"Alright," Yukio announced, holding a clipboard as he stood before us in the courtyard. "Since the School Festival is rapidly approaching, the Exwires have been tasked with clearing the 'Seven Mysteries of True Cross Academy' to ensure the campus is completely safe for guests."
"Seven?" Shima whined, leaning heavily on his staff. "That's gonna take all week! I thought we were getting a break!"
"Not if we're efficient," I said, stretching my arms over my head. "Let's just get this over with."
Night One
Mystery 1: The Wandering Wedding Kimono.
We found the ghost in the corridors of the old, abandoned dorms. It was a spirit wearing a traditional, pure white wedding dress, huddled in a corner and sobbing uncontrollably. The air around it was thick with sorrow.
"Reports say it only attacks men," Bon noted, stepping in front of Shiemi.
"Probably has regrets involving them," I said, stepping forward past him.
When I approached the spirit, my enhanced senses picked up on the nuances of its spiritual footprint. I quickly noticed that the figure wasn't a biological woman. The information from my past life clicked into place.
From what I remember this was a transgender woman or some kind of cross dresser who had died with deep regrets about having to hide their true identity. They had manifested in the form of what they had always desired but was denied—a bride.
I placed a hand to my chin in contemplation.
They probably died just wanting to be accepted. Hmm, I guess I have to do this without making a mess.
I walked right up to the spirit. The Exwires tensed, ready for me to ignite the pathway. Instead, I stopped, bowed respectfully, and offered a gentlemanly hand.
"You look stunning," I said softly, my voice echoing in the quiet hall. "The dress suits you perfectly."
The Exwires behind me collectively choked on their breath.
The spirit paused. Their sobbing stopped. And they looked up at me, a smile slowly breaking across their ethereal face. It was radiant, peaceful, and entirely validated. They reached out and delicately took my hand.
I didn't burn them. I just let my blue-white flames gently engulf their form, not destroying, but purifying, dissolving their regrets into a tranquil, warm light that floated up toward the ceiling.
"One down," I announced, turning back to the stunned group. "Next!"
Bon was staring at me, his jaw completely unhinged. "Did you... did you just charm a vengeful ghost to the afterlife?!"
"What?" I questioned, walking past them. "I was just being polite; it's not that hard."
"I don't believe what I just saw," Izumo muttered, rubbing her temples.
"That was... really beautiful, Rin," Shiemi whispered, clutching her hands to her chest with a small, touched smile.
Mystery 3: Toilet Mayuko.
Our next stop was the girls' restroom on the sixth floor.
"I am not working with her," Izumo shouted, crossing her arms and glaring at Shiemi, effectively blocking the restroom door.
"Kamiki, this is an official assignment. You will cooperate," Yukio reprimanded sharply, pushing his glasses up his nose. "The spirit only appears to females. You two have to handle it."
"Alright, a breather," I let out, sliding down the hallway wall and sitting on the floor. "You two got it covered. Try not to flood the place."
From what I remember, this is just a low-level Ghost demon born from the collective fears and rumors of the student body. And they were able to handle it without much difficulty in the canon.
Ten minutes of muffled chanting and the sound of splashing holy water later, the door swung open. Izumo walked out looking incredibly smug, while Shiemi followed close behind, looking relieved but proud.
"Evil ghost born of malicious thoughts," Izumo reported, flipping her twin-tails. "My foxes took it down easily."
Easy money, and I didn't even have to lift a finger.
Night Two
Mystery 2: The Moving Statue of Johann Faust.
The next night, we found ourselves at the Mepphyland amusement park. We were tasked with exorcising a statue of Mephisto that supposedly moved on its own at night.
"It's likely possessed by a low-level demon that inhabits graven images," Konekomaru analyzed, shining a flashlight on the creepy, top-hat-wearing stone figure.
"Oh, well if it's low-level, then it should be easy to defeat," Shima grinned, relaxing his stance.
As soon as the idiot jinxed it, the statue's stone eyes glowed red. It lurched forward with surprising speed, raising a massive stone foot to crush us.
Welp, you don't see that everyday, I thought.
I could feel the workings of Mephisto possessing the statue. So, it was probably one of his pranks to mess with people.
While the others scrambled backward in panic, I jumped forward. I caught the massive stone foot with both hands, halting its crushing momentum completely. The ground beneath my boots cracked under the pressure.
The Exwires froze, staring at me like I was an alien.
"Are ya'll gonna chant, or just stand there?!" I called back at them.
