In this crossover anime, Yoshikage Kira longs for a peaceful life.

Then place the ninth vengeful spirit at the center of the eight-pointed star. Under certain conditions, the nine vengeful spirits can be merged into one. Even nine level 4 vengeful spirits can be merged into one level 2 vengeful spirit. If you are lucky enough, you can even merge into a level 1 or even a special-grade vengeful spirit.

This is equivalent to exchanging 9 pieces of basic equipment for one purple epic item, or even a gold legendary item, which seems like a great deal no matter how you look at it.

But in reality, it's a losing proposition.

To set up such an eight-pointed star array, a sufficiently powerful 'medium' is required.

Typically, curse casters use cursed objects as a medium.

Furthermore, it must be a cursed item of level 2 or higher.

To synthesize a level 2 shikigami, you must use a level 2 cursed item.

To synthesize a level 1 shikigami, you must also use a level 1 curse item.

In most cases, the value of the cursed object itself exceeds that of the vengeful spirit synthesized in the ritual.

Of course, this doesn't mean that doing so is entirely without merit.

Because cursed objects are uncontrollable, and as long as the nine vengeful spirits used in the ritual are tamed into shikigami in advance, the synthesized level 1 or even special level vengeful spirits will also become the shikigami of the ritual setter.

Such rituals have always been explicitly prohibited by all parties involved.

'Chaos' is the only organization that has ever used this ritual on a large scale. They are also the inventors of the eight-pointed star ritual. They even went so far as to decorate the entire Tokyo metropolis as a giant eight-pointed star magic circle!

If 'Chaos' succeeds, the consequences will undoubtedly be disastrous!

Fortunately, thanks to the concerted efforts of supernatural forces around the world, 'Chaos' has long been eradicated.

And even today, countries are still working hard to hunt down the remaining forces of 'Chaos' in order to eradicate 'Chaos' completely.

And now.

The same eight-pointed star ritual appeared near Yukino Yukinoshita, making it hard for her not to suspect that 'Chaos' had made a comeback.

However, even if 'Chaos' makes a comeback.

They should be like rats in the gutter, hiding in the sewers and secretly growing stronger, instead of running up to her like madmen and provoking her in such an obvious way.

So, what is their purpose?

The girl frowned slightly, her gaze fixed on the shadows deep in the alley, her eyes filled with vigilance.

In the darkness, there was only one tall adult woman, completely wrapped in a coat. She had her head down, and her long, flowing black hair obscured her face, making it impossible to see her features. Her only exposed hands were wrapped in white bandages.

For some reason, her body was trembling slightly.

Even though she had her head down, Yukino Yukinoshita inexplicably felt as if she was being 'watched'!

"Um... I..."

A woman's voice echoed in the alley, her body convulsing as she raised her head, revealing a face wrapped in bandages.

click!

The bandages suddenly tore apart, tearing the long, loose hair along with them!

Beneath the bandages was a gruesome, gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, stretching all the way to behind her ear. And beneath her torn hair, more than a dozen hideous eyes covered her face, staring intently at Yukino Yukinoshita at the other end of the alley.

Am I beautiful?

-----------------

At the top of the building, a man dressed as a monk smiled and squinted his eyes.

There are many kinds of vengeful spirits in this world.

Some people are vengeful ghosts formed from intense resentment after death, while others are vengeful spirits formed from animals that have been abused and killed.

However, due to their low profile, these vengeful spirits are often very weak, not even comparable to level 4.

In contrast, there are imaginary vengeful spirits.

Imaginary vengeful spirits do not actually exist, but are formed from human fear.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman is a top-tier imaginary vengeful spirit born from urban legends.

Among the top-tier vengeful spirits, the Slit-Mouthed Woman is not among the most powerful.

But the word 'Special Grade' is enough to distinguish it from those weaker vengeful spirits!

Even for him, the Slit-Mouthed Woman was troublesome enough.

Because this top-tier vengeful spirit possesses a simplified domain.

Before answering its question, both parties are forced not to attack each other.

And once you answer its question, no matter what the answer is, you will be attacked.

He had already shown the other party considerable respect by using such a top-tier vengeful spirit to test their strength.

and so--

"So, how will you deal with this, Princess of Illusions?"

-----------------

"What about imaginary vengeful spirits?"

Yukino Yukinoshita stared at the woman opposite her, who had her gaping maw wide open, was holding scissors, and was trembling with excitement, and muttered to herself.

So-called imaginary vengeful spirits.

Most of them are urban legends, which, after being widely disseminated, originated from universal human fears.

On the land known as Japan, the number of urban legends ranks first in the world, and they are difficult to eradicate despite repeated bans.

Even in any random school, you can find different versions of the 'Seven Mysteries of the Campus'. And most of the time, these urban legends, driven by people's fears, manifest as real vengeful spirits.

In other words, these vengeful spirits exist because humans fear and believe they truly exist.

