Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

Kamiki Tetsu's figure moved.

He kicked the metal keel that wasn't completely broken at his feet.

"Clang!!"

A tremendous metallic tremor exploded instantly, echoing painfully in the confined space.

The huge ear, which had been trying to reassemble the wind blade, twitched violently from the sudden noise and slumped against the wall like a lump of dough that had been broken up.

"Run? Where do you think you're going?!"

Kamiki Tetsu grinned maliciously as he charged forward.

He grabbed anything around him that could make noise.

Broken plasterboard, scattered iron pieces, and even fragments of the cursed artifact dropped by that elite man.

As they charged, they created a frantic, ear-piercing sound, like banging on drums and gongs.

"Weren't you so smug just now?!"

"Bang!!"

"Don't you really like listening to this?!"

*Smack!*

"Come on! Listen to your heart's content! This is the heavy metal rock I've prepared for you!!"

The figure in the cheap suit looked more frantic than any evil spirit at that moment.

He was like a rioter who broke into a library, shattering this realm of "silence" and "rules" with irrational methods.

"...Um, please bear with me for a moment."

Just as Ren Saionji was stunned into silence by the surreal scene before him, a clear, apologetic female voice rang in his ear.

He turned his head slowly.

The red and white shrine maiden who had been following the boy had somehow managed to jog up to him while the monster was being suppressed.

Kujo Hisana didn't care that the blood on the ground had soiled her hakama, and knelt down directly beside Saionji Ren.

She glanced at the deep, bone-revealing laceration on the man's thigh, her brows furrowing slightly. With practiced ease, she pulled a stack of talisman papers covered in green runes from her sleeve.

"It might hurt a little, since it's for emergency use."

The girl's voice sounded gentle, but her hand movements were so swift and decisive that it was frightening.

She didn't give Saionji Ren any time to react, and slapped the talismans onto his bloody wound with a "smack" like applying a plaster.

"Life-Saving Hemostatic Array!"

"Ugh!!"

Ren Saionji gasped sharply, his body convulsing violently.

It didn't have the gentle, healing feeling I had imagined.

The moment the talisman was applied, it felt like being branded directly onto a wound with a red-hot iron; the excruciating pain instantly seeped into the bone marrow.

But miraculously, the gushing blood, which seemed to be bursting out of a dam, stopped instantly.

The skin and flesh at the wound site seemed to have been forcibly stitched together by some invisible force. Although it was ugly, it did save his life.

"Okay, the bleeding has stopped a bit."

Kujo Hisana wiped the sweat from her forehead, let out a long sigh, then looked up, revealing a somewhat endearing smile:

"Um, Chenghui..."

She instinctively wanted to quote the medical fee, but after glancing at Ren Saionji's pitiful appearance and then at Toru Kamiki, who was frantically beating the vengeful spirit, she seemed to think that it was not appropriate to talk about money now.

So, she abruptly changed her words:

"...You're welcome. This is provided by our Shinjuku branch...well, it's humanitarian aid."

All I could hear was the noise of the high school student banging on the iron pipe while hurling the most vulgar insults at [Huojin].

Before me is this strange shrine maiden who appears to be a legitimate investigator, yet subconsciously wants to charge me for her treatment.

Just minutes before, he was wearing an expensive, handcrafted suit and carrying an officially issued, sophisticated magical artifact, believing he was in complete control.

Now, those things that represented "elite" and "order" have all become a pile of scrap metal.

On the contrary, these two "marginalized cells," dressed in cheap clothes and using methods they had never seen before, were grinding the monster that drove him to despair into the ground.

"...That's ridiculous."

Ren Saionji moved her lips and let out a bitter laugh that only she could hear.

"grumble--!!"

The enormous ears let out a shriek, the composure of a predator long gone, replaced only by the panic of being cornered.

Its body, covered in black fuzz, suddenly contracted, like a slug that had been reduced to its original form, and it launched itself recklessly toward the ventilation duct on the ceiling.

Despite being severely damaged by the noise, as a vengeful spirit derived from Lv.4 [Calamity], its speed is still astonishing.

In the blink of an eye, the dark figure had already climbed up the wall, with half of its body squeezed into the narrow gap of the ventilation duct.

"Tch, you're pretty fast."

Kamiki Tetsu looked at the vengeful spirit that had already turned its back to him and snorted unhappily.

Although the [tax-inclusive execution blade] in his hand was sharp, its attack range was ultimately limited.

In these ruins filled with obstacles, it's obviously unrealistic to try and catch up with something that can crawl on walls.

"But..."

Kamiki Tetsu stopped and did not continue the mindless pursuit.

His free left hand quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a large-eyed, innocent-looking doll.

"Since you enjoy listening to sounds so much, then I'll let you experience it..."

With a flick of his wrist, he hurled the doll in his hand toward the ventilation vent on the ceiling.

"This is the most profound blessing in all of Japan!!"

[Treasures of Japan]

Whoosh—smack!

The small doll landed precisely on the half of the vengeful spirit's body that hadn't yet managed to crawl inside.

