Tokyo Knights: The Odd Jobs X Files

Seeing that Qian Jialuo was about to leave with Yan Shan, Li Xin took out the "Parasitic Fruit" and asked Qian Jialuo, "Qian Jialuo, is this yours?"

Upon seeing the "parasite fruit," Qian Jialuo's expression changed, and she reached for it, but Li Xin took it back.

"This thing is too dangerous, you should leave it to me."

Li Xin said to Qian Jialuo.

"Give it back to me!"

Qian Jialuo reached out to snatch it, but if Li Xin hadn't been willing to give it to her, how could Qian Jialuo have possibly taken it from him? Naturally, she returned empty-handed.

Li Xin said to Qian Jialuo, "You have linked your soul with this ghostly thing. If you had been any later, your soul would have been completely devoured by it!"

Upon hearing Li Xin's words, Matsue Misa, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but ask, "Master Chika, is this true?"

Qian Jialuo fell silent for a moment, then said, "So what if it is?"

"Master Qianjialuo, why did you do this!"

Matsue Misa exclaimed excitedly.

Chika gave Matsue Misa a bitter smile: "Misa, shouldn't you be the one who understands best why I did this?"

Matsue Misa's expression froze.

Yes, as long as she could kill her enemy, she was willing to die together. She had the same determination when she learned the art of curses from Chika.

"If you wanted to kill Yan Shan, couldn't you have just told me? Honestly..."

Li Xin shook his head.

Chikaro's methods were both incredibly foolish: he accumulated karma to turn himself into a ticking time bomb, and he fused his soul with the "parasite fruit" to become its food.

"No, I must kill him with my own hands."

Qian Jialu shook her head.

"You can hire me, that way you can do it yourself."

Li Xin said to Qian Jialuo.

"It's none of your business!"

Qian Jialuo said angrily.

Seeing that Qian Jialuo was somewhat embarrassed and angry, Li Xin couldn't help but recall what the old witch had said to him when he went to her for help.

Li Xin was impersonating the Lord of the Earth Gate, and he needed a powerful extraordinary expert to "defeat" him, so he approached the old witch.

The old witch was happy to help, after all, she also needed such opportunities to show her face to maintain her intimidation.

Before taking action, Li Xin and the old witch went to check on Qian Jialuo. With their combined strength, Qian Jialuo was unaware of their presence when they observed her.

It was around that time that the old witch recognized the "parasite fruit" on Chikara and connected her soul with the "parasite fruit".

This was undoubtedly a self-destructive act. After hearing about Qian Jialuo's past from Li Xin, the old witch judged Qian Jialuo's reason for doing so as "survivor guilt," also known as "survivor syndrome."

Many people who survive a near-death experience feel extremely fortunate and cherish life more. However, some people who survive traumatic events experience painful emotions such as guilt and self-blame because others died while they survived. This is known as "survivor syndrome."

Everyone in the village died except for Chika, who survived. This brought her not only a deep-seated hatred and an unwavering determination to take revenge, but also an intense, suffocating sense of guilt.

Why did I survive? Why was I the only one who survived? Why didn't I die with everyone else?

This intense post-traumatic stress disorder made Chika's revenge inherently self-destructive from the outset.

As far as the old witch knew, although curse masters would bear karma for cursing others, this karma could be eliminated through spiritual practice. Some more insidious curse masters would even use sentient animals to transfer their karma.

However, Chika deliberately did not try to eliminate karma, but instead actively accumulated it. From the very beginning, she was determined to perish together with Yanshan.

Now, Chikaro has merged his soul with the "Parasitic Fruit." Although he has transferred the karma within his body to the "Parasitic Fruit," causing it to mutate into a monstrous beast, the price he pays is that Chikaro's soul is constantly being consumed by the monstrous beast. Over time, Chikaro's soul will wither away, and he will become a vegetable.

Therefore, when Li Xin took Yan Shan away, he also took the core of the evil beast, the "Parasitic Fruit," to eliminate this hidden danger for Qian Jialuo.

Li Xin held up the "parasite fruit" and asked Matsue Misa, "Employer, what do you think we should do with this?"

Matsue Misa asked Li Xin, "Is it possible to sever the connection between Master Chika and this thing?"

"impossible."

Qian Jialu smiled helplessly: "How could a soul link be..."

Before he could finish speaking, Qian Jialuo felt something connected to her soul disappear. Li Xin sheathed his sword and said to Qian Jialuo, "I forgot to tell you, severing the soul is my specialty."

Then he turned to Matsue Misa and said, "Done. Remember to give me a good review."

"Yes! Thank you, Mr. Ashin!"

Matsue Misa bowed happily to Li Xin.

