[A/N: If there is one advice i would give to wannabe writers like myself is never only save your dafts on webnovel save it somewhere else too i tell you i feel a sleep around my computer and it crashed and 2k work was gone if it was not for the fact i occasional put the chapter in a word counter i would not have been able to recover 7k words so i only lost 500 words instead when will webnovel have auto save😭
anyways i have something else to say if you don't see me post in a week just know the next time i do post yall getting double chapter like right now]
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
A deafening scream erupted from somewhere beneath the building, shaking the entire funeral home to its foundation. The scream rang through Kurotabo and Rikuo's ears, but to everyone else within the building, it was nothing but a high-pitched sound that caused some of the staff's ears to bleed and forced Mr. Mitani to clutch his head as he felt a sudden headache.
A wave of malice flooded the building after the scream, causing Kurotabo's eyes to become focused while cold sweat fell from Rikuo's face.
"So that's why I didn't see much kegare inside."
"Kurotabo."
Rikuo turned toward Kurotabo with a serious expression on his face.
"What was that?"
Kurotabo did not look back at Rikuo, keeping his entire focus on sensing their surroundings before responding.
"A malevolent spirit was just born."
****************************************************
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The scream that came from the cocoon destroyed its dark outer shell. Cracks spread across the basement from the floor to the ceiling as the breaker box directly in front of the cocoon trembled from the powerful scream.
Black goo oozed out of the cocoon as a pale, bony hand reached out and grabbed its edge. Using its strength, it pulled itself out of the goo, revealing a woman with long black hair, a haggard face, and grey eyes that had no irises. Her skin was as pale as a corpse, only darkened by the goo that clung to her body and the white gown she wore.
The spirit's very presence caused the surrounding temperature to drop as she stepped out of the cocoon.
Drip.
As she stepped away from the cocoon, kegare dripped from her hair and gown while cool mist spread from beneath her gown.
Drip.
As the spirit straightened her figure in the darkness of the basement, her mind became clear, only for multiple fragmented memories to come crashing down upon her.
Memories of betrayal, manipulation, death, and abuse.
The memories were so traumatic that the spirit clutched her head and released another scream, this time filled with pain and the resentment from the memories that filled her mind.
Her scream shook the building once more, causing more cracks to appear across the basement walls and completely destroying the breaker box, causing all the lights in the building to go out.
Even after all the lights in the building were cut off, her figure could still be seen as an ominous glow appeared around her while her grey eyes cried black blood.
Recovering from her sudden headache, a thought formed from her instincts echoed through her mind alongside the pain and resentment she felt. Following it, she continued walking forward, passing through the door that blocked her path before continuing toward the stairs leading out of the basement.
*********************************************
Back in one of the offices in the funeral home, three staff members who still had their ears ringing stood in complete darkness after the ringing had finally died down. As he stopped clutching his ears, Hoku looked around the room.
"Damn, did an earthquake hit us and cut the lights?"
"Probably. With how faulty the electricity has been lately, it definitely knocked the breaker out. I'll go check."
Hoku, the other male staff member, speculated about what could have caused the outage as he searched for a flashlight in one of his desk drawers. Before he could find one, Aiko handed him a flashlight from her desk.
"Thanks, Aiko."
"No problem. Just hurry up and check it. I hate having to work overtime during Golden Week."
"Alright, alright."
Turning on the flashlight, Hoku left the two behind in the office and began walking toward the basement.
The hallway was unusually quiet as the red emergency lights flashed overhead while he walked past. The further Hoku walked down the hallway, the colder the temperature became. Slowly, a thin layer of mist began to pool around his feet, making him stop for a moment.
"Mmmh? Did the refrigerator malfunction or something?"
Looking down at the floor where he could no longer see his feet, a puzzled look appeared on his face as he continued walking, kicking up the mist around his feet.
Hoku's breath was now visible as he breathed, and the mist that had been around his feet had risen to his knees.
Contemplating turning back and making someone else handle the outage, the flashlight in his hands suddenly flickered before going out.
Hoku frowned and began tapping the side of the flash light to get it working again.
"Did Aiko really send me off with a faulty flashlight? Come on."
However, all his tapping accomplished was making the light flicker again before going out completely.
"Seriously?"
Feeling how cold the hallway had become and seeing how dark the rest of it way to the basement was, Hoku decided to turn back seeing as he had no light to even check the breaker and the obvious current atmosphere of the building was off.
