Chapter 7: The Azure Flash Under the Moonlight
Time ticked by, second by second.
The room was quiet, the only sound being the faint rustle of an open manga book under the desk lamp as it was occasionally stirred by the evening breeze.
Eriri was curled up on her bed, having wrapped herself in the blanket like a spring roll, revealing only her golden pigtails and a pair of ice-blue eyes that held no trace of sleepiness.
She couldn't sleep.
Although Natsume Yu's presence in the corner of the room and the invisible barrier provided great psychological comfort, three days of mental torment had already left her physically and mentally exhausted, her nerves stretched to the breaking point.
Secretly, for the countless time, she cast her gaze toward the corner of the room.
Natsume Yu remained in the same position, leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed, eyes closed. His breathing was steady and long, as if he were asleep.
His handsome profile, illuminated by the interweaving moonlight and lamplight, appeared somewhat hazy.
Looking at him, Eriri's wildly beating heart would always miraculously calm down.
Just as her vigilance began to relax and a trace of drowsiness crept in—
"...Po..."
A faint, yet incredibly clear sound, abruptly rang out within the room.
Not outside the window, but... inside the room!
Eriri's body froze, and all sleepiness vanished in an instant, replaced by a bone-chilling cold.
At the same time, in the corner, Natsume Yu slowly opened his eyes. Those cerulean pupils gleamed in the darkness, like the purest of gems.
Crack...
A soft sound, like shattering glass, was heard.
The simple barrier Natsume Yu had set up was corroded and breached by a powerful, ominous Cursed Energy.
"Po, po, po, po, po-po-po-po—"
The bizarre laughter was no longer distant. It became sharp, piercing, filled with the endless malice of a predator about to enjoy its prey, coming from all corners of the room as if to tear one's eardrums apart!
Eriri's eyes widened in terror. She saw, on the floor at the foot of her bed, a dense, ink-like shadow rapidly expanding and swelling.
A tall figure in a white dress and a wide-brimmed hat slowly "rose" from that patch of shadow.
It was hunched over, its head bowed, the darkness beneath the brim of its hat bottomless. Its body was disproportionately elongated, its limbs twisted. Its mere presence there made the air in the entire room thick and icy cold.
It was here!
It had broken through that invisible wall and appeared directly in her room!
"Ahhh—!"
The scream she had been suppressing to the limit finally burst from her throat.
At that moment, the figure that had been sitting quietly moved.
Natsume Yu stood up, his movements unhurried, as if the terrifying Cursed Spirit before him—one capable of causing a normal person to have a mental breakdown—was nothing more than a stone in his path.
"Hachishaku-sama" let out a silent roar. Its slender, twisted arm, like a willow branch, suddenly whipped out with a whoosh, lashing viciously at Eriri on the bed!
Eriri subconsciously shut her eyes, waiting for death to come.
But the excruciating pain she expected never came.
Trembling, she opened her eyes a crack, and then witnessed a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.
Natsume Yu was now standing in front of her bed. The Cursed Spirit's blow, powerful enough to shatter stone, had bizarrely... stopped just a few inches from his body.
It was as if an invisible, intangible, yet absolutely insurmountable wall stood between them.
"Don't be afraid," Natsume Yu said without even turning his head, his voice still calm. "With me here, you will be safe tonight."
He turned to face the Special Grade Cursed Spirit that was constantly letting out its strange "po po po" laugh.
"My technique is called 'Limitless'," he said, as if explaining to Eriri, or perhaps just talking to himself. "Simply put, 'infinity' exists around me. Any object that approaches me will slow down infinitely, never able to truly touch me."
The Cursed Spirit seemed to be enraged. It waved its arms frantically, attacking again and again, but each time, without exception, it was blocked by that formless "infinity."
Witnessing this scene that defied common sense, Eriri's brain completely shut down.
"To put you completely at ease," a faint smile touched the corners of Natsume Yu's mouth, "let's end this in a way you can understand."
He slowly raised his right hand and extended his index finger.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Blue."
As his voice fell, a point of extreme, deep cerulean light condensed at his fingertip.
In that instant, all the light in the room seemed to be swallowed by that tiny point of light.
An indescribable and terrifying gravitational force erupted from that point of blue!
"Po?! Po-po—?!"
"Hachishaku-sama's" tall body began to twist and distort violently, as if seized by a giant invisible hand, desperately being pulled towards Natsume Yu's fingertip. It let out terrified, discordant shrieks, but it was all in vain.
In that moment, space itself seemed to lose all meaning.
Under Eriri's shocked gaze, the massive Special Grade Cursed Spirit was forcibly pulled, compressed, and crushed, until it was entirely sucked into that tiny cerulean point of light, not leaving a single trace behind.
The world returned to silence.
But in the next moment, the extremely compressed power triggered a violent recoil.
BOOM!
An invisible shockwave erupted from Natsume Yu, and the room's window shattered in response!
CRASH—!
Countless glass shards flew in all directions.
A palm-sized, sharp piece of glass shot straight towards the dazed Eriri's cheek, whistling through the air!
Just as the shard was about to slice into her delicate skin, a figure moved like lightning to block her path.
Natsume Yu.
Thud!
A soft sound.
The glass shard embedded itself deep in his left forearm, cutting open a gash.
Bright red blood slowly trickled down his fair skin, looking particularly stark in the cold moonlight.
Time seemed to stand still.
Natsume Yu didn't even frown. He pulled out the glass shard, tossed it casually to the floor, then turned back to look at Eriri. After confirming she was unharmed, he said in his usual calm-as-water tone:
"See? You're fine now."
At that moment, something inside Eriri's heart completely shattered.
The hard shell she had always used for protection—the one called "tsundere."
He could have dodged it. He could have blocked everything with that incredible power, but he didn't.
In order to protect her perfectly, flawlessly, he chose to use his own body to endure that unnecessary harm.
It was a trivial act, a shallow wound, yet it had a more devastating impact than the world-destroying cerulean flash from moments before.
Immense gratitude, shock, and a strange emotion she had never experienced—both bittersweet and warm—instantly flooded her heart like a burst dam.
Eriri stared blankly at the bleeding wound on his arm. Her eyes grew hot, and two streams of clear tears rolled uncontrollably down her cheeks.