The moment they made contact, it was like the sudden sound of countless children laughing and playing in the air.

"Hugs! Hugs!!"

"Lift me up high! I want to be lifted up high!!"

"Don't go! Play with me! Play with me!!"

In the void, hundreds of small, bluish-purple hands appeared out of thin air.

They swarmed densely, frantically grabbing every inch of the downy hair on that huge ear, clinging tightly to its writhing body.

[Special Effects Activated: Parenting - A Sweet Burden]

"grumble?!!!"

The vengeful spirit, which had been moving swiftly, suddenly sank downwards.

It felt like suddenly carrying a burden of hundreds of kilograms, or like being carried by countless naughty children.

No matter how much it struggled, those unseen little hands gripped its flesh tightly, pressing all its weight onto its spine.

Even the slightest movement requires several times the normal amount of strength, making its normally agile climbing movements clumsy and comical.

Pfft!

It was accompanied by a dull, loud bang.

The vengeful spirit was forcibly pulled down from the ceiling by hundreds of unseen "bratty kids," and fell onto the dusty floor in a sorry state, like an old father who had been crushed.

"snort……"

Kamiki Tetsu looked at the ear writhing desperately on the ground, twirled the utility knife in his hand, and slowly walked over, stepping over the scattered pebbles:

"Run?"

"Why did you stop running?"

"Do you feel like your back is about to break? Do you feel like you're about to have a mental breakdown?"

Kamiki Tetsu walked up to the monster that was being held firmly to the ground by countless ghostly hands, looking down at it with a cold tone that seemed to be mocking the entire society:

"Bear with it, that's a treasure."

"Even if your lumbar vertebra is broken, you should still stand up straight, after all..."

Click.

The blade popped out.

"This is a blessing that others would beg for."

Before he could finish speaking, the utility knife in Kamiki Tetsu's hand had already transformed into a cold glint, piercing straight through the cochlea of ​​that enormous ear.

puff!

The utility knife, wreathed in black resentment, easily tore apart the ear-wrenching spirit's prized sensory organ, embedding itself deeply into the hilt.

"Gigglea ...

The vengeful spirit, pinned to the ground, let out a mournful howl.

A large amount of black blood gushed out from the wound, splattering all over Kamiki Tetsu's face.

"It's so noisy..."

Kamiki Toru murmured softly as he drew his sword.

It brought out a string of viscous black blood.

Followed by.

*Thud!* The second cut.

"I'll teach you to eavesdrop!" *Pfft!*

"So you'll enjoy listening to gossip!" Pfft! Pfft!

"Let you make noise!" *Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!*

"Shut up!!!"

*Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!*

Black blood splattered, drawing a chaotic abstract painting on the floor.

The vengeful spirit, which had been struggling desperately, finally stopped screaming under the relentless, storm-like piercing of Shenmu Che. After convulsing violently a few times, it completely collapsed into a puddle of mud.

Until that huge ear was chopped to pieces and its original shape could no longer be seen.

Kamiki Tetsuya stopped moving abruptly, like a toy that had run out of wind.

He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently.

The hand holding the utility knife was still trembling slightly uncontrollably, and black blood dripped from his fingertips, making a clear dripping sound in the deathly silent room.

tick.

tick.

The whole world finally fell silent.

Kamiki Tetsu flicked his wrist, shaking off the sticky grime from the utility knife.

Just then.

Suddenly, a wisp of murky gray smoke rose from the pile of vengeful spirit remains that had been chopped into minced meat.

The smoke did not dissipate, but instead twisted and swirled as if it were alive, seemingly mixed with countless whispers.

Followed by.

A few lines of pale blue text, visible only to Toru Kamiki, popped up on his retina, accompanied by a familiar mechanical prompt.

Strong emotions and obsessions were detected.

Should I offer guidance?

Kamiki Tetsu did not hesitate.

He raised the finger still stained with black blood and pointed it into the air.

"Yes."

The cloud of gray smoke suddenly contracted, finally condensing into a strange object shaped like a conch shell, which landed in his palm.

【Name: Eavesdropping Ears (One of the Sets)】

[Quality: Blue]

[Type: Support Item]

[Note: This is a piece of cartilage hardened from countless sticky malices. In Tokyo, where the sound insulation is appalling, people hate noise, yet they morbidly crave the "unfortunate messages" mixed in with it.]

"Have you heard? That model husband actually has debts outside of his marriage."

"Shh... I heard it, that haughty woman next door is crying."

In the cracks of this concrete jungle, people press their ears against the cold walls, greedily sucking up the arguments, cries, and wails coming from next door like vampires.

After all, in this high-pressure society, only by hearing that others are living in even more dire straits than oneself does tonight's cheap bento box taste a little better, doesn't it?

[Special Effects: Malicious Eavesdropping]

The eavesdropper's ears will automatically capture and analyze any malicious sound waves directed at you.

When any being has a clear intention to kill, hostile intent, or tendency to harm you, you will "hear" the echoing sound of its corresponding voice in advance and roughly know the nature and direction of the malice.

(Note: Tokyo is so noisy, you can hear murderous sounds everywhere.)