Something in the back of his mind was telling him that something was wrong here and that turning back was the wises decision.
As he turned around something at the corner of his eyes caught his attention it was a slight movement in the hallways darkness up ahead.
A figure, only faintly visible in the darkness as the red emergency lights flashed over it.
It was a woman slowly walking in the middle of the hallway.
Hoku froze, becoming puzzled on who that person and why she was coming from the basement. It was clear she was not a staff member based on the clothes she wore.
Her long hair fell around her shoulders to her waist, and even through the darkness, Hoku could make out the curves of her body from her gown.
'Is she one of our clients? Did she get lost because of the outage?'
Questions flew through Hoku's head as the woman slowly moved toward him. Hoku stood there, unable to take his eyes away from her.
"Miss, are you okay? Did you get lost?"
As Hoku spoke the spirit stopped 2 feet away from him as she heard his voice. Her grey eyes focused on his face, the darkness not affecting her sight in the least as more memories surfaced from 'their' past.
Memories of countless men tricking them, selling them off, and even 'devouring' them. The pain they felt, the suffering they had gone through filled her with resentment and the desire for vengeance, as her instinct drew her to spread that pain and suffering to those 'men'.
As she relived 'their' memories she also felt the same pain they had gone through at the hands of those men, causing her to tremble violently.
Hoku seeing her tremble called out to her with concern as he continued trying to fix the flashlight but taking out the battery.
"Are you alright?"
Worried that the cold was getting to her Huko tried offering his jacket to her but the spirit did not respond.
However her stomach did.
*GRRRRRRR*
Hearing the woman's stomach growl, Hoku tried laughing it off so she would not feel embarrassed.
"Haha, it's completely normal to be hungry. Hey, maybe after we get out of here, do you want to get something to eat?"
And indeed, just like any newborn baby, she was hungry and a meal was already right in front of her.
As she adjusted to the pain 'they' all went through she understood where this hunger of her can from and how to satiate it. So in the darkness of the hallway, her small, delicate mouth split open, revealing rows of jagged yet sharp teeth.
Unaware of the woman's change, Hoku finally after adjust the battery back in place fixed Aiko's flashlight.
"There we go."
As the light flickered on, he turned his attention back toward the woman in front of him as he pointed to flash light at her.
But what he saw was not the beautiful woman he had imagined, but a gaunt figure with her mouth stretched wide.
Seeing the large mouth near his face, Hoku tried to let out a scream, but before he could, she bit into his throat.
Blood immediately splattered across the clean hallway as she ripped a piece of Hoku's throat out.
Collapsing to the ground, Hoku began clutching at his injured throat as he looked up at the woman in sock fear as the lady no this monster continued chewing on the piece of throat in her mouth as coughed on his blood.
A pure feeling of satisfaction and ecstasy washed over her as she tasted the flesh of a man and the fear he had towards her.
Memories once more flashed through her mind —memories of being eaten alive and screaming out in terror. Looking down at the man, a feeling of satisfaction filled her as she saw the same fate being inflicted upon their persecutor.
Seeing the monster's gaze return to him the Hoku stopped scratching at his neck and tried crawling away from her with fear. His blood, leaving a trail as he went but he did not reach far as the monster's boney hands grabbed his legs and dragged him from beyond the light of the flash light into the dark. As he tried to scream again no sound was made just the soft wet sounds of chewing could be heard in the hallway.
Back in the office, Daki and Aiko had grown increasingly nervous. The building was still without power, the earthquake-like shaking had long since stopped, and Hoku had been gone for far too long.
Aiko looked toward the dark doorway. "He's taking too long."
Daki glanced at his phone before looking toward the door. "Yeah..." Neither of them wanted to say what they were thinking, but staying inside the funeral home without power was beginning to make them uncomfortable even as people who had work there fore years now.
"We should go outside."
"Yeah just in case there's another earthquake, heck maybe Hoku already seen the breaker and realize he can't do anything and is already outside"
"Yeah your right he is the kinda guy to do that."
Aiko pulled out her flip-phone and turned on the flashlight. The small light illuminated their faces as they left the office, with the two walking closely together while the light from her phone moved across the dark walls.
However, they had only walked a short distance before they more and more mist appeared around them.
Aiko suddenly stopped as she heard footsteps behind them.
