"That's right—light."
Amamiya Rin lifted his head, his gaze piercing through the glass window toward the distant depths of the night sky.
Outside, the darkness was thick as ink, the city lights bleeding into a hazy fog of glow in the distance.
Above the sky's canopy, a thin, emaciated crescent moon hung silently, its cold radiance spilling down without a sound, reflecting in his deep pupils as two faint silver specks.
After organizing his notebook once more, he realized that he had conceived this idea a long time ago.
From the initial spark of using the power of living spirits to create a ghost story, to gradually settling on what kind of ghost story to create, and then repeatedly working through it, supplementing details, correcting errors...
It wasn't until today that this design could barely be considered complete.
"The light manifested by my own true mind and self-nature." [Writing to this point, I hope readers will take note of our domain, Tiantian Read Novels ->ᴛᴛᴋs.ᴛᴡ]
Amamiya Rin murmured to himself, his voice echoing through the silent living room.
"The light in the universe that is fighting against the darkness, and then... the light of hope within people's hearts."
Using his own light as the cornerstone, carrying and gathering the flickering light within everyone's hearts, and then attempting to draw upon or fuse with that far grander concept of light that exists on the cosmic level.
Amamiya Rin had a premonition that this plan possessed considerable feasibility.
If it could succeed, then stopping Hellstar Remina would not be impossible.
(The most difficult part right now is that whole business with... Ago? Azuki? What a ridiculous pair of stage names.)
(Well, ridiculous as they are, dealing with them is going to be sooo~~ not easy.)
(By the magnitude theory, those two ugly women combined would count as at least city-level.)
(Didn't Fujino Terumi already look into it for you yesterday? Ago and Azuki's livestream show airs at a fixed time, eight o'clock every Friday night. Which is today. So, Amamiya-kun, have you figured out how you're going to deal with them? Or perhaps... first play the part of a stalking pervert, tail them to learn where they live and their patterns, and then plan from there?)
Kawakami Tomie asked in a teasing tone, her languid voice carrying a somewhat detached, none-of-my-business attitude.
They didn't actually care whether Amamiya Rin could succeed, nor did they care about the so-called Hellstar Remina.
Save the world? That kind of heroic, valiant ambition was utterly incompatible with the way they existed.
In any case, even if Amamiya Rin ultimately failed and could not create the ghost story called [Light], causing this world to fall into the belly of Hellstar Remina, it wouldn't affect them.
At worst, they would just go live in the Dream World. Hellstar Remina, being a magnitude-monster with no particular mechanisms, could never chase them into the Dream World.
"This... is indeed not easy."
Amamiya Rin didn't deny it; acknowledging the difficulty of reality was the first step in devising a strategy.
Compared to Takaichi, or even dominating the political world, Ago and Azuki were far harder to deal with.
After all, they were monsters capable of producing millions—even tens of millions—of their own living spirits, harassing viewers nationwide through their television sets!
In a head-on confrontation, the odds of victory were slim, perhaps genuinely no higher than one percent.
Directly attacking their physical bodies was likewise meaningless; their core power did not depend on those human shells. Destroying the flesh would not only fail to root out the threat in a direct confrontation, it would also destroy the key elements that constituted the ghost story.
Sneaking in secretly while they slept was also unworkable—in the legends of living spirits, the soul leaving the body most commonly occurs during the unconscious state of deep sleep.
"This is actually the most difficult part... Even if I had a weapon that could destroy spectral bodies, and a pair of eyes that could see them, the success rate of drawing Ago and Azuki into the [Tomie Network] would be much higher."
Amamiya Rin murmured to himself.
Although in theory, with a will strong and resolute enough, one could injure a spectral body even with bare hands.
But the strength and energy that would consume would be immense—calling it "twice the effort for half the result" might not even capture how inefficient it was. Worse, a lapse in focus could leave an opening and plunge him into danger.
"In that case... use Kayako, who is also a spectral body? Borrow one force to strike another? Draw the tiger to devour the wolf?"
Amamiya Rin's eyes stirred slightly as he sank into thought.
When one lacked the power to confront an anomaly directly, borrowing the power of other anomalies to make them fight and wear each other down was not a bad strategy.
Besides, using a curse to counter a curse, using a ghost story to restrain a ghost story—hadn't he been following this exact line of thinking all along?
"It can only be this way."
Very quickly, Amamiya Rin cast aside all hesitation and made up his mind.
There was no other choice.
As far as he knew, in this worldview dominated by Junji Ito elements, if he wanted to obtain an implement capable of effectively killing non-human things, he would probably have to clear that crossover instance dungeon of "Forbidden Siren" and acquire the legendary divine blade.
