Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

"Let's...play together..."

This is the price of "vision".

In this world full of outcasts, "observation" is never one-way.

It's like someone peering into an abyss through a window; the moment they polish the glass, they also allow what's in the abyss to see their own face clearly.

To ordinary people, these sinister forces are nothing more than a cold breeze passing by their ears.

But for Kamiki Tetsu and Kujo Hisana, who had voluntarily opened their "eyes," they were like two torches suddenly lit in a dark forest.

They found it.

They know.

There are two living people here who can see us.

"So noisy."

Kamiki Tetsu's eyes instantly turned cold.

Faced with this terrifying sight, he didn't hesitate for even half a second.

His right hand darted into the side pocket of his backpack with lightning speed, and then, a strange, bluish-purple light suddenly flashed in the twilight.

He gripped the black hilt of the sword, which emanated a chilling aura, and with a powerful thrust of his waist, swung it fiercely behind himself and Kujo Hisana!

"laugh--!"

With a muffled thud, the blade, shimmering with a bluish-purple light, drew a perfect semicircle in the air.

The small black hands that had been gripping the two people's shoulders snapped and melted the moment they touched the blade, turning into wisps of foul-smelling black smoke that dissipated in the evening breeze.

"Ugh...!"

The suffocating, oppressive feeling vanished instantly. Kujo Hisana's legs went weak, and she almost collapsed to her knees, gasping for breath.

However, Kamiki Tetsu did not let his guard down.

He maintained his sword-wielding stance, his eyes coldly fixed on the surrounding void.

The attack did not make them retreat.

On the contrary, the innocent laughter sounded even more jarring.

They bounced up and down under the slide, behind the swing, and in the sandpit, as if the severed limbs were just a fun game.

"Hehehe..."

"Ouch, that hurts..."

"Big brother is so fierce..."

"I'd rather play with the older sister..."

"Hehe...hehehe..."

Hearing the children's voices turn their anger towards her, Kujo Hisana, whose legs were still weak, muttered something under her breath.

"I've been underestimated..."

She gritted her teeth and abruptly stood up straight amidst the malicious laughter.

Although her face was still pale and her hand holding the schoolbag was still trembling slightly, the aura of the "prestigious Kujo family" finally returned for a moment when she raised her head.

"Splash!"

She pulled the old imperial coin from her bag.

As she moved, the white origami at the end of the gohei shook violently in the still air, producing a crisp cracking sound like a whip lashing the air.

That sacred and chilling voice instantly drowned out the noisy laughter of the ghost children around them.

Kujo Hime gripped the gohei tightly in both hands, held it upright between her eyebrows, and closed her eyes.

The next second, a clear and solemn chant flowed slowly from her mouth.

Those are purification prayers passed down from ancient times.

"I am filled with trepidation and fear—"

"Izanagi-no-Okami, at Tachibana-Odo-Awagihara in Tsukushi-Hyuga..."

As the incantation was uttered, a faint crimson light suddenly appeared in the originally dim park.

That is the spiritual power belonging to the "divine way".

Kujo Hisana suddenly opened her eyes, and with a whooshing sound, the gohei in her hand drew a perfect cross in the air in front of her.

"Through this purification ritual, may we cleanse and purify!"

"drink!"

With Kujo Hii's delicate shout, the crimson "cross" pattern of light, like a burning net, enveloped the void in front of her without leaving any blind spots.

"Sizzle! Sizzle sizzle sizzle!"

The next second, the sound of burning echoed throughout the entire park.

It's like the popping sound when a large piece of raw, greasy meat is forcibly pressed onto a red-hot iron plate.

Suddenly, plumes of black smoke, carrying a burnt smell, rose from the previously empty void.

Although their physical forms are still invisible to the naked eye, the wildly distorted transparent outlines in the air, and the shrill, distorted screams, have already said it all.

"Ahhhhh!"

"It's so hot! So hot, so hot, so hot!!"

Those innocent laughs instantly turned into sharp, piercing cries.

Countless overlapping children's voices tumbled and struggled in the smoke, carrying deep resentment and grievance.

Why...?

"I just wanted to play together..."

"Big sister...big sister is so fierce..."

"Ouch... Waaaaah... Big sister is a bad person..."

Seeing the thick black smoke that only grew denser under the burning of Kujo's spiritual fire, Kamiki Tetsu's brows furrowed sharply.

"……wrong."

Logically speaking, a Level 2 [Oddity] should have been dispersed long ago after enduring this level of purification.

But these things did not disappear.

Conversely, the black smoke that was originally scattered in various corners of the park now seemed to be captured by some enormous gravitational force, frantically converging towards the very center of the sandpit.

"Gurgle...gurgle..."

A wet, slippery sound, like the sound of vigorously stirring minced meat, filled the air.

"Ouch...it hurts so much..."

"Everyone... gather together..."

"To become...big..."

"So I won't... get bullied anymore..."

Countless delicate children's voices overlapped, creating a resonance powerful enough to shatter eardrums.

Then, in the trembling pupils of the two, that thing—became visible.

The thick black smoke quickly solidified, transforming into pale, swollen flesh and blood.

Countless broken little hands, distorted smiling faces, and mutilated torsos were like clay haphazardly kneaded together by a naughty child, forcibly glued together.

boom!

With a loud bang, a giant hand, the size of a truck tire, slammed heavily onto the edge of the sandpit, kicking up clouds of dust.

What appeared before them was a giant baby, three meters tall, formed by the forced combination of countless "children".

Its entire body was deathly white, and its skin surface looked as if countless human faces were moving around. On its huge head, there were no eyes, only a gaping maw that split to the roots of its ears and was filled with densely packed, tiny baby teeth.