"Daki..."
"What?"
Turning around Aiko slowly raised her phone, allowing its light to illuminate the hallway ahead. Her eyes widened as the light revealed a figure standing several meters away in the mist.
Something was standing there.
A woman.
She remained completely motionless as her long black hair hung around her face. Aiko's hand began to tremble as she pointed toward the figure.
"Daki... look."
Daki followed her finger, and the woman slowly raised her head. The light from Aiko's phone illuminated her pale face and grey eyes, revealing blood around her mouth and a severed arm hanging from one of her hands.
The two staff members froze as a drop of blood fell from the arm and disappeared into the mist.
Aiko screamed.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Daki immediately grabbed her hand. "Run!"
The two turned and ran back toward the office, but they barely made it ten steps before the spirit disappeared from their sight.
Daki suddenly felt something strike him from behind, bringing his body to an abrupt stop. Aiko was pulled backward by the force of his sudden halt, and when she looked at him in confusion, she saw the spirit standing behind him with her pale hand pierced through his throat.
Aiko's scream died in her throat as she stumbled backward onto the ground as Daki's body hung from the hands in his throat. Seeing this scene and feeling Daki's blood drip on her face Aiko's breathing became rough as panic overtook her, before looking up at the woman who slowly withdraw her hand from Daki's throat.
The spirit then turned her grey eyes toward Aiko as she licked the blood from her hands.
Aiko's mind collapse filled with fear and sock she fell unconsious as the woman hovered above the two before going towards the collapse Daki to finish her meal
********************************
"A malevolent spirit?"
"Yes. When too much kegare forms in one place, it can give birth to a malevolent spirit, a being driven by its instincts to cause harm and spread fear to satiate its hunger. Its technically a youkai but its like animal to humans it will humans and youkai alike."
'No wonder I didn't see much kegare inside. It was already gathering to give birth to one, but still, this shouldn't have happened.'
Kurotabo walked toward Mr. Mitani, who was just recovering from his sudden headache caused from the ringing.
"Mr. Mitani, are you okay?"
"Yes. It's probably because of my old age, but such loud sounds can give me quite a headache. My apologies about the light its been acting faulty recently it one of my staff should already be going to the basement to deal with it"
Giving him a hand, Kurotabo pulled Mr. Mitani back onto his feet.
"Mr. Mitani, when was the last time a priest or an onmyoji came here to perform a rite?"
"Oh, are you worried about this place being haunted because of the sound and the lights going out? Well, you don't have to worry. The last time we hired an onmyoji to bless this place was two months ago."
Walking out of the dark mortuary after places gramps back the three stood in the hallway illuminated by red emergency lights
Kurotabo knew that, that amount of time wouldn't be enough to accumulate enough kegare and give birth to a malevolent spirit as it needed 4 month incubate. So why did a malevolent spirit born so early?
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH—"
A sudden scream, this time clearly belonging to a human, rang out further down the hallway, clearly heard by all three of them.
'I have played enough horror games to know that, thats the scream of a victim'
"Kurotabo, what should we do?"
"We can't just leave it. If we do, that spirit will go on a rampage and start killing everyone in this building. Right now, at least one person has already died, and that number will keep increasing the longer that malevolent spirit roams."
"You can go outside, while i handle the—"
*Drip.*
*Drip.*
*Drip.*
The sudden sound of water dripping echoed through the hallway before a cold breeze blew followed by mist past them, stopping Kurotabo mid-sentence. His eyes immediately focused on the figure standing in the distance.
Rikuo a bit confuse was also able to see the figure. It was a woman wearing a white gown stained with red as well as her hands and mouth. The dripping sound was coming from her, but it wasn't water falling from her body.
It was blood.
A trail of blood followed the leg she dragged across the floor as she slowly approached them.
Even though Mr. Mitani couldn't see her through the darkness of the hallway, he could feel her presence. Combined with the ominous atmosphere and the way both Rikuo and Kurotabo were acting, fear began to take hold of him, causing him to stand close to Kurotabo.
'she looks like a monster straight out of silent hill and the malice she's giving off is so thick you can cut it.' Looking up at Kurotabo, who had not taken his eyes off the malevolent spirit, Rikuo let out a sigh of relief. 'Luckily, we have a secret weapon called Kurotabo.'
