"Oppose your head."
Seeing her younger sister acting foolish again, Toka directly extended her right hand, curling her slender ring finger to flick the other's forehead.
"Oww..."
Rikka covered her forehead in pain, wearing an adorable expression of suppressed indignation.
Toka sighed helplessly, massaging her temples.
"Ah, sorry about that, Ye Xing-san. You had to see that embarrassing display."
"No problem."
Ye Xing casually waved his hand.
"I'm perfectly clear about what species Takanashi-san is. I've long since gotten used to it."
"I see..."
Toka relaxed slightly, leading Ye Xing to sit at the table.
Her beautiful red eyes glanced toward Rikka, who remained on the sofa, occasionally stealing glances their way—seemingly wanting to join them but hesitating—revealing a trace of helplessness.
"About the school trip last time... thank you."
Hearing Toka's lowered voice, Ye Xing understood she was referring to him taking Rikka and the Supernatural Society members into the temple.
"Didn't I promise you? If circumstances allowed, I'd look after Takanashi-san when possible. It was just a minor thing."
Seeing Ye Xing's completely nonchalant attitude, Toka's expression grew complicated.
Truthfully, she felt conflicted.
Would it be better for this Ye Xing-san to have more contact with her younger sister, or no contact at all?
He was a genuine superhuman capable of stopping a fully speeding truck with his bare hands.
The existence of supernatural abilities beyond ordinary imagination didn't particularly bother Toka herself.
The key issue was—if Rikka learned about this...
Wouldn't her chuunibyou just become more severe?
And... since Ye Xing claimed to be an exorcist... did that mean ghosts and similar entities truly existed in this world?
Toka Takanashi knew the origin of Rikka's chuunibyou: as a young child, she couldn't accept her father's passing, so she conjured up the so-called 'invisible boundary line' to avoid facing the harsh reality.
But now...
Did the invisible boundary line truly not exist?
Given all the unbelievable things that had happened, could there actually be another world on the other side?
Toka Takanashi wasn't sure whether Rikka should learn about these matters.
After Rikka learned about these things, would she face reality directly and break free from her chuunibyou delusions, or would her condition worsen? She had no way of knowing, but one thing was certain.
This world was dangerous.
"Um..."
Toka Takanashi snapped back to reality and looked at Ye Xing sitting across from her, pursing her lips slightly, a hint of awkwardness colouring her expression.
"It's coming, it's coming."
The Matchmaking Deity, wearing a Miko outfit, watched from the side, her face full of the knowing smile of someone shipping a couple.
"This..."
Toka Takanashi took out an exquisite rectangular box from her bosom, gently placed it on the table, and then pushed it towards Ye Xing.
"Thank you for looking after Rikka... and me. It's a New Year's gift for you."
Ye Xing accepted the rectangular box and tucked it into his clothing, replying with a smile.
"Thank you, you shouldn't have. Should I be giving you a return gift?"
"No need."
Toka Takanashi waved her hand, her usually expressionless face surprisingly showing a faint smile. She pointed at Rikka sitting on the sofa.
"Just please look after this troublesome girl at school."
...
That night, 11:59 PM.
"It's coming, it's coming!"
The members of the Supernatural Society gathered in the living room, everyone watching the time on their phones. When the numbers on the screens jumped to midnight, the girls exclaimed simultaneously.
"Happy New Year!"
Even the normally serious Rio Futaba couldn't help but show a slight smile at such a moment. Leaning against the dining table while holding a coffee cup, she watched the laughing members before her and softly said to Ye Xing beside her.
"Another year has passed, just like that."
"Yes, it's been a year already."
Ye Xing shrugged with a complex expression.
"Those chosen ones with unrestrained talents would already be approaching the finale at this stage, their Fool's Journey nearing its end, yet I'm still far from it."
"Talking nonsense again."
Rio Futaba first teased him like this, then put down her coffee cup and gently covered Ye Xing's hand beside her with her still-warm palm, her face slightly flushed as she whispered.
"No matter what happens in the future... we'll continue walking forward together."
Ye Xing smiled and nodded.
"Of course."
Just then, Yui Yuigahama ran over, looking at Rio Futaba and Ye Xing with a sweet smile.
"Alright, alright, what are you two doing hiding here? Come join the celebration!"
"Celebration?"
Ye Xing chuckled in surprise.
"It's just New Year's, why use the word celebration? Do we have anything worth celebrating?"
"Hmm..."
As Yui Yuigahama thought seriously, Miko Yotsuya walked to her side and said with a smile.
"Saving the world - isn't that worth celebrating?"
"Yes, exactly, that's it!"
Yui Yuigahama affectionately hugged Miko Yotsuya, raised her drink cup, and looked at everyone in the living room.
"Then let's toast to the new year, and to the multiple times we saved the world in the past year!"
