevin woke up quickly after his eardrums broke due to Sasha's yelling. Danso then grabbed a chair and sat down at a table near the counter, and started talking to Kevin, like he normally does. After talking for a while, Danso's food came and he ate and drank before saying his goodbyes to Sasha and Kevin and departing back to the headquarters. At the headquarters, Tensei and Haruki were making a ruckus in Haruki's room while Danso searched for the medical room. After following the arrow signs that were placed everywhere, making it easier to navigate through the huge building, Danso finally reached the medic room and knocked on the door.
"Anyone there?" asked Danso.
"Yes, I am coming, wait one minute please," responded Natsuki before opening the door.
"I am ready now, may you please take me to the Burning house?" asked Danso.
"Oh, right! Sure, let's go with Emily, because she has that playbox of hers," suggested Natsuki.
"Alright, I don't mind," said Danso.
Danso and Natsuki went to pick up Emily in her room, and she reluctantly came with them. Emily's sorcery was called Playbox, and it is a box that can contract and expand as big as it is needed by the user. Emily is the god of the space in the box, controlling all the concepts and laws of the world in the box and changing it to fit her needs. To teleport, she expands the box throughout the city and just commands the box to teleport all three of them to the burning house. This takes immense soul energy, therefore, the teleportation usage is very limited. In three seconds, Danso, Natsuki, and Emily reached the Burning house.
"Danso, I'll help Emily regain her soul energy and help the wounded. You go inside and try to put out the fire and help any people in there," said Natuski.
"Alright," said Danso before unsheathing his sword and sprinting towards the burning door, his only entrance to the Burning House.
The house was a mansion, with multiple corridors and rooms. It was completely engulfed in flames, but on the inside, it looked a lot more controllable and organised than on the outside, like some flames were meant to be there.
"This is weird, the fire just stops here," thought Danso while staring at the fire patch.
Danso continued to walk carefully around the house, occasionally screaming, "Is anyone there?" To gain attention and help people who aren't saved yet. Just as Danso was about to give up searching and put the fire out with his passive Sword Art, he heard a few cries coming from the room in front of him. Danso sprinted towards the door and opened it, and saw a few kids and a strange, tall man in the center of the room.
"Who are you?" asked the strange man.
"I am Danso Narahara. What are you doing with these kids?" asked Danso. "Let them go," ordered Danso.
"These kids are the retribution of my suffering, this city shall fall," screeched the man.
"I am giving you one chance. Leave and never come back, and then I'll spare you," said Danso.
"I heard that voice before, You are the Red Samurai, right?" asked the man.
"Why would you think I am an insecure vigilante who cannot show his face?" asked Danso
"Downgrading the other persona of yours to make sure that I do not catch you. Trying to make it seem like you despise him, to avoid suspicion," stated the man.
Danso clenched his teeth. His secret cannot be found out so easily by a man who has just met him. Or maybe he had not just met him, maybe he met him somewhere else, and he just does not know. Then an idea sprang into Danso's mind. He could just act as a member of the DMMS and avoid suspicion that way, as the DMMS publicly stated that they would hunt the vigilante Knight Ninja and the Red Samurai.
"If I were, then why would I be working in the DMMS?" questioned Danso. "Do I look like the type of person who'd go that close into enemy territory?"
"Danso Narahara, you are truly magnificent! Even if you are the Red Samurai, I cannot prove that you are! Maybe you are that good at hiding secrets, or you are really not him. It is a truly majestic gamble! I'd believe that you are not the Samurai, but your eyes, they are the same as mine, the lying eyes," said the man crazily.
"Where did you last see the Red Samurai?" asked Danso, trying to avoid suspicion.
"I never met him, but I did my research. The way he swings his sword, the way he walks, the way he disappears, his burning eyes filled with justice. I can know who he is in a minute if I find the right person!" said the man.
"Let the children go, now, otherwise you will pay for it," threatened Danso.
"The only person I'd be scared of is the holy Red Samurai," the man aggravated.
Danso knew he had to fight and arrest this man, and try to figure out who he is, after his arrest, but right now, Danso has to find a way to defeat the man, without swinging his sword, as he can figure out that Danso is the Red Samurai. Danso thought as hard as he could, while the screams of the children echoed in the background. Then he opened his eyes and decided to act.
"Fire Sorcery:- Flames of the Underworld," said Danso.
Meanwhile, Emily and Natsuki were outside the burning house, aiding the people who were injured. Emily enchanted the whole house and the outside of the house from a four-hundred-meter radius with her Playbox ability. After ten minutes of saving people from logs and putting out the fire coming outside the house and stopping it from burning the neighborhood, both of them decided to take a break and make the firefighters do some of the work for two minutes. Suddenly, many people with a black flame on their chest came sprinting towards the firemen, killing them all with no hesitation. Gouging one's eyes, stabbing the others with their bare nails. Emily and Natsuki saw this and instantly teleported to the firetruck outside the house and went outside. Multiple cultists were standing, covered in blood on the bodies of the dead firemen.
"What even are you?" said Natsuki, shocked.
The cultists ran towards Natsuki and Emily, sprinting like a homeless man chasing food. Tripping over each other.
"This is not normal," said Natsuki to Emily.
"I do not care. These people are murderers; they will pay," said an enraged Emily.
Natsuki's sorcerer ability is the ability to understand the human body to the utmost smallest molecular level. Just by seeing one person, she can understand their stress levels, severity of energy, and she's the best healer in the city of Akuza by far. Using her 'holy' eyes, she deduced that these people aren't alive at all, yet they possess a soul that isn't even theirs.
"Leave at least two for research," asked Natsuki.
"Fine," said Emily.
Emily proceeded to envision her playbox, allowing her to see how much space she has to work with. Emily created a barrier between all the cultists and created an area with infinite space, almost like a never-ending pocket, in the box. This makes sure that Emily does not hurt anyone except her targets with her attacks.
"Playbox Sorcery Imagination Technique:- Nuclear Missile," said Emily as nuclear missiles started raining down from the invisible box's ceiling. The explosions were immense, and this fatigued most of the cultists. Then Emily sprinted towards all the cultists, teleporting to each one and slicing them on the stomach, returning them to death. She left two of them alive but imprisoned them in the box for later use.
Emily just stood there panting, as she closed the enlarged box and stopped using her sorcery ability. She walked back to the firetruck and sat down as Natsuki just smiled and patted her on the back.
"I thought you wouldn't leave a single one. Thanks" said Natsuki.
"Where is that idiot? He should be back here by now," said Emily.
"Maybe he's facing some of the cultists in the house," said Natsuki. "Do you want to go and give support?"
"He's strong enough," said Emily.
"A compliment out of the princess's mouth," laughed Natsuki as Emily punched her and made her sit down.
"We wait for ten more minutes, then we go into the burning house," planned Emily.