The spirit slowly raised her head, revealing her pale eyes and bloody jaw, which widened as she stared at them.
"Both of you, cover your ears now!"
Not needing to be told twice, the two immediately covered their ears.
"SKRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Her scream rang out through the hallway, shaking the building once again and causing cracks to spread across the walls, floor, and ceiling as her voice passed through the building.
Covering their ears did little to block the powerful scream. Mr. Mitani, unable to bear the ringing in his ears, fell to the floor unconscious, while Rikuo felt nauseous and dropped to one knee.
The spirit gave them no time to recover not even closing her mouth she glided across the hallway toward them, releasing the leg she had been dragging as she extended her arm toward the collapsed Mr. Mitani.
Seeing where she was heading, Kurotabo's appearance immediately changed back to his orignal form as his staff shot from his robe's sleeve, blocked her path to Mr. Mitani.
Seeing her path towards her next victim being block by a staff she swung her arms toward Kurotabo at blinding speed. Barely dodged her attack by tilting his head to the side as her extended nail left a shallow cut across his cheek. Using the opportunity, Kurotabo twisted his body and sent a kick into her chest, separating her from the them as she slid across the floor.
Touching the cheek where the spirit had cut him, Kurotabo kept his eyes on her for any other surprise she may have.
'She's an infant malevolent spirit, and yet she was still able to leave a scratch on me. Damn this poison is really taking a toll on me. Not only has my strength decreased, but my reaction speed has regressed as well.'
Spinning his staff into an offensive position, Kurotabo faced the malevolent spirit in the ruined hallway as she had already began floating back into the air. As she clutched her chest while staring back at him with furious eyes. More and more cold mist continue pouring from beneath her gown causing the the temperature around them to decrease even more.
"Rikuo, take Mr. Mitani and get out of here."
Kurotabo received no response. Instead, all he heard were hurried footsteps moving away from him. From the corner of his eye, he saw Rikuo already more than ten meters away, carrying Mr. Mitani in his arms.
'You don't have to tell me I was already leaving.'
Rikuo turned his head and looked back at Kurotabo, who had already taken up a combat stance. Rikuo knew that he—or rather, his current human self—couldn't do anything to help Kurotabo in this fight.
Even if he transformed into his youkai form, which was only available at night, his experience fighting supernatural beings was practically nonexistent. Aside from the brief fight against that insect youkai, he had never faced anything like this before.
All he would do was become a liability and force Kurotabo to worry about protecting him instead of focusing on the malevolent spirit.
Knowing that, Rikuo understood that the only sensible decision was to get Mr. Mitani out of the building and leave Kurotabo to handle the fight.
Turning his head forward, Rikuo continued walking away from the battle while carrying Mr. Mitani.
Seeing that Rikuo was already a good distance away, Kurotabo smirked before turning his full attention back toward the malevolent spirit, whose killing intent continued to grow.
******************************************
It's always a man. It's always a man. It's always a man hurting us.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill all of them.
"SSSKKKKRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The spirit released another scream, causing the building to shake once more and further causing more cracks to spread across the already damaged hallway. With hatred burning in her eyes, the spirit moved first.
Her body blurred as she flew toward Kurotabo, her pale hands reaching toward him as her sharp nails extended, ready to pierce his throat.
Kurotabo swung his staff, blocking her charge before twisting it around and striking her in the side.
The impact sent the spirit flying, her body crashing into the wall and leaving a large crack behind. Kurotabo did not relent and moved forward, thrusting his staff toward the spirit's head.
But his staff struck nothing but the wall.
The spirit had disappeared, not through speed, but by using the same ability that had allowed her to pass through the door earlier by phasing through the wall.
Kurotabo's eyes narrowed as he looked around, searching for the spirit, when he suddenly felt a cold sensation around his feet.
It was her hands grabbing the ankle of his feet.
Using his staff to strike at the hands holding him down, but Kurotabo reaction was too slow. The spirit used all her strength and dragged him through the floor and into the basement.
As Kurotabo fell into the basement, the section of floor he had been standing on collapsed with him, sending dust flying through the air as he landed on the small collapse shrine.
Dust clouds spread throughout the basement as Kurotabo quickly regained his bearings, only to be interrupted by a sudden attack aimed at his back. Twisting his body to the side, he narrowly dodged the unseen attack as the spirit rushed past him.
But she did not relent. Redirecting herself midair, she charged toward Kurotabo once again.