Although Shouko Nishimiya and Marin Kitagawa didn't quite understand what saving the world meant, they still raised their drink cups.
"Cheers!"
...
One month later, the first night of winter break, Tokyo.
"Look, you two could handle the capture yourselves."
Ye Xing leaned against the wall of a small alley, looking utterly bored as he glanced at Light Yagami and L before him, rolling his eyes.
"Why did you have to call me all the way from Kyoto? Isn't this wasting my time as the Harem God?"
L crouched by the wall, watching the flickering, swaying dim yellow light from the streetlamp outside the alley entrance, speaking in a flat tone.
"Verbal descriptions ultimately contain too much subjective consciousness. To cooperate with you two, and to avoid misleading my understanding of spiritual power, I need to personally observe a battle between psychics as a standard for judgment."
"You'll probably be disappointed then."
Ye Xing replied indifferently.
"Against such a weak psychic, if either Light or I make a move, it can hardly be called a battle. And... your eyes wouldn't be able to keep up."
"Eyes can't keep up?"
Before L could inquire further, a figure in a long coat suddenly appeared at the alley entrance.
"He's here."
Light Yagami looked at Ye Xing and smiled.
"Your move or mine?"
Ye Xing waved his hand.
"You take it. Battles at this level don't interest me."
"Alright."
Light Yagami nodded and walked slowly toward the woman in the long coat who had appeared at the alley entrance.
Seeing him approach, she narrowed her eyes slightly, her face revealing undisguised, twisted killing intent.
"Kochi Sumi, thirty-one years old, marital status: divorced."
While walking forward slowly, Light Yagami spoke softly, as if talking to himself yet also addressing the woman.
"Former resident of Osaka City, who suddenly moved to Tokyo several months ago. Coinciding with this timeframe, a series of mysterious poisoning deaths began occurring within Tokyo."
This level of deduction was child's play for both Light Yagami and L, as simple as solving a children's riddle.
They had already confirmed that the mastermind's headquarters was located in Osaka City. By cross-referencing the timing of the serial poisoning incidents with the list of individuals who had moved from Osaka to Tokyo without an apparent reason just before that period, followed by final verification through surveillance footage and psychological consultation reports, they could directly identify the perpetrator.
Of course, while it sounded straightforward, without L's assistance in mobilising Metropolitan Police Department resources, Light Yagami alone wouldn't have found it so easy.
L's involvement didn't merely provide his own intellect and access to police resources.
More importantly, with L becoming an ally, Light no longer needed to remain constantly vigilant, exhausting himself to conceal his identity and avoid leaving any traces.
This was the classic case of turning an enemy into a friend - while weakening the opponent, one strengthened oneself, effectively removing a debuff and converting it into a positive buff.
"You... seeking death..."
"Seeking death?"
Light's brown eyes instantly turned crimson, the noble pure-white garments manifesting upon his form once more, the Great Tengu Mask appearing on his face, redder than fresh blood.
His scarlet eyes fixed directly upon Kochi Sumi before him, he enunciated each word clearly.
"Evil-doers shall be judged by Kira."
Sensing the spiritual power radiating from Light, Kochi Sumi's face contorted further, bloodshot veins appearing in her eyes.
"Merge... Jakotsu-baba!"
As Kochi's voice fell, from within her trench coat emerged a disgusting mass of vividly coloured, multihued venomous snakes, their fangs bared, writhing and squirming together.
"I see... so this is spiritual power..."
Even witnessing such a terrifying scene, L remained as composed as ever, merely observing the cluster of snakes within Kochi's coat while murmuring to himself.
"Hmm... a spiritual power type immediately recognisable at a glance. Jakotsu-baba... a yōkai from the Hyakki Yagyō. The awakened soul's true name bears a certain relation to the psychic's mental state. Based on this, we could first deduce the opponent's soul's true name from their ability type, then combine this with folklore records, using it as one reasoning clue to identify the psychic's true identity..."
L's deductive prowess was indisputably supreme - even Light Yagami ranked slightly below him in this regard.
Naturally, since these two had become rivals in the original storyline, engaging in numerous games and battles of wits, it was difficult to determine who was truly smarter. They simply excelled in different areas.
Light specialised in deception and manipulating people - abilities well-suited for politicians or religious leaders.
Whereas L's intellect was traditional intelligence, with all skill points allocated to deduction. He might not understand social niceties, or perhaps simply didn't care about them.
His only interest was deduction; he wanted to do nothing but pure reasoning.
Drawing on the intelligence previously provided by Light Yagami, L had already begun considering the possibility of deducing the opponent's true nature by first identifying their soul's true name, then inferring what kind of person they were based on the type of soul's true form, thereby completing the reasoning process.
Just as L was concentrating intently, fully focused on observing what a battle between psychics might look like, his vision suddenly blurred.
Bang!
