Kryptonians: Man of Steel

Chapter 1497 Hachiman Hikigaya's Busy Life
They can manipulate the "stars," but they can never reach the real "sun," nor can they predict whether the silent "sun" will unleash a devastating light that burns everything when the "stars" completely deviate from their trajectory.

Tokyo, once a dazzling metropolis of neon lights, now breathes its last gasp in the embers of twilight.

The glass curtain walls of skyscrapers reflect not only the bustling traffic, but also a lingering mist called "abnormality".

In recent weeks, a chilling panic has been spreading like a silent plague among citizens—disappearances are occurring with unprecedented frequency and scale.

This is no ordinary urban legend or sporadic crime.

Internal statistics from the Metropolitan Police Department show that reports of unexplained disappearances surged by 300% in just one month, with victims spanning all age groups, professions, and social classes.

They vanished without warning, as if swallowed up by the night in an instant:
Most of these cases occur at night or in relatively sparsely populated areas, and the scene often lacks effective eyewitnesses and obvious signs of violence, as if the victims were "erased" directly from reality by some invisible force.

This wave of disappearances, characterized by its large scale, high frequency, and inexplicable methods, exudes a chilling and ominous atmosphere. The Metropolitan Police Department's top brass is in a state of chaos, with internal briefings alarmingly labeled as "extremely dangerous and unusual incidents."

Faced with a crisis that clearly exceeded the scope of conventional policing capabilities, the pressure was ultimately passed to the only institution in Tokyo with professional qualifications to deal with it—Tokyo Metropolitan Totsuki Reigen Exorcism School (abbreviated as "Totsuki Exorcism High").

Since the "Age of Manifestations" quietly arrived, demons and monsters visible to the naked eye, and indescribable evil spirits are no longer fantasies in ancient books, but real beings walking in the shadows of reality.

Governments and research institutions around the world are doing everything in their power to try to analyze and understand this extraordinary power known as "spiritual power" or "demonic power".

Although the core mysteries—the essential origin of spiritual power, the stable and controllable cultivation system, and the precise conversion relationship between demonic power and spiritual power—remain shrouded in mystery, with no easy way to grasp them.

However, the painful lessons and numerous case studies are not entirely without merit.

Scientists and practical psychic practitioners have jointly identified some key "influencing factors":
1. Physical constitution is the container: A strong physical body is the foundation for bearing surging spiritual power.

It's not about having more muscles, but rather about the body's resilience, recovery ability, and tolerance to abnormal energy shocks.

A strong physique is like a sturdy dam, capable of holding more "spiritual water" and protecting itself from backlash or demonic erosion during fierce battles.

2. The spirit is the engine: willpower, focus, emotional stability, and even firm belief are the core of driving and controlling spiritual power.

Fear can dissipate spiritual energy, and anger can cause it to spiral out of control. Only by remaining calm under pressure and holding fast to one's true self in despair can one truly transform the potential within into the power to overcome enemies.

A high degree of mental concentration can often unleash spiritual power far exceeding normal levels.

3. Real combat is the crucible: Theoretical discussions are meaningless when confronting anomalies.

Every real confrontation with demons and ghosts is a tempering of the body, a tempering of the spirit, and an extreme squeezing of the control of spiritual power.

The immense pressure of being on the brink of life and death is the most direct, yet also the most brutal, way to catalyze the growth of spiritual power.

Therefore, whether one is a psionicist seeking power or an entity possessing demonic power and attempting to control it, "battle" is both an inescapable destiny and a necessary path to becoming stronger. Refusing to fight means stagnation and ultimately being eliminated by this increasingly dangerous world.

The Totsuki Exorcism High School is a talent development and crisis response hub built upon these understandings.

The school brings together the island nation's top psychic instructors and exorcists with practical experience. Their responsibilities are not only to teach students, but also to act as the officially designated main force to intervene and suppress large-scale abnormal events in Tokyo and even the entire Kanto region.

This bizarre series of disappearances naturally fell to their shoulders.

In this bizarre and perilous Tokyo, there are ordinary people like Hachiman Hikigaya who struggle to survive.

He was just a second-year student at a regular high school in Tokyo, with a pair of distinctive, weary, dead-fish eyes that seemed to have seen through the world.

The world's dramatic changes did not grant him the extraordinary encounter of awakening spiritual power like a novel's protagonist; instead, they dragged him into an even deeper quagmire.

The parents are just ordinary office workers, and with soaring prices and a sluggish economy due to ongoing unforeseen events, their family income is already stretched thin.

The cost of living in Tokyo, especially the "safety cost," has soared to an alarming level—talismans to reinforce doors and windows, amulets blessed with spiritual power, additional security fees for specific areas... each of these is a heavy burden on ordinary families.

To ease the burden on his parents, Hachiman Hikigaya had no choice but to join Tokyo's massive "twilight part-time army."

Every day as soon as the school bell rings, he takes off his school uniform, puts on a fluorescent vest with the words "Swift Delivery" printed on it, hops on a rented electric scooter, and merges into the crowded traffic and crowds of Tokyo in the evening.

His job is to deliver food against the clock, with destinations all over the huge city, including areas marked as "low-security zones" or rumored to have unusual activity.

The pay is meager, the competition is fierce, and you have to be constantly on guard against little demons or vengeful spirits that might pounce out from some dark alleyway.

This job is dangerous and arduous, often keeping him busy until late at night, with his sleep time compressed to the limit, but he has no other choice.

This is "Maki," the Tokyo-style survival rule—under the threat of demons and monsters and the heavy pressure of survival, everyone is forced to spin at high speed, overdrawing their lives.

However, even with the suffocating pressure and only four or five hours of sleep a day or even less, and despite the escalating rumors of disappearances on the streets, Tokyo has not experienced a large-scale population loss.

Behind this seemingly contradictory phenomenon lies a cold and cruel reality: the world outside of Tokyo is even more hopeless.

Other cities and rural areas of the island nation lack a powerful psychic organization with a systematic structure and official backing, like the Far Moon Exorcism High.

Locally, there may be some ancient families, shrines, or temples that possess certain exorcism abilities, but their power is scattered, their coverage is extremely limited, and they are often focused on protecting their own small territory, unable to take care of a wider area.

Faced with increasingly rampant and diverse anomalies, local police forces and social order have long since collapsed.

(End of this chapter)