Her speed increased as one attack after another came from within the dust cloud. As the spirit rapidly attacked while circling him, the dust began to form a tornado around Kurotabo, leaving him standing at its center as the red emergency light above illuminated his figure.
'Her speed is impressive, but speed isn't the only thing you need in a fight.'
Kurotabo released his right hand's grip on his staff and extended it forward before swinging his arm in a full arc around himself. As he did, dozens of weapons shot from his sleeves in every direction.
In such an enclosed space, where he had no where to run so did she as one of those weapons was bound to hit her.
And one did.
"AAHHHHHH!"
The weapons now impaled in the basement walls disrupted the airflow, causing the dust tornado surrounding Kurotabo to disperse as a loud thud and cry of pain rang through the basement. Twirling his staff with enough force to clear the remaining dust from his vision, Kurotabo revealed what had made the sound.
The spirit was pinned to the wall by her shoulder with one of the spears shot from Kurotabo's sleeves.
"It was smart of you to drag me down here into an enclosed space, but if you were a bit smarter, you would have understood that it's also a disadvantage for you too."
Kurotabo walked toward the impaled spirit as she tried to phase through the spear lodged in her shoulder, but she failed. A shimmer of yoki had appeared around the spear, preventing her from passing through it.
As Kurotabo drew closer and closer, she frantically tried pulling the spear from her shoulder.
Reaching her, Kurotabo did not pull the spear out. Instead, he impaled her other shoulder with another spear, stopping her frantic attempts to escape.
"You were just born, and you're already have the scent of blood on you. To think that in such a short time, you have already taken an innocent life."
The spirit looked up at Kurotabo with fear and anger in her eyes. His figure began to merge with the men in 'their' memories—the ones who had stared down at 'them' as 'they' tried crawling away from them.
It was all happening again.
"Even though you were born from impurity and have killed innocent people, I hope you can repay the karma you have accumulated in such a short time through your reincarnations and be born anew with less malice in your heart."
Saying her final prayer Kurotabo raised his hands toward the bound malevolent spirit as dozens of weapon could be seen slowly emerging from the shadow of his sleeves. As he did, the memories in her head became more and more vivid, and so did the resentment attached to them.
Fear, anger, resentment, pain and hunger boiled with in her until it reached a point it had to be released.
"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The blood-curdling scream came from the bottom of her soul, causing every building adjacent to the funeral home to shake as though an earthquake had actually struck. Cracks spread throughout the funeral home, causing more sections of the basement ceiling to collapse and the ears of those within and outside the building to bleed. Some even fell unconscious from the overwhelming sound.
Kurotabo, who was at the focal point of the scream, was sent flying into the adjacent basement wall. He was barely damaged, having reinforced his body and blocked his ears with yoki just in time before she had screamed.
The scream finally faded, and the dust that had settled throughout the basement was kicked back into the air as the room became quiet once again. Every wall was covered in cracks, but the wall where the spirit had been pinned had suffered the most damage as it slowly collapse behind her.
The spirit slowly got back onto her feet.
Her grey pupilless eyes looked toward Kurotabo. He was embedded in the opposite wall, his body partially buried beneath the rubble, yet not a single scratch other than the cut from the beginning of the battle could be seen on him.
At that moment she was experiencing the same fear that she had tasted from her first victim—and the same fear 'they' felt as she watched Kurotabo emerge from the rubble.
Kurotabo pushing the rubble away from himself got back onto his feet. Although he had no visible injuries, he immediately knew that something inside him was wrong when he suddenly coughed up blood and felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.
His hand pressed against the wall as he caught himself before he could fall to his knees. The poison inside him was acting up again spreading further through his liver as it feed off of his yoki he had used to defend myself.
'Damn I used too much yoki. I need to be careful, or else the poison might spread even more.'
Thinking this, Kurotabo decreased the amount of yoki surrounding his body and stopped reinforcing himself stopping the posion from feeding off of it. He then after adjust to the sudden sharp pain of his liver pulled another staff from his sleeve and used it as a crutch while the spirit watched him, her mind in shambles.
She watched as she realized that every attempt to kill this man had ended in failure. Even her final scream, filled with all their resentment which was powerful enough to shake the entire building and more, had not even been enough to put him down. He was still alive, standing before her and seemingly ready to finish her off again.
