Chapter 101: The Meatball Evil Spirit in the Basement, Time Running Out for Yagami Light
"Oh, is that so..."
Light responded noncommittally.
Although he felt adding a BGM during battle on such an occasion was a bit abstract.
But...
The Suona tune the opponent played just now seemed quite fiery?
Is this the passive assimilation of the Abstract Halo?
Just as Light was in a thinking state, he heard Yoru suddenly chuckle and speak.
"Yagami-kun, your time is running out."
Hearing this, Light frowned first, not understanding the meaning.
Immediately after, his face changed, realizing instantly, and said incredulously.
"You... the outfit you are wearing this time... shouldn't be exactly the same as the previous two times, right?"
"Of course."
Facing Light's question, Yoru replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I never change my name, sit without changing my surname. The main point is being open and aboveboard."
Then, he said a sentence that made Light feel unable to laugh or cry, completely confused.
"Without wearing these clothes, how would the police know it was me?"
Light's eyes were filled with bitterness, sadness, and helplessness.
Are you crazy?
Doing such things, not even changing clothes, deliberately wanting the police to know?
Light thought about the level of cases the opponent committed in the previous two times.
Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten, killing more than twenty armed kidnappers.
Breaking into the Kyoto City Museum and highly likely stealing the handed-down famous sword of Sakura Prefecture, Onimaru Kunitsuna.
What level of criminal was this?
Let alone Sakura Prefecture, even looking at the whole Kyushu (Japan), or even the whole world, there wasn't such a level.
Now stealing Onimaru Kunitsuna, then next step?
Stealing the Imperial Seal?
Received the Mandate of Heaven, Long Life and Eternal Prosperity?
Light didn't dare to think.
But one thing he was 100% sure of.
Among the group of pedestrians who fled just now, someone must have called the police.
His and the opponent's outfits were too conspicuous.
The police weren't stupid.
Even if it was his first time appearing in public view with this attire, just hearing about a mysterious person wearing a black coat and a pure black mask, the police would instantly realize it was the criminal from the previous two cases.
The Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten case was one thing.
The key was Onimaru Kunitsuna!
If that handed-down famous sword was really in this Itou-kun's hands, the police higher-ups would inevitably mobilize all forces.
Even if they couldn't recover the genuine Onimaru Kunitsuna...
But as long as they killed the criminal, wouldn't it be equivalent to dead men tell no tales?
Regarding the darkness hidden inside the police and the inaction of certain high-level officials, Light, as the son of the Criminal Investigation Bureau Chief, knew a thing or two.
Because of this.
He believed more in his own consequential justice than procedural justice.
Light didn't know how long until the police members arrived at the scene.
He only knew one thing.
Itou-kun was right.
Time left for him wasn't much.
While Light was thinking, Yoru was also observing the opponent's reaction.
Using Soul Manifestation, an ability leaving no traces, able to be summoned again even if the soul true body died, causing at most slight backlash to oneself—killing people with such extremely safe ability required no enlightenment, courage, determination, etc. Anyone could do it.
But knowing the police force was on the way, facing the impending hail of bullets, risking dying today, dying here.
Could Light, who claimed to be just and aimed to sanction evil, still persist in his original intention?
Yoru just wanted to confirm this point.
Two seconds later.
Light's eyes gradually became firm.
The two dark red blood stains on his pure white mask became slightly twisted.
"The new world without any rotten evil is right before my eyes."
Although Light's face was hidden under the mask, the bloodshot eyes revealed, combined with the two twisted bright red patterns like bloody tears, didn't look like a messenger of justice.
More like an evil ghost sanctioning sinners with slaughter.
Click.
Light picked up a gun from the ground, pulled the bolt, making a crisp sound.
Together with Yoru, ignoring the stairs leading to the second and third floors, he walked straight to the end of the corridor.
There was a locked rusty iron door.
In such relatively old small buildings originally used for setting up shops or renovated into apartments for rent, the property owner would basically build a small basement privately.
Such things were indeed hard to manage.
As long as a professional construction team with qualifications was hired to ensure the load-bearing structure of the ground wasn't damaged, they would turn a blind eye.
And at this time.
As spirit mediums, both Light and Yoru could feel a twisted, disgusting stench like blood coagulated for days emanating from inside this rusty iron door.
The wisps of black mist emitting from the cracks seen in their eyes confirmed their speculation.
Behind this door, inside the basement of this building...
There was one or multiple powerful evil spirits whose strength could even reach the average level of the Otherworld.
Yes.
The power gap of evil spirits between the two worlds was this big.
