Chapter 75: Futaba Rio's Awakening
"I was truly careless."
Watching the creature that was half-human and half-evil spirit, emitting a thick black aura and sticking out a long tongue, Yotsuya Miko gritted her silver teeth, her eyes revealing regret and self-blame.
She clearly knew that if humans possessed overly twisted and evil desires, their bodies would be occupied by evil spirits, or even merge with them.
Even if Yurikawa Hana thought the other party was human and didn't mention this detail.
But as an exorcist, failing to consider all possibilities was definitely a major mistake on her part.
"Miko, i-is this guy a monster?"
Seeing a long katana suddenly appear in Miko's hand and collide with the hooded man's long tongue, Hana was stunned.
Hearing her shout, Miko and Futaba Rio's hearts sank simultaneously.
The katana was a spiritual item with a physical form, so it was normal for Hana to see it.
But she could also see the long tongue spat out by the hooded man.
There was only one explanation.
The evil spirit and the human body had nearly completely merged.
By occupying the human body, the originally invisible evil spirit gained a physical form.
This meant it exploited a loophole in the rule of "Must be seen to attack."
Since it merged with a human body, even ordinary people, as long as they saw the body it occupied, were equivalent to seeing the evil spirit part of it.
Simply put.
This half-human, half-evil spirit monster possessed the power of an evil spirit, but because it had a human body, anyone could perceive its existence.
In other words, it could attack anyone.
"Damn it..."
Miko gripped the handle of the katana with both hands, pointing the sharp tip glinting with cold light at the human-body evil spirit in front of her.
"Let's do this, Hyakume, Hachishaku!"
Rio, who originally just wanted to collect intelligence and analyze it along the way, didn't expect things to develop to this point either.
She didn't panic or lose her composure. Instead, she remained calm and collected, stopping Hana who wanted to run over, and whispered.
"Retreat a bit, leave it to Miko."
"Eh... Eh?"
Watching Miko skillfully wielding the long katana and dodging the attacks of the monster's long tongue, Hana felt panic but also an indescribable feeling in her heart.
Is this... the real Yotsuya Miko-san?
This Miko...
Is so cool.
Rio pulled Hana back nearly ten meters away. Instead of focusing on the battle between Miko and the evil spirit, she first observed the surrounding environment.
This was a street in a residential area, with houses on both sides.
Rio's gaze behind her glasses scanned continuously, observing carefully, and confirmed the most important thing.
At least in the places she could see, there were no cameras.
This situation was different from previous exorcism operations.
Previous operations were in relatively remote and gloomy places.
And since ordinary people couldn't see evil spirits, even if there were cameras, they would at most see a girl waving a long katana, shouting incomprehensible words, and slashing at the empty air in front of her.
She would definitely be treated as a Chunibyo patient.
But this target was very special; even non-spirit mediums like herself could clearly observe it.
If a passerby passed by at this time, they would see a man with a twisted face like an evil ghost, spitting a long dark green tongue, fighting Miko who held a long katana.
Although Hyakume and Hachishaku wouldn't be seen, this scene alone was terrifying enough.
What normal person can spit their tongue out four or five meters long and clash with a sharp katana?
"Miko, retreat first."
Hearing Rio's shout, Miko didn't hesitate at all and said softly.
"I leave it to you, Hyakume."
"Don't worry."
Hyakume, who was originally providing vision and support from the side, swapped positions with Miko with extreme tacit understanding after receiving the order. Without leaving any flaws, she took on the role of the main attacker in an instant.
Miko retreated directly, handed the katana to Hachishaku, then ran quickly to Hana and Rio, repeating the classic quote from her first training session with Yoru.
"Crash, Withdraw, Sacrifice, Run!" (Note: Game slang for a losing team fight strategy).
"Eh, eh!?"
Before Hana could react, Miko and Rio grabbed her hands, one on each side, and ran towards the distance of the street.
Hachishaku also followed behind the three girls.
As a qualified exorcist, Miko always remembered Yoru's teachings.
One sentence was the most important.
If you can't win, run.
There were millions of evil spirits in this world.
A professional exorcist must absolutely not take any risks to do something stupid like trading one-for-one with an evil spirit.
"Crash" meant the opponent's power exceeded Miko's estimation a bit.
Whether she, plus Hachishaku, plus Hyakume could win was hard to say.
But one thing was certain.
A victory couldn't be decided in a short time.
"Withdraw" and "Run" meant greasing the soles of their feet and fleeing directly.
And this word "Sacrifice" was the essence of the essence.
The reason Miko left Hyakume behind to cover the rear was simple.
Hyakume was the manifestation of her own soul.
When fighting the Wild Hachishaku-sama back then, Hyakume had already dissipated once. The negative impact was only a significant consumption of her stamina and mental energy.
After recovering, she could summon it again.
If Hachishaku were eliminated, she would be truly gone.
Huff... huff...
Hana ran, panting heavily.
"Wh-Where are we going..."
Although Hana wasn't the type of girl who was particularly good at sports, her physical fitness was actually quite good.
Running only a few dozen meters and getting this tired was actually because her life aura was consumed a lot when she passed by that half-human half-evil spirit just now, leading to physical exhaustion.