At that moment, she understood. Just like the women in her memories, she needed to run if she wanted to survive and escape this "man".
The spirit grabbed the spear buried in her shoulder and pulled it free before reaching for the weapon lodged in the other and throwing both onto the ground. The wounds were slowly beginning to close as the remaining kegare in the basement gathered around her, but it was not enough. Black blood continued dripping from her wounds onto the floor.
She took one step forward, then another, before her body began to levitate.
The scream had taken more from her than she realized. Even if she tried to escape in her current condition, she knew she would not get far. She needed to recover her strength if she wanted at least a chance to escape.
Suddenly, her head snapped upward as she felt a familiar sensation. It was the same fear she had felt when she devoured those men—the fear that had made her stronger and refreash. It was coming from above her beyond the basement and first floor.
Looking back down at the "man" she feared, she noticed that he was distracted as he coughed up blood. Taking advantage of this opportunity, she used all of her remaining strength and shot upward, guided by her instincts toward the sensation that could satisfy her hunger.
Her body passed through the basement ceiling and continued through the first floor as she desperately tried to put as much distance between herself and Kurotabo as possible.
'Damn, she's getting away.'
Shaking his head to clear his dizziness, Kurotabo followed after her. However, the moment he reached the first floor, a sharp pain suddenly struck his liver again.
"Kuh..."
He covered his stomach as another wave of pain passed through him. The poison was still active, causing him to cough out more blood from his mouth. Seeing her go Kurotabo leaned against his staff, waiting for the pain to subside.
Meanwhile, the spirit continued flying upward until she reached the third floor, where the sensation was much stronger. It was a room with no windows filled with files on shelves which were now on the floor stretching from the door to the other side of the window. Turning her head, she finally saw where the source was coming from.
Two staff members were huddled beneath a desk, frightened by the chaos surrounding them. A man and a woman remained together in the darkness, unaware that the malevolent spirit that was right in front of them.
The spirit's grey eyes immediately locked onto the male staff member and without hesitation, she reached forward, grabbed him by the throat, and dragged him from beneath the desk as he screamed.
An ominous glow appeared around her cold, pale hand as she tightened her grip around his throat. As she did, the man's complexion became as pale as her own, while the wounds Kurotabo had inflicted upon her slowly began to close.
The man's struggles gradually weakened until all of his strength faded, leaving his body limp in her grasp. His life force had restored the spirit's wounds and returned much of her strength, but her hunger had only grown stronger from the battle.
Seeing this scene under the desk the female staff immediately call 911
With nothing left for her to take from him, she opened her mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth as she prepared to bite down on his throat.
*BOOOOOOM!*
A staff suddenly burst through the floor.
Kurotabo crashed through the ceiling, causing the female staff member to scream and forcing the spirit to release the man and retreat to the opposite side of the room.
He landed between the spirit and the two staff members. His breathing was calmer than before, and a small amount of blood remained around his mouth, but his eyes stayed firmly fixed on the spirit.
The male staff member now release from the spirit's grasps collapsed onto the floor, unconscious after having his life force drained.
The spirit stared at Kurotabo, and the fear she had felt in the basement immediately returned. She opened her mouth, preparing to release another scream with her renewed strength, but Kurotabo refused to give her the opportunity.
He attacked first, thrusting his staff toward her face but the spirit immediately snapped her mouth shut and dodged to the side. Kurotabo did not relent as he continued pressing the attack, repeatedly thrusting his staff toward her and forcing her farther and farther backward.
As the spirit watched Kurotabo retract his staff and prepare for another attack, she felt like a rat being toyed with by a cat before being eaten. The fear she felt toward him continued to grow.
But even a cornered rat with nothing left to lose would bite back.
Being placed under such pressure and facing an opponent stronger than her the moments after her born left her with only two options to either grow to meet the challenge or die where she stood.
And so she grew.
Her yoki suddenly exploded outward, spreading throughout the room. The mist pouring from beneath her gown expanded alongside it, violently blowing away the unconscious man, the desk, shelves, and even the female staff member, sending them crashing into the opposite wall. The force also pushed Kurotabo back several inches.
'Her yoki is growing. Is she about to use "her" Youjutsu?'
Kurotabo immediately took an offensive stance, ready to attack as the spirit's mist continued filling the room. As the mist became denser, shadows began appearing within it, their forms cast by the emergency lights.
