Chapter 58: Enjoying the Slaughter of Evil Spirits, The Monster Rokurokubi
Miko stared at Yoru, whose left arm had transformed into the Pale Ghost Hand, emitting a heart-palpitating aura. She pursed her lips tightly, a mix of shock and envy appearing in her eyes.
His talent was simply astounding.
Whether it was Soul Manifestation, merging with his manifested soul, or manipulating evil spirit power to form weapons.
All of this was accomplished by Yoru independently.
Miko even suspected that in the history of Sakura Prefecture, or even the entire world, he might be the first person to develop these abilities.
One more thing.
Although Futaba Rio's rational analysis was important, the connection between the Otherworld, the Physical World, and the "Door" would definitely still be a mystery if not for the massive amount of intelligence Yoru collected by traveling to and from the Otherworld.
At this moment, Miko recalled a Chunibyo line Yoru said on the day Futaba Rio joined the club.
"I am the Chosen One, the only hope to save this collapsing world, selected by the heavens with unruly aptitude!"
Could it be...
Did he actually hit the mark?
"Who... exactly are you people?"
At this moment, Yukinoshita Haruno was completely dumbfounded.
Events happened too suddenly; she found herself unable to comprehend anything.
What are those things?
And who are this boy and girl who look like high school students?
What is going on right now?
"Stay quietly behind me and don't run around."
Hearing Miko's emotionless words, a helpless bitterness appeared on Haruno's face.
Does she even need to say that?
Originally, even facing a large group of terrifying evil spirits, Haruno could barely maintain her reason and still had the strength to wave the rubber stun baton in her hand.
But seeing Yoru and Miko appear, and hearing from their conversation that they seemed to have a way to deal with these things, she subconsciously relaxed.
Once she relaxed, she felt her body become sore and weak, without an ounce of strength left.
Even if she wanted to run, she couldn't.
"Open your eyes, Hyakume."
With Miko's soft command, Hyakume, dressed elegantly in kimono and geta, appeared in front of her.
Miko gripped the long katana with both hands, took a deep breath, and looked straight at the restless evil spirits. Her golden eyes revealed a resilience and decisiveness she had never shown before.
"Let's do this, Hyaku..."
"Come on!"
Just as Miko was halfway through her sentence, she was interrupted by Yoru's voice, which carried a tone of madness and excitement.
The next second, she saw Yoru, who usually prioritized caution and rationality, charge straight towards the evil spirits in front of him.
Before Miko could even shout a warning, a scene unfolded that she and Haruno would never forget in their lives.
Bang!
Yoru reached out with his pale left hand, clamping his five fingers onto an evil spirit's skull. With just a slight exertion of force, the evil spirit's head exploded instantly, turning into a puff of black smoke and dissipating.
This was just the beginning.
"Spear."
Flames of excitement and joy seemed to burn in Yoru's eyes. Evil spirit power condensed in his right hand, forming a long spear.
He threw it with full force, piercing through more than a dozen evil spirits in a row, like a skewer of candied hawthorns at a festival.
Silence fell over the field.
Miko and Haruno, watching from not far away, saw the group of evil spirits actually retreat slightly facing Yoru standing there.
Do evil spirits feel fear too?
"What's wrong?"
Yoru looked at the retreating evil spirits and revealed a friendly smile that contrasted sharply with the madness and excitement in his eyes.
"I'm just warming up. Don't be a buzzkill."
As his voice fell, Yoru instantly appeared in front of an evil spirit.
This evil spirit was over two meters tall and extremely muscular, with a black chain hanging on its chest that clinked occasionally.
Combined with its twisted and terrifying face, a timid person seeing this guy late at night would probably faint from fright.
But now, the roles were completely reversed.
Seeing Yoru arrive in front of it, a look of terror appeared in the evil spirit's bloodshot eyes.
Before it could react, its neck was grabbed by Yoru's pale left hand.
Thud.
With a muffled sound, Yoru rudely smashed the evil spirit in his hand heavily onto the ground.
"Keep going."
Yoru lifted his foot and stepped on the evil spirit's head.
Splat.
Without any hesitation or delay, he crushed the evil spirit's head directly, cruel pleasure appearing in his eyes.
"No, something's wrong."
Watching this scene, a complicated look appeared in Miko's eyes.
Although Yoru's fighting style this time looked similar to before, she felt there was a subtle but crucial difference.
In the past, when facing evil spirits, Yoru would never show mercy and focused on finishing them off, only stopping his attacks after they turned into black smoke.
However.
Back then, Yoru's goal was "Kill," and all his actions were solely to eliminate the evil spirits.
But now...
Miko had a vague feeling.
Is Yoru enjoying the process of slaughtering evil spirits?
Miko didn't understand why he had changed like this. She only knew one thing.
Yoru in this state was even more terrifying to evil spirits than usual.
"Roar... Hiss..."
The evil spirits emitted meaningless sounds and kept retreating, looking terrified of being killed.