An evil spirit with only lower-middle level strength in the Otherworld, arriving in the physical world Kyoto, combined with a "Door" originally having only C-level danger, could instantly raise the danger level of the nearby area to A-level or above.
After all, the Otherworld was the home field of evil spirits, a dead zone normal humans absolutely couldn't step into.
Of course, now there was another alias.
Kyoto Number One Exorcist's Unlimited Buffet.
"Itou-kun, we..."
Before Light could finish speaking, Yoru's entire right arm hidden under the coat and gloves turned into the appearance of the Pale Ghost Hand.
Immediately after, he made a movement Light didn't expect and couldn't react to at all.
Bang!
Yoru threw a punch, and the iron door in front fell in response.
Before Light could see clearly, he felt his feet suddenly leave the ground.
"Off you go."
Yoru lifted Light by the back collar with one hand, like picking up the scruff of a kitten, and threw him directly inside the door.
Then, his five fingers dug into the iron door, lifted it up, and with an extremely rough movement, pressed this iron door back forcefully, blocking the entrance again.
Light lay awkwardly on the ground, feeling dizzy all over.
He struggled to get up, looking at the iron door behind him, deformed but still embedded in the wall blocking the entrance, and shook his head with a dumbfounded smile.
"No... is this necessary?"
Hearing Light's bitter smile, Yoru's tone seemed to be gloating.
"Good luck, Yagami-kun. Don't die."
Light sighed helplessly, holding his forehead and murmuring.
"This guy's personality... is really nasty."
He understood the meaning of this move.
Nothing more than wanting to see if his strength could solve the evil spirit wreaking havoc in the physical world alone.
Light also understood this principle.
Killing someone with the ability of Soul Manifestation had no difficulty at all.
The real test of strength still depended on fighting evil spirits.
Only by defeating evil spirits could one be considered a qualified spirit medium.
This happened to be the aspect Light wasn't good at.
His application of the Soul Manifestation ability had gone a bit astray in his own exploration.
Light took a deep breath, throwing nervous and uneasy emotions to the back of his mind, walking straight along the staircase with no lights leading downwards.
The stairs weren't long, nor were there any corners. Just a few steps, and he had arrived inside the basement of this building.
However, the scene entering Light's eyes made his pupils shrink in shock.
In the old basement with flickering lights, a "Thing" was busy constantly.
Calling it a "Thing" was because Light couldn't think of another word to call the existence in front of him.
Like a dozen adult male bodies glued together with superglue.
And not only that.
Certain parts of their bodies merged together, forming a huge meatball.
Only arms wearing expensive watches waving constantly in the air, and faces looming on that meatball remained.
The unified tattoo pattern of the Black Dragon Society, due to the mutual fusion of bodies, overlapped in some places, forming weird patterns like charms.
And the dozen arms of the "Thing" weren't idle at all.
Some were assembling various parts on the table into guns with extremely skillful movements.
Others were mixing various chemical raw materials on another table.
The doubt Light had held since entering the building was finally answered.
According to the police investigation, there were about thirty members of the Black Dragon Society.
But he only killed fourteen just now.
Turns out the remaining members all became like this.
At this time, Light's gaze swept to a transparent bag placed in the corner of the basement, containing light blue crystalline objects.
"Is this the so-called hallucinogen..."
Seeing that bag of stuff, Light's eyes revealed unconcealed disgust.
To say what he hated most in this world, drugs were at least in the top three if not first.
Rot, depravity, sin.
All words Light hated pointed to this disgusting thing.
"Die."
The area of the bloody tear pattern on his white mask became larger and larger, almost dyeing the entire mask red.
And the shape of the mask also changed from the same style as Yoru's initially to extending a sharp nose, similar to his soul true body Emperor Sutoku, looking like the Great Tengu in legends.
"Emperor Sutoku!"
As Light's voice fell, his soul true body Emperor Sutoku appeared again, emitting a sharp roar that made eardrums hurt, rushing towards that meatball covered with arms.
At the same time, Light himself wasn't idle.
He aimed the gun at that monster fused from a dozen humans and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
Accompanied by the gunshot and dazzling flash, the first bullet from the muzzle accurately hit one arm of the meatball.
But what Light didn't expect was that the opponent's movement didn't stop.
The hole pierced by the bullet on the arm didn't bleed either, just emitting wisps of black gas, then healed together at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"What is this thing!?"
From Light's surprise at this moment, it could be seen.
He was a spirit medium, but not a qualified exorcist.
If it were Miko and Rio here, judging from the appearance of this meatball, they could immediately judge that the opponent was a monster completely fused with humans, just like the Long-Tongued Man encountered last time.