Kurotabo sensed an attack coming from behind and twisted his body, only for another attack to come from his right. Then another from his left, followed by attacks from above, below, behind, and in front of him.
He was being attacked from every direction.
'She's able to create copies of herself, and they all have her speed!'
Figures suddenly burst through the mist, all of them wearing white gowns with their long, extended nails aimed at Kurotabo. Although they wore the same clothing, their appearances were completely different. Some had brown hair, others were taller, and what differentiated them the most were the various wounds and part of their body missing.
Some were missing a leg. Others were missing an eye. One was even missing its head.
The spirit had not created copies of her self but had manifested the women whose resentment had given birth to her, as apparitions.
Seeing that there was nowhere to dodge and that blocking even one attack would leave him open to a dozen more, Kurotabo gripped his staff and struck it against the floor where his shadow stood.
"蜂起 Hōki (Uprising)!"
Dozens of weapons shot from the shadow beneath him in the shape of a blooming flower, piercing through the apparitions and stopping their attacks. Their bodies dissolved back into mist as the weapons pierce through them.
However, since the apparitions were formed from the mist, it did not take long for them to reform outside the range of the Kurotabo's technique still surrounding him.
Noticing the different appearances of the apparitions surrounding him compared to the malevolent spirit he was fighting earlier, Kurotabo quickly glanced around the room, searching for the her whereabouts. Just then, a cool breeze passed through the room as a figure amougst the apparitions rushed across the room, not toward him but toward the wall on the opposite side.
It was the malevolent spirit.
'She's trying to escape.'
Kurotabo immediately tried rushing after her making a path through his weapons, but the apparitions surrounding him block his path as they kept on attacking him giving the spirit the chance to escape. With no choice but to deal with them, he swung his staff to intercept their attacks while the spirit escaped.
Meanwhile, the spirit passed through the wall and then through two floor, returning to the hallway where their battle had begun. The hallway was now filled with rubble, with sections of the building beginning to collapse around her and the once flashing emergency light were all destroyed.
Now a completely dark hallway what she saw ahead of her was the exit, where the light of the setting sun shone through the doorway of the building.
The scenery before her overlapped with a memory of a dark alley leading toward the bright lights of the bustling city. That light was her way out—a path to escape the 'men' who had filled 'them' with fear.
Without hesitation, she rushed toward it with all her renewed strength causing rumble to kicke up as she went.
She knew that as long as she reached that light, she could escape she could survive.
But as she reached halfway towards her escape, the sound of a collapsing ceiling came from behind her. Kurotabo descended from the floors above and landed in the dark ruined hallway.
The spirit glanced back while continuing toward the exit. Seeing Kurotabo behind her, she used the mist trailing behind her to create more and more apparitions. They flew in the opposite direction, rushing toward Kurotabo as her own speed increased another notch, making the air whistle around her.
Seeing dozens upon dozens of apparitions rushing toward him while the malevolent spirit continued flying farther and further away, Kurotabo's eyes became determined as he decided to go all out the consequences could wait.
This malevolent spirit's potential was too dangerous. Even as an infant who had only just been born, she had already demonstrated the ability to adapt, the intelligence to flee from an opponent stronger than herself, and the ability to create apparitions that possessed her speed and could reform as long as mist remained.
If she were allowed to grow, there was no doubt that she could cause havoc throughout the entire city with those apparitions.
Kurotabo tightened his grip around his staff and taking a deep breath slammed it into the ground with such force causing cracks to spread outward from beneath him as his yoki output increased dramatically towards it his full capability.
As three syllables escaped his mouth.
"貪食武器顎 Donshoku Buki Ago (Voracious Weapons Maw)."
As Kurotabo spoke, all the darkness in the hallway connected to his shadow began to ripple as if bait had been thrown into a calm lake and from within that calm lake, the jaws of a blood hungry beast had answered.
Hundreds of weapons suddenly shot from the darkness in every direction, as if the hallway itself were biting down on everything within it.
The first to be devoured was the apparition that had reached Kurotabo. She was already in front of him, her sharp nails only inches from his head, when dozens of weapons erupted from the darkness and pierced through her body, halting her attack. Her figure immediately dissolved back into mist.
Her fellow apparitions suffered the same fate. More weapons continued emerging from the darkness, spears, katanas, broadswords, halberds, naginatas, uchigatanas and countless other weapons piercing through their bodies before they could reach Kurotabo.