I flared my Mantle, rapidly superheating the stone leg until it glowed red-hot, then instantly pulled the heat away, flash-cooling it. The extreme temperature shift caused the stone to become incredibly brittle.
CRACK.
I shoved the statue backward. The brittle leg shattered, and the statue crumbled into a pile of useless gravel. Bon and Konekomaru hurriedly finished their sealing chants just as the head hit the ground, locking whatever residual energy Mephisto left behind into the rubble.
I probably could have exorcized it myself, but based on how things were being approached these mysteries were probably a test to see how ready the others were for the field.
"Well, that's taken care of," I said, kicking a piece of the stone top hat. "What's next?"
Mystery 5: The Deserted Streetcar.
It was midnight. A ghost train was terrorizing the academy's subway lines. We stood on the platform as the phantom streetcar materialized, hurtling down the tracks without a driver.
"We have to stop it!" Konekomaru panicked as it blew past the station. "It's too fast for a barrier!"
Yea, no shit, cue ball.
I jumped off the platform and stood dead center on the tracks. As the train barreled toward me, I engaged the thermal thrusters in the soles of my boots. I braced myself and caught the front of the train with my bare hands.
SCREEEEECH.
Sparks flew in massive arcs as I skidded backward down the tunnel, the sheer physical force of my Sovereign body stopping the locomotive's momentum. I dug my fingers into the metal grill, ripped the entire engine block out of the front carriage, and crushed the spectral core inside it.
The train shrieked and dissolved into harmless mist around me.
Light work.
I dusted off my hands and hopped back onto the platform. The Exwires were huddled together, pale and trembling.
"He just... he just crushed a train with his bare hands," Shima whispered, his soul practically leaving his body.
"Let's just go back to the dorms," Bon muttered, rubbing his eyes like he had a migraine. "I'm too tired to process this."
Day Three
The next morning, I was in my dorm kitchen preparing a massive, high-end bento spread for lunch.
Four mysteries down, three to go, I thought. The remaining ones might be the heavy hitters.
As I was finishing up a tamagoyaki roll, the door swung open.
Shura strolled in, unexpectedly wearing a standard True Cross female school uniform. She had the blazer unbuttoned, naturally, completely violating the dress code.
Woof.
"Well, well," I smirked, leaning against the counter. "The uniform is a great look on you. Playing hooky? Shall I indulge you?"
"In yer dreams," she smirked, snagging a piece of chicken from my cutting board. "I'm actually here for Four-Eyes. Yukio! Get your gear!"
Yukio walked out of his room, already in his coat. "Is it time?"
"Yeah," Shura nodded, her playful demeanor vanishing. "The Vatican summoned you. It's urgent, so let's move."
As I watched them leave, my eyes narrowed slightly. Hmm, I don't really remember much about what happened when he got summoned in the manga. I'll need more information from Mephisto on this topic.
Later that afternoon, the Exwires and I gathered in the Hall of Portraits. This was the supposed location of the Fourth Mystery. We were waiting for whoever was going to replace Yukio to show up and give the operational briefing. Instead, a small, fluffy white terrier wearing a ridiculous pink ribbon trotted around the corner.
Izumo was the first to spot it. She looked around to see if anyone else noticed, and when she thought they didn't she approached the dog.
"And where did choo com fwum, widdle doggie?" she cooed.
Pfft, what the fuck? I laughed inwardly, attempting to hold in a smirk.
POOF.
A thick cloud of pink smoke exploded. When it cleared, Mephisto was standing there in his white suit, holding Izumo's chin gently.
"I always try to make an unexpected appearance," he said as Izumo embarrassingly batted his hand away, her face burning red.
"Guten Tag, students!" Mephisto cheered, ignoring the startled jumps from Bon and Shima. "Since Mr. Okumura is currently indisposed with urgent Vatican business, I shall observe in his stead today!"
He paced in front of the blank wall, tapping his umbrella on the floor.
"Now, regarding your little scavenger hunt," Mephisto announced. "You only have to solve the Fourth Mystery today. The Sixth Mystery—the Wunderkammer in the Chemistry Lab—is actually just my personal collection of pranks. And the Seventh Mystery—the Mansion You Can Never Reach—is simply Miss Moriyama's estate, which is harmless so don't worry about it."
Probably because they wouldn't be able to get to it, and even if they did, it wouldn't hurt or affect humans.
"Your house is one of the seven mysteries?" Izumo asked, recovering her composure.