On the other hand, looking at Rio.
Better not look.
Her stamina was truly poor; she was about to collapse.
Rio thought if she had known that joining the Super-Quant Club as a staff officer would involve moments requiring stamina, she should have exercised more usually.
Tired as she was, her brain didn't stop working; instead, it moved faster.
The evil spirit merged with a human body, but judging from the information provided by Hana, that monster didn't attack directly. Instead, it pretended to meet by chance on the way to and from school every day to suck Hana's life aura to strengthen itself.
This guy possessed intelligence equal to humans; it wasn't an ordinary evil spirit.
This was a residential area.
If passersby passed by and saw the true face of the evil spirit, what choice it would make was self-evident.
Furthermore.
Facing an evil spirit of this level, even if dozens of ordinary people came, they would just be fodder without the power to fight back.
Considering this, plus trying to avoid encountering other evil spirits at this time which would increase the number of enemies, and also protecting Miko's identity as a spirit medium from being exposed...
Rio completed the process from analyzing intelligence to deducing a conclusion within just two seconds.
"Yurikawa-san!"
Rio stopped and asked urgently.
"Is there any remote place nearby where no one passes by but has enough space?"
"Ah..."
"Answer me quickly!"
"Yes, yes."
Hana thought hard and finally thought of a place, pointing to the corner ahead.
"Turn there, walk about fifty meters, and there is a small badminton hall preparing for renovation, but the door is locked..."
Rio looked at Miko. The latter nodded slightly, and she understood immediately.
"That's the place! Move faster!"
The three girls and Hachishaku turned the corner and ran forward for dozens of meters. Sure enough, they saw a two-story small badminton hall.
The door to enter the hall was locked with an iron chain, and a notice saying "Preparing for renovation, no entry" was pasted on the door.
Without needing Miko's reminder, Hachishaku walked straight up, grabbed the iron lock with her fair right hand, and tore the chain apart with brute force.
Among all evil spirits, Hachishaku was an extremely special existence.
Logically speaking, evil spirits couldn't affect objects in the physical world.
Whether it was because she signed a contract with the spirit medium Yoru, or because she merged with a "Door," Hachishaku could do this.
However, to attack enemies, she still had to choose to manifest actively.
This rule of "must be seen to affect" might have been created to protect humans from being slaughtered by evil spirits.
"Come in quickly."
Seeing Hana still dazed, Rio frowned and pulled her directly into the badminton hall's gate.
After entering, Rio looked around.
As she expected, due to the renovation, the electricity in the badminton hall had been cut off for a long time.
Although there were cameras, a gym of this scale obviously couldn't afford advanced cameras with super-long standby time and real-time networking capabilities.
Perfectly meeting her conditions.
After entering the badminton hall, Rio didn't hesitate at all. She took out her phone from her pocket and dialed Yoru's number.
Acting tough in exorcism wasn't being Tsundere; it was being stupid.
If any accident happened, the three people present, plus Hachishaku, would all die.
It didn't matter if she died.
But Miko the spirit medium, Hana with strong life aura, and Hachishaku who merged with the power of the "Door"—if they were devoured by that special half-human half-evil spirit creature...
Wouldn't that be feeding the BOSS?
However, what Rio didn't expect was that the call didn't go through; only a busy tone came.
"This..."
Her heart sank, and a terrible guess arose.
Could it be...
Yoru went into the Otherworld?
Although Hachishaku wasn't there, through the existing "Doors" in Kyoto, Yoru as a spirit medium could still shuttle between the physical world and the Otherworld during Ouma-ga-toki and Oujin-no-toki.
If the call doesn't go through...
Isn't it GG?
What to do, what to do, what to do?
Invincible Futaba Rio, think of a solution quickly.
Rio's thoughts spun incessantly, almost starting to hypnotize herself.
But after collating all intelligence and analyzing it, she reached a conclusion she didn't want to admit but was a fact.
We are driven to a desperate situation.
Just then.
Cough, cough.
Miko suddenly coughed twice, clutching her chest, frowning tightly, her face looking very tired.
Hana asked with concern: "Miko, are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Miko waved her hand, took a deep breath, and leaned back against the wall of the badminton hall.
She could feel her Hyakume had been eliminated.
Only about a minute and a half had passed since they retreated from the scene to running into this gym.
The thirteen-eyed Hyakume could only last a mere minute and a half in front of that evil spirit.
Miko realized her initial judgment was still too naive.
That evil spirit not only possessed extremely high intelligence, knowing not to eat Hana directly but to suck a bit of her life aura daily to strengthen itself.
Moreover, its strength was unimaginably powerful.
Strictly speaking, Miko's Soul Manifestation Hyakume wasn't a combat type. It leaned more towards tracking traces and gathering intelligence through observation—a scout type spirit. Its current combat power was only slightly stronger than Hachishaku.
And Hachishaku's power wasn't considered particularly strong among all evil spirits.
Now, to cover the retreat of ordinary humans Hana and Rio, Hyakume was eliminated once, and Miko's stamina and mental energy were greatly consumed.
Two choices.
Summon Hyakume again, and she loses combat capability.