Yet the attack did not stop there.
More and more weapons continued emerging from the darkness, chasing after the malevolent spirit as she flew toward the light of the entrance.
Even without looking back, she knew something was wrong.
She could feel all of her apparitions had been stopped in an instant.
Pushing herself even harder, her speed increasing until the air around her screamed from the force of her movement. At this speed, she could have easily outrun a bullet, and the distance between her and that light shrunk faster and faster.
Kurotabo gritted his teeth as another wave of pain passed through his liver, remained determined as he twisted his staff in his hand inwards towards himself.
The spirit was almost there.
Her hands stretched toward the light shining through the entrance, her fingertips reaching for the warmth beyond the doorway.
Then—
*SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH*
Weapons suddenly appeared directly at the edge of the light and struck toward the speeding spirit. She could not stop herself in time as her momentum carried her directly into them impaling herself.
Several weapons pierced through her body, causing black blood to splatter across the hallway as her body was abruptly brought to a halt.
Her grey eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the weapons impaling her.
How?
The weapons that had been emerging from the darkness behind her where still a considerable distance away from her and yet, she was already impaled.
Then she heard Kurotabo's voice.
"It does not matter how far you are. As long as you remain within the darkness connected to mine, my weapons will always reach you."
His footsteps echoed through the ruined hallway as he slowly approached as a path open up amougst the weapons emerging from the darkness.
The spirit opened her mouth, desperately trying to scream and break free, but more weapons emerged from the darkness around the her, piercing through her hands and feet before several especially struck toward her throat.
Kurotabo learning his lesson knew even a single scream of her's could give her another chance to escape and being so close to the exit where people could be seen on the street he knew one more last ditch scream could kill those outside.
Unable to escape, she tried another creating more apparitions from the mist around her while reforming the ones behind Kurotabo.
Kurotabo now fed up with her attempts used another technique to get rid of all the apparitions
"鵜呑み Unomi (Swallowing Whole)."
Kurotabo's voice echoed through the hallway as the weapons behind him began moving.
They spun through the darkness at incredible speed, creating a violent vacuum that pulled the mist surrounding the spirit deep into the hallway. Any apparition that was created or tried to reform was immediately shredded apart by the spinning weapons before it could fully materialize.
The spirit could only watch helplessly.
Her final attempt to escape had failed.
Everything she had done since being born had led her back to this moment of 'their' end.
And now, her death was steadily walking toward her.
Her hands slowly stretched toward the light once more as she desperately tried to grasp it to feel its warmth.
But it was just like before 'they' could not reach it. Tears of black blood slowly ran down her pale face as her fingertips kept stretching toward the warmth of the sunlight.
But the light retreated as the sun was setting and her death was right behind her.
The image of that dark alley once again flash through her mind and she understood.
Truly, nothing had changed 'they' were still that helpless woman in that dark alley.
*Splash.*
A weapon descended from above, piercing through her heart. Her eyes widened one final time before slowly closing as the mist surrounding her body began to fade. Her body hung limp from the weapons impaling her.
After confirming she was dead Kurotabo looked around the destroyed hallway and the malevolent spirit blood that painted across it and let out a sigh.
"This is gonna be a pain"
*************************************
[A/N: Long-ass chapter. If you see any misspelled words or grammatical errors, just point them out.
Anyways, onto the weekly rant. I have discovered, or rather now understand, why authors like overpowered MCs. It's because they can write short fight scenes and it would make complete sense. After all, the MC is all-powerful. Sadly, my MC is about 400 chapters away from being anything close to overpowered, so long fights it is. It'll be sad for y'all since long fights mean late updates, but you know what they say: you can't have your cake and eat it too. You either get good progress with long fights or terrible progress with short fights but better update. Pick your poison.
I know, I know, the MC was passive in this chapter, but don't blame me. What could he have done? He can't transform until night, and this is his first time facing a malevolent spirit, so I had to give the spotlight to Kurotabo this chapter. Because of that, I also wanted to showcase his strength, although a restrained version of it.
Anyways, the next chapter is tomorrow or the day after. I would post it today, but that would mean fewer readers would see it. Also, if you want cool facts and history about Kurotabo's techniques, check the actual author's note down below.
I believe you can tell a lot about a character based on their techniques and skills.]