"Oh, I didn't even know people were talking about it," Shiemi blushed. "But I heard you can't approach it normally."
Mephisto turned to leave, but as he walked past my spot leaning against the wall, he paused. He leaned down, his voice dropping to a serious whisper that only my enhanced hearing could catch.
"The Illuminati are conducting experiments," Mephisto murmured quietly. "They are attempting to open a stable, man-made gate to Gehenna. That is exactly what your brother is being briefed on as we speak."
Ah, so that's it.
He straightened up before I could reply, tipped his hat to the class, and dissolved back into a cloud of pink smoke.
I narrowed my eyes at the empty space. A man-made Gehenna gate. What a crazy cult.
Before I could dwell on it, the hallway warped.
The air instantly grew heavy and cold. The Exwires suddenly froze in place. Shima dropped to his knees, screaming and swatting at invisible bugs crawling up his arms. Kamiki backed against the wall, her eyes wide with terror as she whispered frantic apologies to her sister. Bon was swinging his hands wildly at phantoms only he could see, yelling in panic. Even Shiemi had collapsed, curling into a ball and crying out for her grandmother.
Right, this is the work of that Shapeshifter demon, I contemplated, looking at the other descend into madness. It had possessed the painting known as the "Family Portrait," and it functioned by projecting the observer's absolute worst fears and mental darkness directly into their minds.
I stood in the center of the chaos, completely unaffected.
I had evolved from mortal fears and petty insecurities a low-level demon tried to exploit. I knew exactly who I was, and what I was. I was the God of Flames. A cheap mind trick couldn't pierce the ego and authority of a Sovereign.
I could just burn the painting right now, I thought, watching the others struggle and scream. But they need to figure this out. I'm not going to hold their hands forever.
"Everyone, calm down!"
I looked over. Surprisingly, Konekomaru was standing firm. He had taken off his glasses, causing his vision to strain. And because he couldn't see the cursed painting clearly, the Shapeshifter couldn't lock onto his mind to cast the illusion.
"Shima, there are no bugs! It's an illusion!" Konekomaru barked, his voice carrying a sudden, commanding weight I'd never heard from him before. "Kamiki, you are not weak! Suguro, you haven't failed anyone! Shiemi, your grandmother doesn't hate you! Snap out of it!"
Using blunt, fiercely accurate assessments of his teammates' characters, Konekomaru systematically broke the demon's hold over their minds. One by one, the Exwires stopped panicking, blinking away the hallucinations and grounding themselves in his voice.
"Okumura!" Konekomaru pointed blindly toward the blank space on the wall. "Twelve o'clock! Destroy the portrait!"
Being ordered around by a cue ball doesn't sit well with my spirit, but we need to clear this thing and get outta here already, I thought as I nodded and drew the Kurikara just an inch from its scabbard.
I didn't need a full swing. I let a concentrated, razor-thin arc of blue-white fire whip towards the direction of the painting. The flames incinerated the possessed space instantly, turning the invisible canvas and the demon hiding inside it, and the surrounding paintings to ash.
The heavy, oppressive atmosphere shattered like glass. The environment returned back to normal.
"We did it," Bon panted, leaning heavily on a wall and looking at Konekomaru with newfound respect.
"I was so scared," Shiemi sniffled, rubbing her eyes as she stood up. "Thank you, Konekomaru."
"Seven Mysteries... cleared," Bon announced, exhaustion lacing his voice.
Later that evening, I was back in the dorm kitchen, preparing dinner.
The front door opened, and Yukio walked in. He looked completely drained. The bags under his eyes were darker than usual, his jaw was clenched tight enough to crack his teeth, and he was compulsively adjusting his glasses.
"Food's almost done," I said casually, not looking up from the stove.
"I'm not hungry," Yukio replied rigidly, walking straight to his room and shutting the door with a sharp click.
I stopped stirring the pot.
The images from the manga surfaced clearly in my mind. The Order didn't just brief Yukio today; they forced his hand. They made him sign the Morinath Contract—a magically binding non-disclosure agreement that would kill him if he betrayed their secrets. They were isolating him, using his insecurities to mold him into their perfect weapon.
I looked down at my hands. I had the power to blow them all away, but raw physical strength still wouldn't be enough to untangle the political and supernatural web forming around me.
Things are getting even more interesting, I thought, a smirk dancing on my face. If I'm going to flip this entire board over, I need to push my powers even further.