Just then, the vertical eye of the python-shaped evil spirit coiled nearby shrank slightly.
A sound very familiar to Miko, one she had nightmares about several times—like hundreds of people whispering in unison—rang out again on the floor.
"What... is this sound?"
Hearing Haruno's question, Miko took two steps back to shield her, looking as if she were facing a formidable enemy.
"Be careful. In the upcoming scene, I might not be able to protect you."
Before coming here, Miko and Yoru had discussed the suspicious points about that snake-shaped evil spirit.
Among all the evil spirits Miko had seen, this one was an extremely special existence.
Because its size was simply too massive, abnormally so.
It was hard to imagine a human soul turning into such a form due to some obsession.
Coupled with that strange whispering sound.
The only conclusion they could reach was...
The true identity of this snake-shaped evil spirit...
"ROAR!!!"
Hundreds of evil spirits on the floor let out shrill roars at the same time.
Then, like fanatical believers rushing to their deaths, they charged towards the snake-shaped evil spirit's body like puppets on strings.
The bodies of all the evil spirits turned into black mist and flesh, merging into the snake-shaped evil spirit's body in the blink of an eye.
Its body didn't become larger; instead, it shrank rapidly, transforming into a body that looked no different from a normal human below the neck.
Only its neck appeared extremely eerie.
It was three or four meters long, like a twisted rubber tube, with that vertical-eyed head hanging from it, swaying in mid-air.
"I see."
Seeing the transformation of the snake-shaped evil spirit, Yoru showed no surprise, only chuckling.
"So it's a Rokurokubi (Flying Head Barbarian)."
The Rokurokubi was also one of the monsters recorded in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
According to stories, the danger level of a Rokurokubi was roughly on par with Hachishaku. They were existences that killed humans but only through clever means, daring not to reveal their true forms in public.
Of course.
This Rokurokubi couldn't be considered the same thing as the ones in historical records.
After all, its true form was a product born from the fusion of hundreds of evil spirits and the resentment of multiple victims from the consecutive accidents at the construction site recently. It couldn't be mentioned in the same breath as ordinary evil spirits and monsters.
This wasn't the first time Yoru had seen a monster from legends.
Besides Hachishaku-sama, who signed a contract with him and became the Employee of the Week at Super-Quant Club, he also saw and devoured a legendary monster yesterday.
The Hannya Ghost disguised as a female teacher who manipulated the Yakuza members to hijack the Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten.
"Don't disappoint me."
Although Yoru's voice carried a smile, there was no smile on his face. He stared straight at the Rokurokubi's vertical eye.
"Come, let me experience more pleasure!"
The Rokurokubi let out a piercing roar from some part of its body, making Miko and Haruno feel like their eardrums were about to burst.
The next second, its neck extended instantly. Like an agile venomous snake, its vertical eye widened, and two rows of sharp teeth glinting with cold light bit towards Yoru's neck.
"Uchiwa fan." (Round fan).
Facing the Rokurokubi's astonishing speed, which was hard for ordinary human eyes to track, the excitement in Yoru's eyes grew even stronger. He softly uttered two words, and a huge black round fan formed of evil spirit power appeared in his right hand.
"Home run."
Bang!
Like hitting a baseball, Yoru used a standard posture, using the fan as a bat. The Rokurokubi's head was naturally the incoming baseball.
After a fierce hit, the Rokurokubi's head was blasted directly into the wall. Its neck stretched over ten meters, hanging limply on the ground, looking quite comical.
"Is that all?"
As if responding to Yoru's words, dozens of twisted heads suddenly extended from the Rokurokubi's body standing there, biting towards Yoru again.
"Now that's more like it."
Just then, one of the Rokurokubi's evil spirit heads suddenly changed direction. With fierce light flashing in its eyes, it lunged at Miko and Haruno not far away.
"Hyakume!"
With Miko's soft shout, Hyakume moved extremely fast. Her hands formed claws, and her five fingers with sharp nails pierced deeply into the neck connected to that head.
"Don't even think about it!"
The current Miko was no longer a novice exorcist. Without hesitation, she slashed with her katana, severing the neck connected to the head.
Immediately after, without relaxing at all, she turned the blade tip and stabbed it directly into the head that fell on the ground. Watching the head turn into black smoke and dissipate, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Exorcist Manual Rule #1:
Piercing the evil spirit's head and watching it dissipate into black smoke ensures safety.
"Truly disgusting."
Seeing the Rokurokubi resort to a sneak attack, a hint of coldness flashed in Yoru's eyes.
Facing the dozen or so evil spirit heads biting towards him, his Pale Ghost Hand on the left arm reached out, thrusting five fingers directly into the temple of one of the heads.
He ignored the remaining heads completely.
Accompanied by the muffled sound of tearing flesh, dozens of evil spirit heads opened their mouths, and their sharp teeth bit onto his body.
Seeing Yoru's blood dripping down his clothes onto the dirty ground, Haruno's pupils shrank in shock, and she panicked.
