I became Hokage in Tokyo

Chapters 247 and 248: The Fox's Mind Technique

"I'm lost in the stairwell! The thirteenth floor... where am I?"

Tsukimi Inaba, carrying a sword pouch, stopped in a stairwell, looking at the floor number "12th floor," tilting her head to the side with a look of confusion on her face.

After such a huge commotion in the mall, all the elevators were out of service, and people had to climb the stairs on foot. For Tsukimi Inaba, who had become a superhuman, she could climb the thirteenth floor in less than a minute by running at full speed.

However, at this moment, Tsukimi Inaba had been trapped in the stairwell for more than five minutes.

Although she is a swordswoman, she is not directionally challenged.

Frowning slightly, Tsukimi Inaba drew her katana from her scabbard and slashed the wall below the floor sign for "12th Floor".

Then, with a calm expression, Inaba climbed the stairs from the twelfth floor up one step at a time. Logically, the next floor after the twelfth should be the thirteenth, but for some reason, she ended up on the seventh floor.

"..."

Tsukimi Rinpa stood under the '7th floor' sign, remained silent for a moment, and then immediately set off, rushing down the stairs like lightning.

However, the next floor is not the original '12th floor', but the '6th floor'!

Ignoring everything else, Tsukimi Inaba continued running down the stairwell with her head down.

5th floor, 4th floor, 3rd floor, 2nd floor...

Standing on the '2nd floor', Tsukimi Inaba peeked down and saw only one endless, winding staircase after another, seemingly without end.

That is indeed the case.

Tsukimi Inaba took a few steps down from the '2nd floor' and found herself back on the '12th floor'. Looking at the mark left by a sharp weapon on the wall below the floor sign, Tsukimi Inaba fell silent.

"Back to where we started."

After entering the mall's stairwell, Tsukimi Inaba felt as if she had entered an endless staircase maze, constantly cycling between the '2nd floor' and the '12th floor', unable to reach the mall's first floor, and forever unable to reach the 13th floor.

Tsukimi Inaba knew she was in a strange and dangerous situation, as if she were bewitched by a fox, forever wandering on a single path until her strength was exhausted.

The stairwell was so silent it sent chills down your spine; not a sound could be heard, as if you had been banished to a secluded, alien space that did not exist in reality.

This must have been the work of the evil spirit B-16, but the Metropolitan Police Department's files never mentioned that it would use such a trick to create illusions.

At times like these, you may no longer be able to trust your own eyes.

Tsukimi Inaba removed the black eyepatch from her right eye, revealing a pure white eye. Veins bulged on her cheeks, making her once cute face look somewhat ferocious.

The Byakugan, transplanted into her right eye by the White Scale Serpent Demon, not only enhances her eyesight and grants her the ability to see through things, but also greatly enhances Tsukimi Inaba's perception abilities after it is activated, to the point that she can be described as sensing the autumn wind before it blows.

However, this would consume a lot of her spiritual power, so she would not use this demonic eye unless it was a critical moment.

"This evil and chilling aura..."

At this moment, Tsukimi Inaba could feel as if the floor she was on was shrouded in a layer of dark smog, giving her a suffocating sense of oppression and a chilling terror.

That's right, this must be the 13th floor!

Tsukimi Inaba raised her head, and the Byakugan in her right eye shimmered with a luminous light, appearing even more clear and bright.

The sign on the wall that read "12th floor" blurred for a moment, then revealed its true form: it was indeed the "13th floor"!

Standing on the stairwell on the thirteenth floor, I headed towards the stairwell entrance once again. The previously closed stairwell door was now wide open, and the dark entrance was like a demonic cave that devoured everything. No one knew what was happening inside, except for occasional hysterical screams.

Tsukimi Inaba's face turned cold. She picked up her katana, took a few steps forward, and her figure was gradually swallowed by the darkness.

Shortly after Inaba entered the thirteenth floor, a portal of light suddenly appeared in the stairwell at the entrance, and Naruto Uchiha, dressed in a black robe with red clouds, walked out from it.

He turned his head and glanced at the floor sign for the thirteenth floor, his Sharingan flashing an eerie red light.

"Interesting, so it's the Technique of Not Being Here and the Technique of the Fox's Mind." Uchiha Naruto had a half-smile on his face.