Even someone as naive as her knew that someone like Li Xin was willing to help purely out of personal favor; two million yen was more than enough to order him around!

(Li Xin: Two hundred million is not too much, two million is not too little.)

In an instant, Qian Jialuo felt like she had no way to use her strength. She could only step on Yan Shan to wake him up from his unconscious state, and then hit him with the back of an axe to knock him unconscious. Only then did she manage to relieve some of her resentment.

"Alright, you can all go back now. If you have anything to say, you can do it tomorrow."

Li Xin spoke to Qian Jialuo and Matsue Misa.

This matter won't be so easily resolved. Chika has already shown her face to Isayama Yomi and the others, and Hazuki Tomei knows Chika, so she will definitely go to Chika. We need to think of a way to fool Hazuki Tomei.

As expected, after things settled down at Sainte Pharmaceuticals, Hazuki Tomei went to Chika's house to find out what role Chika played in the incident.

"What are you doing, Miss Hypocrite..."

In early April, as the weather gradually warmed up, Qian Jialuo was wrapped in thick clothes, with snot hanging from her nose, looking extremely weak.

Seeing Chika's appearance, Hazuki Tomei was startled and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Matsue Misa came out of Chikara's apartment, holding a hot towel in her hand: "Master Chikara, you're still sick, go back to bed quickly!"

Upon seeing Matsue Misa, Hazuki Tomei couldn't help but ask, "Misa, what are you doing here? Have you been learning curse techniques from Chikara again?"

Previously, in order to seek revenge, Matsue Misa first became a disciple of Hazuki Tomei and learned supernatural arts from him. However, Hazuki Tomei saw the fire of hatred in Matsue Misa's heart and felt that her heart for cultivation was impure. Even though Matsue Misa was extremely talented, he still drove her away. Then, she was taken in by Chikara.

After that, a series of events occurred. Matsue Misa got her revenge, and she was expelled from the sect by Chikara. Originally, Hazuki Tomei thought that Matsue Misa and Chikara would never cross paths again, but unexpectedly, he met Matsue Misa here.

"Miss Dongming, it's been a long time since I last greeted you."

Matsue Misa first greeted Hazuki Tomei very politely before saying, "No, it's not like that. It's because Miss Chikara was attacked and is not feeling well, so I came to take care of her."

"Attacked?"

Hazuki Tomei looked at Chikara. Chikara seemed to have caught a cold, but as a spiritual cultivator, Hazuki Tomei could still keenly see that Chikara's weakness was caused by a weakened soul.

"Chikara, who attacked you?"

Hazuki Higashi asked.

Qian Jialu shook her head: "I don't know. I only know that it was a middle-aged man dressed as a priest. I just bought a treasure at a high price, and somehow he found out and came to steal it..."

Suddenly remembering something, Hazuki Higashino asked Chikara, "Chikara, what was it that was stolen from you?"

"do not know."

Chika shook her head: "It was something that looked a lot like a walnut. I bought it from a father and son for ten million yen. I thought it had very strong magical power, and I thought it was some kind of treasure. But as soon as I figured out something about it, someone snatched it away..."

"Ten million yen!"

Qian Jialuo revealed an expression of extreme hatred: "Don't let me find him, or I will tear him to pieces!"

The voice, which sounded like it came from hell, startled Hazuki Higashima. This expression, filled with resentment, didn't seem like acting…

Could it be that Yan Shan's "parasitic fruit" was the one he stole from Qian Jialuo, and that the "parasitic fruit" had already "eaten" Qian Jialuo's desires, which is why it gave birth to a monster shaped like Qian Jialuo?

All of this seemed to make sense when put together, but Hazuki Tomei still felt that it was all too coincidental, as if it were a pre-written script.

But intuitively, something seemed wrong; in fact, Hazuki Tomei couldn't find a single flaw in the story.

At that moment, Chika said to Hazuki Tomei in a suspicious tone, "Hazuki Tomei, you're asking me so many questions... Do you know who the guy who stole my things is? I'm going to get my revenge!"

Upon hearing Chika's words, Hazuki Tomei immediately replied, "What? What? I don't know anything! I just suddenly wanted to come and see you. Seeing that you're not doing well makes me feel relieved. Goodbye!"

He ran off in a flash.

"What do you mean you're relieved to see me not doing well? Misa, look at what that woman is saying!"

Chika said angrily, but because she was too weak, she soon started coughing.

Her weakness was no joke. Although Li Xin had severed her connection with the "Parasitic Fruit," the soul power she had supplied to the "Parasitic Fruit" had not returned. In fact, the loss of connection with the "Parasitic Fruit" had exposed her weakness in the soul. She collapsed as soon as she got home. When Matsue Misa touched her forehead, it was ice cold. She had caught a cold.

