Xu Fu had not expected that the moment she came up to the rooftop, she would hear someone running their mouth.
Kill Yayoi Hozuki and Dorothy? With her here, she would like to see them try.
The three members of The Replaced, who had been staring intently at Yayoi Hozuki and Dorothy and quietly discussing how to deal with them, turned their heads in unison.
It was as if a thick curtain had been draped over their senses. They had not detected Xu Fu's completely undisguised approach in the slightest. Only when she suddenly cut into their conversation did the three of them jolt awake as if pricked by needles, staring in shock at this uninvited guest who had somehow come within arm's reach.
"When did this person… get here?"
"A spiritualist? Is she that little girl at the school's companion?"
The man and woman each formed a hand seal and watched the elusive Xu Fu warily.
"Your poses look the part, at least. Looks like the bodies you two stole belonged to spiritualists too." Xu Fu spoke with little interest, without the slightest tension in her tone.
After possessing a spiritualist, an evil spirit could rely on the memories stored in the brain and the spiritual power inside the body to use techniques, subduing demons and ghosts like a spiritualist.
They could gain several skills for free and even hide in plain sight. It was a deal with no downside. That was why so many incidents of spiritualists being possessed by evil spirits had been occurring lately. The Replaced had gotten smarter after nearly being wiped out by a young spiritualist twenty years ago.
"…Brat, you seem to know quite a bit about us. Have you met our companions? Don't tell me 'Dorothy' didn't disappear because of that little girl at the school carrying the Oigami, but because of you?"
The male spiritualist's eyes flickered faintly, and the corners of his mouth curled into a mocking smile.
"That's right. Just as you said, the owner of this body was also a spiritualist. Isn't it hilarious? He trained day and night, putting in so much effort to become a spiritualist who could stand on his own, but all of that just ended up benefiting me! The experience, techniques, and power he accumulated all became mine! That's what spiritualists are!"
"This body's performance really is excellent, and it's so young too!" The female spiritualist also showed an evil, seductive smile as she praised the body she wore. "It's even younger and more beautiful than the body I had when I was alive! If I used this face to seduce men, I could make a whole crowd of them follow me with just a crooked finger, right? But the original owner of this body didn't understand how to enjoy herself at all. Because she had to train her spiritual power, she kept herself pure the whole time. What a complete waste of such a pretty shell."
"This is the end of spiritualists, and it's your fate too." The male spiritualist stared hard at Xu Fu, as though sizing up a piece of merchandise. "After all, there are only so many spiritualists. Not all of our companions get the chance to occupy a spiritualist's body. We'll make good use of your body and your spiritual power. Who told you to overestimate yourself and come before us alone?"
"…Now that's troublesome."
Xu Fu tugged at the hat on her head, and the smile at the corners of her mouth silently faded.
"Now!"
The male spiritualist shouted and charged forward, while the female spiritualist formed a hand seal and cast a binding curse on the enemy.
Of course, the two of them had not said all that for no reason. They both knew humans were emotional creatures, especially spiritualists who fought evil spirits. Everything they had said was meant to deliberately provoke Xu Fu and make her expose an opening. The trick could not be said to work every time, but it worked at least eighty percent of the time.
However, the one they were facing was Xu Fu.
Less than two seconds after the male spiritualist charged out, he suddenly stopped moving. It was as if everything below his neck had been frozen solid.
"Wait? What are you doing?! Why did you cast the binding curse on me?!"
The male spiritualist immediately burst into curses, only to hear the female spiritualist behind him answer in a panic, "I… I didn't! I cast the binding curse on that person, b-but… I don't know why, but the binding curse bounced back!"
Bounced back? What kind of joke was that…
The male spiritualist's eyes suddenly widened, because at some unknown point, Xu Fu had silently appeared in front of him. She opened her palm, aiming it at his face.
"This is difficult… I don't like getting angry for no reason, because Master said Xu Fu is very cute~. I want to stay this cute forever. I want to keep being loved by Master. But if I get angry, my cuteness points will go down… Still…"
A voice cold as frost entered the male spiritualist's ears and made him shudder.
