The black tendrils winding around Ais's ankles brought no physical sensation at all — but one of them genuinely impeded her movement. She stumbled and went down on the floor. The coat draped over her fell off to the side.
"Oof — nothing should be there."
She muttered quietly while looking down at her feet with a convincingly puzzled expression.
Though she felt nothing unusual on her skin, Aura Vision showed her clearly: one of the black entities had attached itself to the slipper on her foot. The tendrils extending from it remained coiled around her ankle, undissipated. Any Extraordinary with lower intuition who couldn't quickly activate Aura Vision would likely suspect they'd tripped for no reason — but not suspect something was now clinging to them.
The other black entity had crawled up the right hand she'd used to brace her fall, and was moving up her arm toward her shoulder.
Again, no sensation at all — as though it were pure illusion. But it was precisely because of this that Ais had the leisure to play the role of someone who knew nothing, to slowly pick herself up and observe what these two strange things were actually trying to do. She even had the attention left over to think about other things:
"Incorporeal — but when they made contact, there wasn't the icy, rigid feeling of a ghost possessing someone. I wonder if Leel knows what a pitch-black spiritual aura means."
The spiritual light that Aura Vision revealed came in many colors. The human body's overall aura appeared white; seen in detail, different parts of the body showed six distinct colors — red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple. But Ais had never encountered a pitch-black spiritual aura before. She was confident it didn't represent death, at least — dead things eventually became like inert objects, completely devoid of any spiritual light.
By the time Ais had gotten to her feet, the entity on her arm had already reached the vicinity of her neck. But instead of sending tendrils around her throat, it stretched its body into a flat sheet of black cloth and pressed over her mouth. The two ends met behind her head.
At first Ais felt nothing. Then she realized that her mouth was being stopped by something invisible — she couldn't make any meaningful sound. At the same time, a binding sensation arrived at her feet, as if ropes had been tied there and anchored to the floor. Her feet couldn't move.
They even know to muzzle someone first. She attempted to tear the black cloth away with her hands, but the thing had surprising strength — she couldn't pull it off her mouth by force alone. And it was already spreading toward her nose, intent on blocking her breathing. The tendrils at her ankles, meanwhile, kept tightening and creeping upward toward her thighs.
So this is how the servants were left unconscious and injured. Having learned enough and wanting to drop the act, Ais immediately ignited black flame at both entities.
A Witch's black flame could only be summoned within close range — any distance and it became impossible. But it required no physical action and, unlike a spell, needed no incantation. As long as Ais had the intention and her spiritual energy wasn't depleted, black flame could appear around her without any warning.
Under normal circumstances, this quality of black flame was relatively useless. But if a person or creature blundered into close contact with a Witch, they would learn a permanent lesson: never get that close to a Witch.
The black cloth over her mouth immediately bristled and contorted — and the next moment, it melted into the dark, carrying the still-burning black flame, and disappeared entirely from Ais's Aura Vision. Her feet were released simultaneously. She looked down — her feet and the slipper were clear.
That was fast — did they retreat straight into the spirit realm? Ais had been preparing to trigger a mirror double through self-immolation to break free of both entities, but they'd fled more decisively than she expected. Now her intuition registered nothing out of the ordinary anywhere in the house.
I wonder if they had the sense to abandon the other one. Ais wasn't overly concerned about the escaped entity. The only way she could think of to extinguish black flame — aside from consciously willing it out herself — was isolation: cutting away the burning portion.
Black flame only required contact with spiritual energy to sustain itself, unlike ordinary fire which needed specific conditions. But things without spiritual energy couldn't affect this phantom fire in any way — and things containing spiritual energy were only fuel for it. So aside from the Witch herself, anything that came into contact with black flame had no option but to immediately sever the affected portion. There was no other way.
She scanned the room, confirmed no further anomalies, gave herself a pat on the chest, deactivated Aura Vision, and used ice to secure everything in place again.
She'd been worried that non-human entities might be sensitive to things a Witch's powers produced, so after nightfall she'd dissolved the ice she'd used to hold things together since leaving Zoe's place — to ensure, as much as possible, that nothing would notice the difference between her and an ordinary person before she had to act.
I'm fairly adjusted to this body now, fortunately. Otherwise I might not have managed to hold off until the end. With the pre-encounter preparation complete, Ais put on the orange-yellow coat that had fallen to the floor, then went upstairs to Leel's room.
The reason she wasn't divining the entities' fate herself was that she'd noticed Leel was awake. He'd simply — sensibly — had no impulse to come out and observe.
Ais didn't conceal her footsteps, so when she stopped outside his room, Leel understood the encounter was over. He quietly opened his bedroom door and slipped out, asking in a low voice:
"Detective Ais, is it over? You're not hurt?"
Ais shook her head:
"They were spiritual-body types, as suspected. I can confirm they were responsible for the servants' earlier injuries. Fortunately I had a way to deal with them. But they fled quickly — it was like they melted into the shadows and vanished. They were still under the effect of my ability when they left, but I can't say with confidence whether they survived."
"Detective Ais, they didn't feel to me like they entered the spirit realm — more like they merged with the shadows and then moved rapidly away. Of course, that's only my impression. It may not be accurate." Leel said, less than certain.
Their behavior did resemble a living shadow. But what surprised Ais more was something else:
"With your bedroom door closed, you could feel what was happening in the sitting room downstairs?"
Leel nodded:
"Of course. A Seer's intuition is unusually high. That's precisely why you have to be careful about everything and exercise caution constantly. Though if your ability hadn't been affecting them, I don't think I could have detected something that subtle from this distance."
My Sequence 7 intuition might actually be lower than a Seer's. Ais reflected on this and then asked with some puzzlement:
"Then you couldn't possibly have failed to notice them entering the house. Doesn't that mean you've been unable to sleep properly every night?"
Leel nodded with a tearful expression:
"Correct. Which is why I owe you so much, Detective Ais. I can finally sleep properly."
Another bottled-up child who suffers in silence. Hearing this for the first time, Ais said immediately:
"Then go back to bed and get some rest."
Even as she said it, she wasn't at all surprised when Leel shook his head.
"Detective Ais, wait a moment. Let me divine whether those two entities are dead."
Such a good kid. Seeing Leel bring up divination on his own, Ais smiled and said as if the thought had just occurred to her:
"Oh, so that's how you confirmed I'd be useful to your family. Could you teach me, Leel?"
Author's Note (this chapter):"Detective Ais, they didn't feel to me like they entered the spirit realm — more like they merged with the shadows and then moved rapidly away. Of course, that's only my impression. It may not be accurate."