"Master Qianjia Luo, let's go back. Don't make your condition worse."

Matsue Misa helped Chika Rado up.

After leaving Chika's house, Hazuki Higashima breathed a sigh of relief, temporarily dispelling his suspicions about Chika and simply assuming it was just bad luck.

When Hazuki Tomei saw the monster, she shouted "Chikara," and afterwards, of course, she was pulled aside by Isayama Yomi for questioning.

At the time, Hazuki Tomei wasn't sure if Chika and Yanshan were related, so she gave a vague answer, saying that she was so frightened that she was incoherent and didn't know what she was saying.

Izayama Yomi, considering that the two were comrades-in-arms, did not make things difficult for Hazuki Tomei.

The reason why Hazuki Tomei didn't tell Chika about Yanshan's matter was because he knew that Yanshan was backed by the "Nine Chrysanthemums School," the largest evil sorcerer organization in Japan. He was afraid that Chika would provoke the "Nine Chrysanthemums School," so he deliberately kept it a secret.

Although she did not approve of Chika's use of supernatural powers to kill people, Hazuki Tomei also understood that Chika was not a bad person. She only cursed and killed those who deserved to die. Therefore, she stopped Chika from cursing and killing other people, and also did not deliberately cause trouble for Chika outside of work conflicts.

Forget it, I'll just consider myself a member of the "Nine Chrysanthemums Faction"!

Hazuki Tomei decided to put her worries behind her; she wasn't one to easily hide her troubles!

....................................

"Have you managed to smooth things over with Dongming? Okay, I understand. Take good care of yourself for the next few days and don't take on any more business... It's not that I'm worried about you stealing my business, you're just so ungrateful! I'm hanging up now, contact me if you need anything!"

Inside the room, Li Xin hung up the phone and weighed the "parasite fruit" in his hand.

The original "parasitic fruit" was flesh-colored, but this "parasitic fruit," having absorbed the accumulated karma of Chikaro over the years, is now jet black and shiny, looking even more eerie and exuding a strong sense of danger.

Tsk, I forgot to ask the old witch what to do with this thing...

After thinking for a moment, Li Xin tossed the "parasite fruit" under the bed and went to sleep.

Seriously, I'm exhausted after working all night!

The "parasite fruit" rolled under Li Xin's bed, and the tightly closed gap suddenly cracked open, revealing the eyes inside.

That human was too powerful; it couldn't be easily swayed. It must lie low for now.

Hmm, there do seem to be people with strong desires nearby. After that powerful human leaves, it can try to bewitch those two people with strong desires.

Just after "Parasitic Fruit" had finalized its plan, it suddenly saw a giant face.

The "Tiger Soul" sword spirit stared at the "Parasitic Fruit," wondering what it was. The "Parasitic Fruit" sensed danger and instinctively tried to move, attempting to escape from under the bed.

When it didn't move, it was fine, but as soon as it started rolling, the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit suddenly got excited and stretched out its claws to slap the "Parasitic Fruit".

Let go, and the "Parasitic Fruit" continues to roll, only to be slapped back down by the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit.

Let go again, roll again, slap again—the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit was having a blast.

The interaction between the cat... no, the tiger and the ball awakened the sleeping spirits of the Buddhist weapons. Seeing the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit bullying the ball, they immediately wanted to step forward to subdue the demon and protect the righteous path.

Huh? That ball looks like a magic ball too, let's get rid of it together.

Seeing the eight bald men surrounding it, the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit, fearing its new toy would be snatched away, stuffed the "Parasitic Fruit" into its mouth.

"Awoo!"

The "parasitic fruit" melted in the mouth, and the spirit of the "Tiger Soul" sword lit up.

"This is delicious!"

Chapter 723 Telescope

The next morning, Li Xin was awakened by the spirit of the "Tiger Soul" sword.

"Quick! Go! Go find that thing again! I want to eat it, I want to eat it!"

The "Tiger Soul" sword spirit jumped onto Li Xin's face and swung its tail at him, barking arrogantly.

Although the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit is a spiritual entity, even if it is done this way, it will not actually touch Li Xin, but Li Xin can still feel it.

Awakened, Li Xin naturally adopted a grumpy mood, grabbed the "Tiger Soul" sword spirit by the back of its neck, threw it under the bed, and said, "We'll add an extra hour of training today."

Upon hearing Li Xin's voice, the spirits of the eight Buddhist weapons appeared one after another. What followed was naturally the much-anticipated "exercise"—the spirits of the Buddhist weapons were in charge of exercising, while the spirit of the "Tiger Soul" sword shouted "Cao (fourth tone)".