Or don't summon, and she can barely continue fighting.
Step... step... step...
A slow but clearly audible footstep sound gradually approached the corner in front of the three.
From the rhythm of these footsteps, one could hear a playful mockery of a hunter before killing the prey.
Slurp.
The half-human half-evil spirit man, spitting a long dark green tongue that made people feel incredibly disgusted, appeared from the corner with a twisted smile on his face.
"Caught you."
He, or rather, It.
Its unabashed gaze fell straight on Hana and Rio's chests. Licking its lips, its eyes emitted twisted lustful desires.
"My favorite thing is to kill girls of your type, and then savor your bodies bit by bit, thoroughly."
"As for you?"
The evil ghost's gaze fell on Miko, shaking its head uninterestedly.
"You're not good enough."
"This guy..."
Rio gritted her teeth, her nails almost piercing her palms.
What she hated most in her life was her body being scrutinized by such gazes.
It was exactly these gazes and these disgusting words.
They even made her hate herself.
Rio knew how absurd victim-blaming was.
But she was human after all. No matter how rational she appeared usually, she couldn't escape the trouble of sensibility.
Or perhaps Rio's extreme rationality was because she didn't want to face that sensitive self affected by outside comments.
"Think I'm disgusting?"
The evil ghost licked its lips, scanning back and forth between Rio and Hana's chests.
"Growing a body like that, ultimately, it's your own fault, right!? How could it be my fault!? All of this, whether dying or being toyed with, is all your own fault!!!"
Miko was obviously angered by such remarks but still maintained her calm. Taking the katana handed by Hachishaku, supporting her body with one hand, she took a deep breath and spoke slowly.
"Futaba, you take Yurikawa-san and leave first. There should be a back door here. Hachishaku, go with them and leave here."
"What about you?"
Miko looked straight at the evil spirit at the end of the corridor, gripping the katana with all her strength.
"As a professional exorcist, I won't lose. Don't worry."
Rio knew Miko was lying.
If she could really handle this evil ghost alone, with the help of Hyakume and Hachishaku on the street just now, she should have insta-killed it.
It was obvious now that Miko wanted to sacrifice herself proactively to delay time, giving Rio and Hana time to escape.
Rationality told Rio that one person dying was better than all three dying here.
But sensibility stopped her footsteps. Although her lips parted slightly, she couldn't say the words "I leave it to you" no matter what.
Clang!
The evil spirit spat out its long tongue, colliding with the katana in Miko's hand again.
But this time, Miko's footsteps were unsteady. She was knocked back several steps by the impact and sat directly on the ground.
She gritted her silver teeth, endured the exhaustion of stamina overdraft, struggled to get up from the ground again, and pointed the tip of the blade at the evil spirit in front of her once more.
"Miko..."
Seeing Miko forcing herself to hold on even though she was exhausted, Rio took a deep breath, a look of determination appearing in her eyes that she had never shown before.
I must do something.
At this time, the evil ghost felt victory was within its grasp. Its voice carried mockery and a very perverted excitement.
"After killing you, I'll go enjoy the pleasure of playing with those two girls' very erotic bodies..."
"Shut up!"
Before the evil ghost could finish, Rio suddenly shouted angrily, interrupting it.
Miko had never seen her so emotional before.
Meanwhile, behind the corner of the corridor.
Yoru leaned against the wall, chuckling and murmuring to himself.
"Finally, it's coming."
...
"Making casual comments about others' bodies is truly disgusting."
Rio took out the pale green hair tie from her pocket and tied her long hair draped over her shoulders into a ponytail.
She took off her glasses. Her vision seemed to become incredibly clear at this moment.
Rio's gaze fell straight on the evil ghost's face as she said word by word.
"Even someone like me, someone even I myself detest, is still needed by people."
"Yui, Miko, and... Yoru."
"Someone like me can also be needed in the Super-Quant Club. That is my place to belong."
"From now on, the Futaba Rio tortured by the need for validation no longer exists."
"Because having these people needing me is completely enough!"
As Rio's voice fell, the vision before her eyes blossomed with patterns like shattered glass.
An inexplicable voice sounded in her mind.
"Have you finally endured to the limit?"
"The pain you suffer comes not only from others but also from your own emptiness."
"Now this emptiness has been filled."
"Face the self that is swayed by emotions, needs to be needed by others, and isn't so perfect."
"Now, call out my True Name."
Rio's right hand holding the glasses slowly clenched. The frame was squeezed out of shape; the transparent lenses appeared with fine cracks and finally shattered into pieces, piercing Rio's fair palm.
Crimson blood dripped onto the ground.
Rio parted her lips slightly, looked up straight into the evil ghost's eyes, and said word by word.
"Reveal your true form..."
"Hone-Onna (Bone Woman)."
As Rio's voice fell, a female ghost wearing a kimono, with a beautiful face but a body below the neck composed entirely of white bones, appeared.
Hone-Onna's eyes filled with the fire of resentment locked onto the evil ghost in front of her.
Yoru, hiding behind the corner, heard Rio call out the True Name of her soul and whispered to himself.
"Finally..."
"Futaba Rio, awakened."