The Long-Tongued Man fused with only one human was already so difficult to deal with.
How could this meatball fused with a dozen humans be easy to deal with?
Unfortunately, Light's experience in dealing with evil spirits was close to zero.
The only thing he could do now was to let his Emperor Sutoku attack, piercing those two sharp claws emitting black gas into the meatball's body.
"Ugh..."
At the moment Emperor Sutoku's claws pierced the body surface, the meatball seemed to finally feel pain.
It took damage.
But not much.
Immediately after, amidst muffled whimpers, two arms on the meatball suddenly extended like rubber cords, grabbing Emperor Sutoku's shoulders directly.
Under Light's horrified gaze, the muscles on its two arms bulged, tearing the tall Emperor Sutoku in half from the middle directly.
"What exactly..."
Light was shocked.
His soul true body Emperor Sutoku was actually destroyed so simply in front of the opponent?
What monster is this!?
Before Light had time to think more, a strong sense of dizziness and weakness surged into his mind and body.
This was the backlash caused to the spirit medium himself after the soul true body was destroyed.
"Dam... Damn it..."
Light gritted his teeth. The mask on his face had turned pure red, and the shape became exactly the same as the Great Tengu's appearance.
He couldn't accept such a fact.
Light looked gentle and kind on the outside.
In reality, he was an extremely arrogant person.
At this moment, facing the powerlessness against the evil spirit made him unable to accept the fact that he was so weak.
Ask Itou-kun for help?
No.
Light shook his head, took a deep breath, a look close to madness appearing in his eyes.
If I do that, isn't it equivalent to telling the opponent I can't do anything?
Light's self-esteem didn't allow him to do so.
At this time, his peripheral vision caught sight of a few extremely dazzling things on the long table where those guns were placed.
Hand grenades.
Seeing this thing, Light's eyes suddenly revealed a feverish look.
"Release your resentment, Emperor Sutoku!"
This time, he no longer whispered softly but spoke ferociously, summoning Emperor Sutoku again despite the dizziness in his brain and weakness in his body.
While Emperor Sutoku rushed towards the meatball evil spirit again, Light rushed straight to the side of the long table.
This process took less than two seconds.
Feeling the stronger sense of weakness and dizziness, Light felt he was about to faint on the ground.
He knew his Emperor Sutoku was destroyed for the second time.
And judging from his physical condition, he didn't have enough power to summon it a third time.
This bloody fact didn't worry Light.
He turned around slowly, staring straight at that meatball evil spirit waving a dozen arms like an evil god. Under the mask, the corner of his mouth raised a twisted smile.
Clang.
The pull ring fell to the ground, making a crisp sound.
Light held a hand grenade in his right hand.
"The moment of sanction has arrived."
Just as Light closed his eyes, waiting for the roar of the explosion and the pain of his body being torn apart, a voice carrying a teasing smile sounded in his ear.
"Didn't expect you to be a suicide bomber."
Light opened his eyes and saw Yoru appearing beside him at some point.
He froze first, then his face changed. While hiding the grenade in his palm into his chest, he shouted anxiously.
"Itou-kun, dodge quickly..."
"Doesn't matter."
Light was just an ordinary person; his movements naturally couldn't be faster than Yoru, whose physical fitness exceeded even the fighter Kure Raian.
Yoru grabbed the grenade with the pin pulled directly from the opponent's palm.
"Itou-kun, no!"
Looking at Light's anxious appearance, then at Yoru dodging to prevent him from snatching it back.
One would think they were fighting for something good.
"I said, doesn't matter."
Yoru chuckled, wrapping his hands directly around the grenade about to explode.
Light had no time to stop it, nor was there enough time.
Only one picture could appear in his mind.
The opponent's hands blown to powder.
He would also die from the explosion fragments.
And the meatball evil spirit had a high probability of surviving.
Thinking of the possibility that two people sacrificed their lives but achieved nothing, Light despaired.
But the next scene dumbfounded him.
Bang.
The grenade exploded, causing a muffled sound.
Dazzling firelight could be seen through the gaps between Yoru's fingers.
But the scene of hands blown to powder and flesh and blood flying as Light imagined didn't appear.
Two seconds later.
Yoru spread his hands and patted them casually.
Grenade fragments fell from his hands to the ground, making crisp and pleasant sounds.
Yoru's gaze turned to the meatball evil spirit formed by fusing a dozen human bodies, smiling.
"OK, today's dinner, I choose you."
At this moment, Light first glanced at the fragments on the ground, then looked up at Yoru, his eyes full of disbelief.
The opponent...
Withstood a hand grenade explosion with his bare hands?