"Facing scum like you… it's a little too hard not to get angry, isn't it?"
The moment she finished speaking, the male spiritualist felt a terrifying suction burst from her palm. She forcibly ripped him out of this body.
With no soul to support it, the fleshly body collapsed to the ground with a thud. A shivering mass of black aura was caught in Xu Fu's hand, like Sun Wukong trapped in the palm of the Buddha. No matter what it tried, it could not escape.
"S-spare me… I…"
Only now did the evil spirit that had possessed the male spiritualist belatedly realize what kind of terrifying existence they had provoked. And yet, because of Xu Fu's overly young appearance, they had underestimated her.
Xu Fu had already heard similar pleas far too many times. When death was at hand, these evil spirits all brought out essentially the same lines. She was truly tired of hearing them.
Her fingers tightened slightly, clenching into a fist, and the evil spirit went completely silent.
As though the whole world had become peaceful.
The blond foreigner and the female spiritualist beside him were both stunned speechless by the strength Xu Fu displayed. They even forgot to breathe.
They still remembered that the higher-ups in the organization had once warned them that there were ten spiritualists they absolutely must not provoke, because those ten stood at the very summit of all the spiritualists in this country. If they ever encountered them, they were to turn and run immediately.
The reason these members of The Replaced had looked down on Xu Fu was precisely because Xu Fu was not one of those ten. They had never seen Xu Fu's face, and so they had thought she was just some minor character.
The two still alive were utterly baffled. If someone this dangerous was not one of those ten top spiritualists, then what kind of terrifying monsters were those ten?
But obviously, now was not the time to think about that.
What they truly needed to consider was how to escape from under the eyes of the monster before them.
The female spiritualist snapped back to herself with a start, only then realizing that Xu Fu had already brushed past her and was walking toward the blond foreigner with steady steps.
The female spiritualist's body went weak at the knees and knelt on the ground, then pitched forward. The evil spirit inhabiting that body had also been pulled out by Xu Fu in the same way, then ignited by a wisp of fire at Xu Fu's fingertip and burned to ash.
"For Dorothy, The Replaced only sent out three small fry like you? Looks like you don't care all that much about Dorothy or that stolen cursed object after all."
Xu Fu walked toward him slowly. Every step was like a great hammer slamming down on the blond foreigner's heart, shaking his mind and making his head spin.
In his eyes, Xu Fu's figure gradually grew tall, dark, and blurred. In a daze, it seemed as though she had become an indescribable, unwatchable black shadow, bringing him wave after wave of suffocation and nausea.
"Aah…! Don't come any closer!"
In panic, the blond foreigner abruptly swung the muzzle around and fired a shot at Xu Fu, then jumped off the rooftop.
A free fall from this height would smash a human body into a meat patty, but it would not kill an evil spirit. At worst, once he got away, he could just change to another body. The urgent priority was escaping that monsterishly powerful girl.
Just as the ground drew closer and closer, the blond foreigner, still in free fall, suddenly stopped in midair.
Then he felt a powerful suction pull him back up.
Standing on the rooftop, Xu Fu reached out with one hand and caught him by the back of his collar.
"That won't do~. If I let you get away, the two I just killed will gossip about me down below."
The corners of Xu Fu's mouth lifted slightly, but there was no smile in her eyes.
"So, to keep anyone from feeling unfairly treated… go down and join them."
Without giving him any chance to beg for mercy, Xu Fu yanked the evil spirit hiding inside the body out in one motion and refined it in an instant.
Another black soul acquired. She could use it to level up Red Hood and Master Dorothy. They might only be small fry, but even a mosquito leg was still meat.
Xu Fu had been rather surprised when she saw the blond foreigner before her. She had not expected that there would be an evil spirit possessing a foreign mercenary. The evil spirits who possessed spiritualists were after their methods and experience in subduing demons and exorcising spirits, while this evil spirit had probably set its sights on foreign firearms and modern weapons. What a clever and cunning evil spirit.