Beyond that, he couldn't think for the moment of anywhere else to seek a stable, extraordinary weapon.
But it was obvious that the divine blade of Hanuda Village was not something he could obtain whenever he pleased.
Amamiya Rin had no intention of delaying his plan indefinitely.
Waiting for a so-called perfect moment often meant losing one's edge and the courage to act amid hesitation. He had to act swiftly based on the conditions currently available to him.
The next day, in the morning.
Leaning on his cane, Amamiya Rin once again arrived at the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters building.
Compared to his last visit, the air here now held an extra layer of invisible tension.
The officers moved with hurried steps, their faces taut, their conversations pitched low, carrying an urgency like the calm before a storm.
"How's the identity verification coming along? Pull up all the surveillance footage from the roads leading to the Takaichi residence last night—every last bit of it—and comb through it frame by frame!"
"The forensics people still aren't back? The chief is already pushing for a preliminary report!"
"It's like something out of a nightmare. You know what the medical examiner said? The victim looked as though he'd stuck out his own neck to let the killer behead him."
...
The urgent commands and conversations drifted into his ears, plainly triggered by the chain of events set off yesterday when Swordmaster Tomie went on a killing spree at the Takaichi residence.
Amamiya Rin's expression remained normal as he crossed the somewhat crowded lobby. Several detectives clutching files strode past, brushing his shoulder without even sparing him a sideways glance.
He walked to the elevator bank and rode straight down to the Police History Compilation Office on the fifth basement level.
Unlike the tense atmosphere above, the mood here was as desolate as ever—so desolate it felt as if it weren't even part of the Metropolitan Police Department at all.
Sweeping his gaze around, the seats where Kogure and Kazumi usually sat were empty. Only Indou Ranko remained in her usual spot, lounging lazily against the back of her chair, the computer screen before her playing a horse-racing livestream, the impassioned commentary turned down so low it had become a blurry hum in the background noise.
Hearing the sound of the door and the tap of the cane against the floor, Indou Ranko turned her head.
"Yo, you're here."
She casually jerked her chin at Amamiya Rin by way of greeting.
On the tea table in front of Indou Ranko sat a thick manila envelope.
"Your bonus."
After Amamiya Rin walked over, Indou Ranko gestured toward the envelope with her eyes.
Amamiya Rin picked up the envelope; it was heavy in his hand. He didn't check its contents on the spot, simply slipping it into the bag he carried with him.
"Where are Kazumi and Kogure?"
He asked offhandedly, sitting down on the single-seat sofa beside her and leaning his cane against the side.
"They went up to help out. Didn't you notice on your way in? The Metropolitan Police Department is rarely this lively."
Indou Ranko wore the expression of someone who wouldn't mind if the trouble grew bigger—no... it was more like gloating!
"I noticed on my way in."
Amamiya Rin obligingly put on a slightly curious look.
"It seems some important figure was attacked? The atmosphere is very tense."
"Who knows?"
Indou Ranko shrugged and said carelessly.
"In any case, they won't actually let the Police History Compilation Office get involved in the investigation. If... if we really did dig up something, then nobody would be very happy."
She spoke words that were inexplicable yet loaded with meaning, her gaze falling back onto the horse-racing livestream, as though she didn't want to continue the topic.
A look of feigned incomprehension crossed Amamiya Rin's face, but inwardly he understood exactly what Indou Ranko meant.
The kind of incidents that required the Police History Compilation Office to investigate were generally supernatural phenomena.
What if—what if they really did uncover that Takaichi had killed someone, perhaps a ghost coming to take revenge? What then?
Amamiya Rin recalled his brief search of the bedroom at the Takaichi residence the previous night.
Before leaving the master bedroom, he had quickly rummaged through it, originally intending to grab some spoils.
However, the most valuable items he saw were in a hidden walk-in closet next door, where there were many sets of special [clothes].
Those were pieces of human skin, treated with a special technique and preserved intact. Judging by the quantity, the number of people whose deaths Takaichi had indirectly caused in order to collect these [clothes] stripped from handsome men and beautiful women exceeded thirty.
The people who had died because of Takaichi were surely far more than these—otherwise Takaichi would not have sunk to such a depth in the illusory realm of the Eighteen Hells.
Honestly, Amamiya Rin was extremely curious: how could such an inhuman thing survive so long in this world? Was there no grudge-curse that came to claim her life?
Or was it that the psychics serving the upper echelons were formidable in strength, or that the Soul Reviver revived her again and again?