The "Is This Place Not the Technique" and the "Fox Mind Technique" are both large-scale illusions that can be used on multiple people. The former can create illusions, making people mistake a certain place for another place. During the Chunin Exams, the examiners used the "Is This Place Not the Technique" to transform a room on the second floor into an exam room on the third floor.

The Fox's Mind Magic is an illusion that can deceive the victim's sense of direction, causing them to wander endlessly on a single path.

These two illusions are not particularly profound. Anyone with a basic understanding of illusions can easily break them. The Sharingan can see through illusions of this level with absolutely no effort.

But for ordinary people, they can only wander around like headless flies, and they will not be able to get out of the predicament until they are exhausted.

"According to the Metropolitan Police Department's files, Type B-16 only uses a strange tongue to steal people's physical energy. Those unlucky guys just get a serious illness and are not in mortal danger." Uchiha Naruto thought with a strange look on his face.

"If the Metropolitan Police Department knew that Type B-16 could use such dangerous illusions, they wouldn't have been so careless as to only close the thirteenth floor of the mall. This evil spirit has become so sinister overnight; is it really related to last night's crimson moon?"

After the Master-Disciple Assistance system was updated to version 2.0, Naruto Uchiha can open a portal near his disciples and descend directly to them.

Naruto Uchiha could sense that after the Scarlet Moon, the sealing seal he had cast on Inaba Tsukimi was loosening, and Orochi Higuchi was stirring and could break free at any moment.

One of his purposes for this trip was to completely exorcise the Higuchi serpent hidden in the Inaba curse seal within the moonlit pavilion.

Naruto Uchiha clearly remembered that Orochi Higuchi still owed him a debt.

When we first defeated it, the monster only dropped Orochimaru-style ninjutsu; it didn't drop any ninja orbs yet!

The three black tomoe in his eyes began to elongate and deform, wrapping around his pupils.

Naruto Uchiha sneered, his figure becoming transparent and ethereal before disappearing into the darkness.

…………

The commercial center is vast, with unused clutter piled up haphazardly, and the dim lighting makes it feel like being in the Milotic labyrinth.

Having been sealed off for two years, the thirteenth floor was filled with dust and the stench of decay. But Tsukimi Inaba couldn't care less about that. She rushed towards the screams, but when she arrived, all that was left on the ground was a dry, dehydrated corpse, like a mummy.

Even so, one could still vaguely see the despair and pain on his face before his death.

Arriving too late again, Tsukimi Inaba's face was as cold as frost, revealing no expression, but the knuckles of her fingers gripping the katana had already begun to turn white from the force.

This is the fourth mummified corpse that Tsukimi Inaba has found on the thirteenth floor of the shopping mall.

As someone who has also been harmed by supernatural phenomena, Tsukimi Inaba is able to empathize with the pain of the victims.

And then there are the families of the victims. Tsukimi Inaba couldn't help but recall the moment she heard that her parents, who were police officers, had died in the line of duty, and the despair that felt like the sky had fallen and the earth had collapsed.

Whether it's a monster or an evil spirit, anything that harms humans must be killed.

Because the mall's thirteen floors are vast and have a complex layout, and Inaba Tsukimi doesn't have a map of the thirteen floors, it's impossible for her to find everyone inside.

Moreover, while she's searching for people, that evil spirit will likely wipe out the survivors even faster.

Searching for survivors is merely a temporary solution; slaying the evil spirits is the only way to solve the problem once and for all.

But finding the evil spirit is easier said than done. We can't expect it to come to us on its own, can we? By then, everyone on the thirteenth floor might have already been killed.

We have no choice but to continue using the power of the Demon Eye!

Tsukimi Inaba pursed her lips, made up her mind, and opened her right Byakugan once again, the veins at the corner of her eye twitching.

Although the Byakugan can see through things, searching a wide area over a long distance is a huge burden for Tsukimi Inaba, but she has no other choice but to find the evil spirit's whereabouts immediately.

Tsukimi Inaba turned her head, scanning inch by inch, and found several survivors hiding and trembling, or trapped by illusions and venting their anger by smashing tempered glass, trying to escape through the door.

"Found it!"

Tsukimi Inaba closed her right eye, a look of fatigue appearing on her face.

The wind howled fiercely, and Tsukimi Inaba's figure seemed to fly as she rushed out.

In a room on the thirteenth floor of the shopping mall, a member of the surveillance team, dressed in a black suit, was cornered and huddled in the corner, watching the Type B-16 slowly approach him with a look of fear on his face.