"This is……"

Kamiki Tetsu felt the real tremors coming from the ground and smelled the strong, pungent stench that was impossible to ignore, and his expression changed.

It possesses a physical form, the ability to physically interfere with reality, and this nauseatingly massive cursed energy reaction.

The information was incorrect.

This is not some Lv.2 [Strange] that only creates illusions at all.

"Kujo! Back off!"

Kamiki Tetsu stared intently at the monster slowly crawling out of the sandpit, his fingers gripping the hilt of his sword turning white from the force, his voice low and rapid:

"We're going to get rich... no, we're going to have to risk our lives."

"This is a demon!"

Kujo Hisana frowned slightly, then reached out and tucked her wind-blown hair behind her ear.

"Looks like those guys in the intelligence department are just lounging around in their offices drinking tea and slacking off again."

She commented, holding the imperial coin tightly in her hand in front of her, showing no sign of backing down.

She turned her head to the side, her clear eyes reflecting Kamiki Toru's profile, her tone calm.

"Although the situation has changed, this is still my mission to become a full-fledged employee... If you feel it's too much to handle, we can retreat and request backup."

Kamiki Tetsu did not answer.

He lowered his center of gravity slightly, and flames burned in his eyes, which were fixed on the monster.

To him, the terrifying mountain of flesh composed of severed limbs and resentment was not a scary monster at all.

It was a thick stack of Fukuzawa Yukichi's letters.

Don't ask such a stupid question.

Kamiki Tetsu's lips curled up into a wild smile.

"That's... a whole 150,000 yen!"

boom!

The next second, Kamiki Tetsu, trailing a streak of blue-purple blade light, crashed straight into the massive mountain of flesh.

Looking at the back of that person who was directly confronting the enemy head-on for the sake of the prize money, Kujo Hisana was stunned for half a second, and then sighed helplessly.

"What an incurable money-grubber."

Despite her complaints, her hands moved so fast they were barely visible.

The young lady, who was usually so impulsive, displayed astonishing helpfulness at this moment.

The gohei in her hand drew a sharp gust of wind in the air, and accompanied by the girl's clear shout, a streak of azure light precisely wrapped around Kamiki Tetsu's legs as he was running wildly.

"Shinto Style: Swift Wind - By Relying on!"

Kamiki Tetsu felt his body suddenly lighten, and his previously heavy legs now felt as if they were stepping on springs.

Using the wind, he instantly covered several meters and appeared directly under the monster's armpit.

His grip on the knife was a little awkward, a "feel" he'd developed from years of working through the night unpacking packages at logistics centers—simple, brutal, and efficient.

"Split it, you son of a bitch!"

Relying on the terrifying strength and endurance he had honed carrying refrigerators at a moving company, he poured all his power into this strike, slashing fiercely at that pale belly full of flab!

scoff!

The bluish-purple blade, like a hot knife cutting through butter, tore a huge gash in the thick layer of fat!

"Ouch! That hurts! That hurts so much!!"

Despite the piercing scream, the massive wound did not begin to heal.

On the contrary, the pitch-black, foul blood gushed out like a flood bursting its banks, and there was no way to stop it.

[Special Effect - Salary Loss] Activated.

A wound is a deficit.

Beneath those blue-purple cursed knife marks, the monster's life force was like a "bad debt" money chain, forcibly collapsing at a visible speed.

"Don't try to stop the bleeding before you die."

Kamiki Tetsu coldly flicked the black mud off the blade, looking at the giant baby that was writhing wildly as its life force drained away.

However, what happened the next second made his eye twitch violently.

"It hurts...it hurts so much!...You bad boy! No more!!"

With a ferocious roar, the monster stretched out its swollen hand and grabbed its bleeding abdomen.

"Pfft!"

Like tearing apart soaked cotton, it actually uprooted the dozens of cursed, festering ghost children from the ground!

The still-bleeding chunk of flesh was flung far away like trash, turning into a puddle of black water on the ground.

Having lost that piece of "indebted" flesh, the wound on the main body, though enormous, instantly stopped the eerie, continuous bleeding.

"Waaaaah! Go to hell!!"

The enraged giant baby roared, and its thick arm swept across with a whooshing sound.

"Kamiki-kun, don't stop!"

Kujou Hisana's voice pierced through the wind pressure, and she waved the gohei in her hand again, creating a golden ripple of spiritual energy.

"Shinto Style: Rock Gate - By its Will!"

A faint golden light instantly enveloped Shenmu Che's entire body; it was a defensive technique capable of withstanding heavy blows.

But Kamiki Tetsu did not choose to fight back.

Like a nimble wildcat, he slid out close to the ground just as the giant hand was about to strike.

The terrifying wind pressure stung his cheeks, but the enormous hand merely grazed the tip of his nose before slamming onto the ground with a loud thud.

"Too slow."

In the instant they passed each other, Kamiki Tetsu flicked his wrist, and the black blade, propelled by the momentum of his slide, slashed upwards, leaving another bloody gash on the monster's thick wrist.

"Ouch! Ouch! Bad hand!!"

The giant baby let out a sharp cry and grabbed at it with its other hand.

"Sizzle!"

It tore off that bleeding wrist again!

It was a mass of flesh made up of five or six "ghost children" forcibly squeezed together.

As they were being torn apart, they were still frantically waving their little hands, their mouths agape on their distorted faces, screaming "It hurts!" and "Help!"

"I don't want it anymore! It hurts... I'll throw it away!!"

pat.

The still writhing and screaming "limbs" was thrown far away, landing like a bag of trash in the distant bushes.