In any case, Indou Ranko was, after all, a civil servant within the system, nominally required to obey her superiors—including the orders of the very stratum Takaichi had belonged to while alive.
That she could take the initiative to stay out of it and not wade into these muddy waters was the best-case scenario for Amamiya Rin.
He did not want the possibility of being forced into a conflict with Indou Ranko to arise.
Especially today.
This very morning, Amamiya Rin had already received a brief message from the maid Tomie.
The content of the message was clear: that Soul Reviver was expected to arrive in Tokyo around five o'clock this evening.
Their purpose went without saying—precisely to perform a soul-revival ritual for the suddenly slain Takaichi.
And both Swordmaster Tomie and Mara Tomie had already made their preparations, planning to intercept and kill this Soul Reviver, and seize the right to use... the Soul Reviver's Sword.
There was no helping it. According to the records in his notes, between the Soul Reviver and the Soul Reviver's Sword, the one truly in control was not the Soul Reviver, but the sword itself.
In the story of "Soul Reviver's Sword", only the person chosen by that sword possessed the ability to wield it, and that sword also held the power to bewitch and corrupt hearts.
The protagonist had originally declared with righteous indignation that raising the dead was a sin, akin to murder—yet the moment he obtained the sword, he immediately pledged his loyalty to it.
No matter how hypocritical, one shouldn't even be able to keep up the pretense for a single page.
Back to the point—if Indou Ranko were to receive an order at this moment and be forced to intervene in the Takaichi case, or even dispatched to the scene or related locations, then the chances of the Tomies colliding with her would greatly increase, very likely triggering unnecessary variables.
Now, watching Indou Ranko's attitude—clearly intending to keep slacking off and keeping the affairs upstairs at arm's length—Amamiya Rin felt somewhat more at ease.
She seemed to genuinely have no fondness for Takaichi and that whole crowd, and wouldn't go seeking out this trouble on her own.
That was for the best.
Indou Ranko's attention seemed to have returned entirely to the horse-racing livestream.
On the screen, several racehorses were charging across the finish line, stirring up a wave of cheers from the spectator stands, while Indou Ranko's mouth curved downward, pulling into a dead-horse grimace.
By the look of it, she had lost again this time.
"By the way, Superintendent Indou, there's one thing—I thought about it and figured I should still bring it up with you."
After a moment's deliberation, Amamiya Rin spoke up again, striking up conversation with Indou Ranko.
"Hm?"
Indou Ranko turned her head, signaling with her eyes for him to continue.
"That talk show that's been airing in prime time lately, the super popular one—have you watched it? You must have seen it, right?"
Amamiya Rin's tone was quite certain. A talk show that bad yet still able to make people laugh—surely there was more than one or two people who had noticed something off.
"Those dangerous ones—even if I wanted to deal with them, the higher-ups wouldn't allow me to break the balance."
Indou Ranko caught his meaning at once and shrugged. She understood perfectly well what Amamiya Rin was getting at.
But, just like the earlier Kayako incident, she couldn't act, and wasn't permitted to act.
In the eyes of those who held the actual decision-making power, maintaining the status quo was the optimal solution.
Those two women who could unleash a vast tide of living spirits had, so far, shown no subversive political ambition or tendency toward social destruction—they were simply single-mindedly obsessed with becoming wildly famous talk show performers.
In that case, let them keep doing it.
She had even heard whispers that someone above had already dropped hints about elevating them to even higher positions, giving them more resources to satisfy their vanity and material desires—so long as they remained content to perform in front of the screen.
As long as they stayed obediently in the studio telling those boring, lame jokes, then even if they had silenced quite a few people in the past, there was no need to dig into it, no need to intervene.
Indou Ranko found this policy of appeasement extremely distasteful, but she was no longer young. Situated within the system, she had long since learned the necessary compromises, learned to so-called "prioritize the greater picture."
Killing Ago and Azuki might not be difficult, but what came after killing them? Two utterly out-of-control, colossal malevolent spirits drifting above Tokyo—who could guarantee they would be subdued? Who could guarantee that a great number of innocent civilians wouldn't be dragged in and pay a heavy price?
Indou Ranko admitted she couldn't, so she didn't dare, and couldn't afford to act rashly.
"What if I told you... that I've already been marked by them?"
Amamiya Rin asked calmly.
Hearing this, Indou Ranko's brow immediately furrowed.
"Hide. Go to Kikoku Temple and lay low for a while."
Right after, she immediately made arrangements.
Confronting Ago and Azuki was something she couldn't do, and she had no confidence in winning.
The only thing she could do at this moment was provide Amamiya Rin with temporary shelter and arrange for him to flee.
____
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