The female evil spirit's numb face was a corpse-like bluish-gray, her eyes were sunken and dark, and her body was lifeless and devoid of vitality. Her belly was swollen high like that of a pregnant woman about to give birth, making her look eerie and full of evil.

Even now, the man in the black suit can hardly believe the nightmare unfolding before him, but no matter how much he pinches his thigh, he can't wake up.

The surveillance work had gone smoothly for the previous two years, but today, for some unknown reason, a large group of people, including the surveillance team, were inexplicably trapped on the thirteenth floor of the mall.

Moreover, they encountered a ghost wall, and could only wander around inside like headless flies, unable to find an exit no matter what they did. They could only watch helplessly as their colleagues and mall customers were dragged away by evil spirits and sucked into dried corpses.

Even the man in the black suit didn't know how many people had died on the thirteenth floor, but judging from the screams that echoed from one floor to the next, there were at least a dozen.

It would probably take less than half an hour for the evil spirit to kill all the survivors on the thirteenth floor.

Now, I'm next!

"Don't come any closer!"

The man in the black suit pressed his back against the wall, his face deathly pale, his legs trembling, as he watched the approaching evil spirit let out a desperate wail.

But the pregnant evil spirit remained unmoved. It moved forward a few steps, puffed out its mouth, and spat out a disgusting, slimy tongue with several mouths, which shot out and bound the man in the black suit!

"No, no! Help!"

The man in the black suit suddenly let out a mournful cry, his whole body went cold, and his body temperature and life force were sucked away by the tongue with its mouth.

The man in the black suit knew he was doomed. After falling into the thirteenth level, he had seen several people do the same thing, being sucked dry by the evil spirits in just a few seconds.

Just then, a bluish-green wind blade flew by and severed the elongated, terrifying tongue.

Wind Release: Wind Slice Technique!

Tsukimi Inaba walked into the room with seemingly slow but actually quick steps. She glanced at the man in the black suit lying on the ground. He was unconscious, his face was scorched, and he looked several years older out of nowhere.

Immediately, Tsukimi Inaba focused all her attention on the evil spirit with its bulging belly.

Even after its tongue was severed, the evil spirit still wore a chillingly malevolent and indifferent expression. Its throat swelled dramatically, and another tongue, several meters long and covering its mouth, was protruded.

The tongue has many mouths, full of sharp teeth, that constantly open and close, drooling!

You absolutely must not be bitten by the evil spirit's tongue!

Tsukimi Rihira's expression hardened. She gripped her sheathed katana, tilted it at her waist, and assumed a starting stance for iaido.

The evil spirit's tongue twisted in the air a few times before fiercely shooting down towards Tsukimi Inaba.

Tsukimi Riki tapped Inaba's toes to dodge.

The evil spirit's tongue missed its target and began to swirl and coil around it, but Tsukimi Inaba dodged and weaved with incredible agility, not even getting a scratch on her clothes.

With a crisp "click" sound, the sword was drawn from its sheath.

The wind rises!

The Pill Manifestation Flows of Cloud Radiance!

The samurai sword was wrapped in wind-style shape transformations, emitting a blue sword light. In a flash, Tsukimi Inaba unleashed three slashes, cutting the evil spirit into four pieces from its nose, neck, and chest.

In that case, even evil spirits...

Just then, a tentacle with a mouth appeared from under the evil spirit's crotch and bound the unsuspecting Tsukimi tightly.

Are those tentacles?

No, it's more like an umbilical cord!

Inaba's left pupil contracted as she tried to struggle, but it felt like falling into an ice cave. Her physical strength and spiritual power were brutally taken away by the biting mouths.

"Hiss... I'll help you... Let me help you..."

As her consciousness faded, she heard a hoarse, obscure, and feminine voice:

"You need me, don't you... Tsukimi..."

"Hiss... Release my power, so you can live and save everyone!"

Tsukimi Inaba groaned, blood flowing from her mouth and nose. On her almost transparent, snow-white nape, a large bulge of the curse mark appeared, as if something alive was wriggling beneath her skin.

The sealing seal that encased the curse could no longer stop the black snake-like seals from crawling up Inaba's cheek.

After a few breaths of stalemate, the sealing seal suddenly collapsed.

The seal is broken!

(End of this chapter)