The next second, he heard a loud noise beside him. When he turned his head, he discovered Light Yagami had already pinned Kochi Sumi against the alley wall with one hand gripping her neck, while the fingertips of his other hand extended into sharp claws that unhesitatingly pierced her abdomen and churned violently inside.
Kochi Sumi's eyes widened in agony, her face contorted. The excruciating pain in her abdomen made her want to scream out in torment.
But the moment the sound began to emerge, Light Yagami unhesitatingly used the hand gripping her neck to directly pierce her throat, brutally tearing out a crimson object.
"Quiet."
Watching Light Yagami tear out her vocal cords and casually discard them in the bloody scene, L remained expressionless. He didn't even bother with the blood splattered on his white long sleeves, instead keeping his gaze fixed on the contorted, trembling Kochi Sumi, who could no longer produce any sound, murmuring to himself.
"Such injuries, yet she still retains consciousness... Hmm, after fusion, vitality has significantly increased, surpassing ordinary human limits... Quite interesting."
"That's enough, Light. Just finish her off."
Hearing Ye Xing's words, Light Yagami smiled and nodded.
"Alright, I just wanted L to see what a battle between psychics looks like."
Ye Xing wore an expression of clear disbelief.
"Bullshit. You just wanted to torment this troublemaker who's been running wild in Tokyo, didn't you?"
Light Yagami made no attempt to conceal it, openly nodding in admission as he chuckled lightly.
"Kira... occasionally needs some entertainment too."
As his words fell, Light Yagami reached out with his left hand, grabbed Kochi Sumi's head, and with slight pressure from his fingers, crushed her skull before casually discarding the corpse on the ground nearby.
"So, L?"
Hearing Light Yagami's question, L remained expressionless, simply shaking his head.
"Calling it a battle... was purely your one-sided slaughter. While I gained some valuable information, none of it was particularly useful. If this is the case, the power disparity between opposing sides, combat probabilities..."
"Oh, you don't need to consider that."
Light Yagami waved his hand dismissively, pointing at Ye Xing, who had been standing there idly the entire time.
"He has staff officers specifically responsible for combat planning. You don't need to consider whether we can win battles - just focus on identifying targets and deducing the truth."
"Hmm, that suits me perfectly."
Though his expression didn't change, L was genuinely satisfied with this arrangement.
He'd never been particularly interested in calculating relative power levels or predicting combat outcomes anyway, having never done such things before. As a detective, his role was simply to identify criminals; apprehension and related matters were the responsibility of the local police.
Since there were specialised assistants responsible for this area, he only needed to focus on finding the enemy, which suited L perfectly.
"Calling you here this time isn't just to witness a battle between psychics firsthand."
Leaning against the alley wall, L ignored the blood on the ground and the corpse with its gruesome appearance, simply looking at Light Yagami and Ye Xing as he spoke in a calm tone.
"Over the past month, even though the Metropolitan Police Department has deployed almost all its resources in the search, we still haven't managed to trace Rikka Sakuragawa's whereabouts. After all, with her brainwashing-like ability, accommodation, daily food and clothing aren't problems for her - she might not even need to leave her residence."
"Moreover, because of this ability, the longer she stays in a city, the more time she has to plan her next attack. Although I'm not particularly interested in these matters, from a detective's perspective, it's best to avoid a repeat of the incident in Osaka City."
"Your thoughts should align with mine on this, right?"
Seeing Ye Xing and Light Yagami nod, L continued.
"But currently, Rikka Sakuragawa doesn't know that her true identity has been uncovered by us. From your descriptions, although she's quite intelligent, this doesn't change the fact that she suffers from mental health issues and has unstable psychological states. If there were some method to make her believe she's been cornered, lose her composure, and thus reveal weaknesses... this might be the way to break the deadlock."
Light Yagami dismissed his Soul Materialisation disguise and remarked noncommittally.
"So what you mean is applying pressure... The Metropolitan Police Department's investigations alone, even with more officers deployed, would probably put no pressure on Rikka Sakuragawa at all. After all, they're just ordinary people..."
At this point, Light Yagami turned his gaze to Ye Xing, standing nearby and changed tack.
"But if it's Mask, that would be different."
"Indeed, indeed."
L nodded in agreement.
"That Rikka Sakuragawa has left Osaka shows she genuinely fears Mask. Ah, what a pity - if Mask himself were here, he'd surely think of a solution?"
Speaking this, L pretended to have a sudden realisation as he looked at Ye Xing.
"Oh, right, isn't Mask himself right here?"
Watching the duo of Light Yagami and L performing their call-and-response routine, Ye Xing couldn't help rolling his eyes.
"You two really are a natural pair."
After this complaint, Ye Xing paused before speaking with a smile."
"Applying pressure... I do have an idea."
"Let's send a notice to the sinner Rikka Sakuragawa."