As for these three bodies, now reduced to empty shells after losing their souls, all Xu Fu could do was pray that they would find happiness in their next lives, then hand the bodies over to the police.
Honestly, Xu Fu was quite tempted to burn all three of their corpses to ash. After all, the reason Suguru Geto was possessed by Kenjaku was because Satoru Gojo had not arranged a cremation for his best friend. With such a precedent right in front of her, Xu Fu really could not feel at ease. But she had no real relationship with these three people, so she could not make that decision for them.
Then Xu Fu thought about it again. Two of the three were spiritualists, and the spiritualists of this country seemed to have their own networks. Since she could not make the decision, she could look for someone who could.
So Xu Fu gave up on handing the three bodies over to the police and instead called Namiko Shami. She had happened to get the other party's contact information yesterday, and Namiko Shami was one of the top ten spiritualists, so she was bound to know plenty of people in this circle. Having her handle the matter was perfect.
When Namiko Shami learned that Xu Fu had called her, she was beyond delighted. She thought this once-in-ten-thousand talent had finally agreed to become her disciple and train with her.
That was not the case.
After her joy proved premature, Namiko Shami wore a vexed expression. Then she heard Xu Fu slowly speak from the other end of the call.
"Possessed people appeared. They also attacked me and Yayoi."
"…"
Namiko Shami's expression and tone changed immediately.
...
At the school, Yayoi Hozuki broke free of the dream and slowly woke. The moment she raised her eyes, she saw Dorothy looking at her in delight.
"Hozuki-san! Thank goodness, you finally woke up!"
"Dorothy…? You weren't trapped in the dream?"
"No, I was hit by that curse too… But! Master Dorothy took me and escaped!"
"???"
Why did she not understand? She took herself and escaped?
Seeing Yayoi Hozuki's puzzled look, Dorothy flusteredly brought the doll up in front of her.
"H-her! Xu Fu-sama introduced her to me. This witch lady's name is Dorothy too. When I'm in danger, all I have to do is call her name and ask her for help… She really is an incredibly reliable big sister, just like Xu Fu-sama said!"
As she said this, Dorothy's face was full of worship. Whether she was worshiping Master Dorothy or Xu Fu… or both, no one could say.
What Yayoi Hozuki was more curious about was why Xu Fu had given this doll the same name as Dorothy. Was there some connection between the two? And yet she could not find the slightest similarity between them.
How could Yayoi Hozuki know that Xu Fu had not named the doll Dorothy? This character was called Dorothy to begin with. She was one of the most regrettable characters in the Black Souls series, based on the little girl protagonist Dorothy from the fairy tale The Wizard of Oz.
Xu Fu had thought it was rather fateful that the two shared the same name. As it happened, when she made the Red Hood doll, she had already had the idea of making a Master Dorothy doll as well. So she made the Master Dorothy doll and gave it to Dorothy as a bodyguard.
Afterward, Dorothy and Yayoi Hozuki entered the abandoned classroom and granted release to Sakashita-sensei's spirit, which had already mutated inside.
By then, firefighters and police had also arrived at the school. Yayoi Hozuki, Dorothy, and the unconscious teachers and students were all sent to the hospital for full examinations.
These firefighters and police had all been called by Xu Fu.
The hospital could not find the cause of anyone's collapse at all. Their physical examination reports showed that without exception, every one of them was extremely healthy—healthier than they had been during their last checkups.
The changes in the students were not very obvious, but the older teachers were different. Not only did they have fewer white hairs, even their wrinkles had decreased. Each of them looked several years younger. No one at the hospital could understand how simply sleeping for a while had caused such a drastic change.
For some inexplicable reason, absurd rumors began appearing online, claiming that someone had been researching an Elixir of Immortality near that school, and that a small accidental leak had caused the entire incident.
That rumor had nothing to do with Xu Fu.
In any case, her goal had been achieved.
Tokikoudai Elementary School had no choice but to temporarily suspend classes because of the incident.