"Go... Go help him!"
Just as she said this, she saw Yoru acting as if he couldn't feel the pain of being bitten by evil spirits at all. His left hand gripped the evil spirit's head, and with an extremely brutal and savage motion, he yanked the Rokurokubi's body over.
The following scene looked a bit like playing with a yo-yo.
Yoru was the master controlling the yo-yo.
The Rokurokubi's neck was the string.
And the Rokurokubi's body was the ball.
Bang, bang, bang, bang...
Accompanied by bursts of muffled sounds, Yoru held onto one of the heads with one hand and swung the opponent's body wildly.
The Rokurokubi's body smashed against pillars, walls, and the ground, making continuous noises.
After a dozen heavy impacts, the dozen or so heads biting desperately on Yoru had gone limp and hung down.
But Yoru's movements didn't stop. Without any mercy, he continued to ravage it, treating the Rokurokubi like a toy that could be destroyed at will.
Watching the scene before her, Miko said with a complicated expression.
"Help? Help who?"
Haruno was completely dumbfounded too.
The situation reversed too quickly and too many times; she was about to have a breakdown.
First, the despair and fear of being surrounded by monsters and facing imminent death.
Then, the hope brought by two unidentified people.
Then, the monster mutated, and the handsome boy got injured and seemed to be at a disadvantage.
And now...
It turned into unilateral brutal abuse.
Even as a science genius, Haruno's brain processing speed couldn't keep up with the multiple changes in the situation.
Yoru tortured the Rokurokubi in this yo-yo style for nearly two minutes before finally stopping.
Holding that evil spirit head with one hand, he pulled the Rokurokubi's main body in front of him, stepped on its chest, looked straight at the vertical-eyed head, and whispered.
"Do you know why I am punishing you?"
Of course, the Rokurokubi couldn't answer.
Not because it couldn't speak.
But because right now, it was breathing in more than out.
"First point."
Yoru raised his right index finger and spoke slowly.
"I could have enjoyed the pleasure of killing hundreds of evil spirits, but now I can only kill you, one entity. You prevented me from enjoying myself fully. This is the first wrong thing you did."
He applied a little force with the foot on the Rokurokubi's chest, making a tooth-aching squeezing sound, and continued.
"Second, while fighting me, you actually split a head to launch a sneak attack. I don't mind despicable methods, but a lowly creature like you daring to get distracted in a battle with me is simply the greatest insult to me, a professional exorcist."
"Finally, one more point."
Yoru's smile remained friendly, but his eyes revealed cruelty.
"Who do you think you are? Daring to snatch my reserved evil spirit food right in front of my face?"
Bang!
The moment Yoru lifted his foot, the Pale Ghost Hand returned to its original gigantic form, clutching the dying Rokurokubi in its palm.
With just a slight squeeze, accompanied by a muffled bursting sound, this Rokurokubi composed of hundreds of evil spirits was crushed into a puff of black smoke and dissipated.
Yoru walked slowly to Miko and Haruno. Glancing at Haruno, who was slumped against the wall, he smiled lightly.
"You're lucky we arrived just in time, otherwise it would have been bad."
This frivolous tone, combined with the smile on his face, made it impossible to connect the current him with the humanoid demon who just tortured the Rokurokubi like a yo-yo.
Good grief, this mood switch is too fast.
Are you also a Face-Changing Master from Sichuan Opera?
"I'll leave the 'Door' to you."
"Okay."
Miko sighed helplessly and nodded.
She didn't find it troublesome, just a bit disappointed.
She thought this would be her revenge battle.
Unexpectedly, Yoru developed a new skill and directly crushed the snake-shaped evil spirit that evolved into a Rokurokubi.
So after all that...
She only killed one evil spirit?
It felt like punching cotton; Miko felt very awkward.
"You guys..."
Haruno took a deep breath to calm herself. Looking at Yoru and Miko in front of her, she asked softly.
"Are you high school students?"
Yoru didn't answer but asked back.
"Why do you assume we are high school students? Is it because you think the size of certain parts of my companion only reaches the high school level? That is size discrimination!"
Haruno: "...."
"Then, are you university students?"
"No, we are high school students."
Haruno: "...."
"Could it be, you are students of Sobu High?"
"Why do you assume we are students of Sobu High? Are you discriminating against our academic performance level?"
Haruno looked speechless.
Are you a barbell spirit (troll) incarnate?
"Then... don't tell me you are students of Shuchiin Academy?"
"No, we are from Sobu High."
Haruno's chest heaved. She took a deep breath and told herself in her heart.
Calm down. Must calm down.
Miko listened to their conversation from the side and thought as expected of Yoru.
Evil spirits must be killed.
Being 'Abstract' (trolling) is also a trade he can't leave behind.
Just then, the smile on Yoru's face suddenly disappeared. Looking straight at Haruno's face, he said faintly.
"Since you know our secret, how should we handle this next?"
He looked at Miko beside him and shrugged.
"How about throwing her into the Otherworld?"