It is precisely because humans believe these vengeful spirits are terrifying enough that they truly are terrifying enough.

In other words.

If all of humanity truly believed that a monster with a concrete form existed that would destroy the Earth, then it would indeed destroy the Earth.

Take a chestnut.

If governments around the world simultaneously issue statements claiming that a meteorite with a diameter of more than 10 kilometers is heading towards Earth from outer space and that it will collide with Earth in three days, causing the extinction of humanity.

If all of humanity believes and fears this lie, then even if this meteorite did not originally exist in the universe, it will appear out of thin air due to the panic of all mankind, and will hit the earth precisely three days later, ultimately leading to the destruction of the world.

The solution to eliminate this crisis is quite simple.

As long as all of humanity believes that such a meteorite does not exist, the government's statement is just a joke.

However, it is easy to make people doubt something, but difficult to dispel everyone's doubts.

Because once fear takes hold, it is very difficult to truly eliminate.

Even if the government claims that the meteorite impact on Earth is a lie, most people will remain skeptical. They will wait three days, and only if the meteorite does not hit Earth within three days will they believe it is a lie.

Even while they remained skeptical, they still felt fear about the meteorite that 'might exist'.

And this fear will still give rise to this world-destroying meteorite.

Therefore, the correct approach is not to declare the meteorite a lie, but rather to gradually diminish public skepticism and issue statements step by step:

From 'the meteorite's diameter was incorrectly observed and was actually only 3 kilometers,' to 'the meteorite's path coincided with the moon and it was likely to be blocked by the moon,' 'various countries jointly launched nuclear missiles to intercept the meteorite,' and 'the nuclear missiles were successfully detonated, the meteorite was successfully destroyed, and all the fragments were blocked by the moon.'

In this process, as long as the public gradually believes that the government's measures are effective, it will be successful.

The meteorite that was originally heading towards Earth will suddenly shrink to three kilometers in diameter, and its trajectory will begin to fly precisely toward the far side of the moon.

Even if the governments of various countries on Earth did not actually launch nuclear missiles, as long as the public believes that the meteorite was successfully destroyed by nuclear missiles, the meteorite will definitely disintegrate before reaching the moon, and no fragments will be able to cross the moon's barrier and fall to Earth.

Throughout the entire process, everything is merely a psychological effect on human beings.

However, in the world of idealism, 'psychological effects' can influence reality!

Yukino Yukinoshita recalled Kira Yoshikage's past teachings and quickly analyzed the current situation:

"If you don't answer questions, you can't attack each other; if you answer questions, you'll definitely be attacked; even discussing topics unrelated to the questions will get you attacked..."

The most crucial element of the urban legend of the Slit-Mouthed Woman is undoubtedly the question posed by her—a truly deadly question!

If you answer 'beautiful,' the Slit-Mouthed Woman will cut open your mouth with scissors, making you as 'beautiful' as she is.

If you answer "not beautiful," the Slit-Mouthed Woman will angrily slit your neck with scissors.

Initially, this urban legend spread like a contagious disease, sweeping through schools across Japan and causing extreme panic among elementary and middle school students nationwide. Many cities across the country dispatched police cars, and some even dismissed students en masse or were forced to suspend classes altogether.

At that time, the Slit-Mouthed Woman was so powerful that it drove the Japanese sorcery world to despair!

This panic was quelled because of a prank—

Police claimed that the so-called "Slit-Mouthed Woman" was actually a prank by a 25-year-old woman, and reported it extensively in newspapers, eventually convincing the entire Japanese public that the Slit-Mouthed Woman was nothing but nonsense.

Because the people were no longer as fearful as before, the power of the Slit-Mouthed Woman was greatly reduced, and she was eventually successfully exorcised.

however.

The urban legend of the "Slit-Mouthed Woman" still exists.

Even if the 'Slit-Mouthed Woman' is exorcised, as long as this urban legend exists, as long as humanity still fears the 'Slit-Mouthed Woman'.

Sooner or later, the 'Slit-Mouthed Woman' will reappear.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, with the development of the internet, various urban legends have been widely disseminated.

Those long-forgotten 'vengeful spirits' have also made a comeback.

The slit-mouthed woman before us is one of them.

Over the decades, the Slit-Mouthed Woman has been exorcised at least ten times.

Sometimes it is newly born and only has a strength of level 2, making it easy to exorcise.

Sometimes its strength can reach level 1, but it can only reach level 1 at most.

The sorcery community has always been extremely vigilant about such urban legends. Whenever a similar rumor appears, they immediately dispatch sorcerers to exorcise it.

The slit-mouthed woman before us possesses a domain, which means she has reached the special grade level!

A naturally formed slit-mouthed woman could never grow to this level unless someone provided it with protection and specially nurtured it step by step from a level 2 vengeful spirit to a top-level vengeful spirit!

"They're really troublesome..."