Chapter 160 – Chapter 148 – The Hunting Ground
“I’m sorry, let me take this call.”
Lin Qi looked at the call from Kiyotaka Ijichi and his eyebrows frowned slightly.
He stood up and walked to a more secluded spot and answered the phone, “What’s the matter?”
“It’s an urgent task; Shinjuku encountered a large-scale terrorist attack by cursed sorcerers. Please request Mr. Lin Qi to come to Shinjuku for support immediately. The payment can be discussed.” Kiyotaka Ijichi quickly stated.
“Understood.” Lin Qi ended the call after agreeing.
Noticing Lin Qi’s serious expression as he walked back, Yukinoshita Yukino guessed that something had happened, knowing that she had seen the call from Kiyotaka.
Without any unnecessary questions, the black-haired girl spoke directly with a serious expression, “I will go with you.”
“Alright.” Lin Qi nodded, glanced at her yukata and exchanged it for sportswear from the system saying, “Follow me.”
Yukinoshita Yono, who was usually smart, understood that they were about to have another mission; fighting dangerous monsters was inevitable. Though worried, she could do nothing to stop them, only allowing them to leave.
The gentle-faced woman maintained her usual warm smile while looking at Hachiman Hikigaya with her eyes. She silently asked him, “Aren’t you going?”
Hachiman Hikigaya, who excelled in reading people, naturally knew that Lin Qi and Yukinoshita were going to exorcise the cursed spirits. However, he was not good at battling the cursed spirits himself.
But…
After weighing the dangers of battling the cursed spirits against the awkwardness between Yuigahama Yui and Yukinoshita Yono, he decisively chose the former.
After all, with Lin Qi there, nothing would go wrong.
So he discreetly messaged his sister Komachi, signaling for her to find any reason to make him miss the fireworks event since he needed to go on a mission.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Komachi did not insist on letting her brother and his girlfriend have time alone at the fireworks event. Instead, she called him immediately, telling him to return due to household matters.
“Ah, well, that’s how things are.” Hachiman Hikigaya apologized to the puzzled girl with a apologetic face and left hurriedly.
Among the five people, Yuigahama Yui alone was unclear about what happened. She looked around in bewilderment on the bench where everyone was sitting moments ago, now left with only herself and the smiling Yukinoshita Yono, whose kind smile hid underlying annoyance.
“Um… Did something happen?” Yuigahama Yui forced a nervous and helpless laugh while asking, “Why did everyone suddenly leave?”
Was she being rejected?
“Well, probably just coincidental.”
Yukinoshita felt a strange sense of shared misfortune with the girl but felt luckier because she was aware of the situation.
She softly comforted, “This world is full of things beyond our control.”
The fireworks continued to bloom with multicolored glows, their heat seemingly penetrating through the air and breaking the facade of Yukinoshita’s face, revealing a genuine loneliness that added a fleeting moment of frailty to her look.
Yukinoshita soon adjusted her mood resuming her smile, “Yuigahama, why don’t we watch the fireworks together, shall we?”
“Hehe, of course not a problem!”
Yuigahama’s mood brightened after being consoled by Yukinoshita.
On the other hand, when Hachiman Hikigaya caught up with Lin Qi and Yukinoshita, she had changed into the sports clothes provided by Lin Qi: a light gray hoodie and black tracksuit pants. Her tied hair was now back in a high ponytail.
Lin Qi, seeing Hachiman coming up, raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Well, I am a semi-skilled jujutsu sorcerer,” He tried to hide his true thoughts.
“Then let’s go.” Lin Qi grabbed Yukinoshita under the armpits and Yukinoshita held one arm of Hachiman to highlight the stark differences in treatment.
With that, the three of them disappeared instantly without being seen by passersby.
…
Shinjuku had become a new purgatory.
“Umaiya Jie” released over two thousand cursed spirits, the same quantity from the last Oni Night Parade, concentrated in Shinjuku, primarily third-level to second-level cursed spirits even including first-level ones.
This was the result of his cursed spirit reserves supplemented by collecting cursed spirits throughout the summer.
Talented jujutsu sorcerers’ creation often spawned powerful cursed spirits, which facilitated Umaiya Jie possessing cursed spirit manipulation capabilities.
The bustling streets were piled with corpses regardless of age – adults, young, or children, none could survive such a multitude of cursed spirits attacking.
A few ugly cursed spirits wandered around the streets.
Amputated limbs scattered around like trash along the street, crimson blood forming rivers slowly sliding down toward the grate on the sewer lid. The pungent stench of blood permeated the air, causing nausea and a feeling of malevolence hovering over the entire Shinjuku sky.
During the last “Oni Night Parade” initiated by the special-grade cursed sorcerer Umaiya Jie, the jujutsu sorcerers had time to prepare and evacuate civilians and tourists to safety.
During the brief span between learning the news and heading to Shinjuku, ordinary citizens had already sustained heavy casualties surpassing those of the last “Oni Night Parade.”
That number kept increasing continuously.
Sighing, a blond delinquent named Shigeuchia Haruta wielded an unusually designed long sword, happily walking behind two fleeing young women.
The hilt of the sword was constructed from a human hand, a gray one at that. The hands fitted closely thus preventing the weapon from slipping from his grasp.
“There’s no escape anyway, why waste energy?”
He suddenly tossed the sword forward, the blade spinning through the air and landing in front of the two women dressed provocatively. The loud clunk startled them, stopping their flight.
“Eh!!!”
Terrified, they huddled together, turned and pleaded for mercy from Shigeuchia with tear-stained faces and smudged makeup; it made them appear very desperate: “P-Please, do whatever you want with us!”
“Mmm, what should I do?” He pretended as if thinking, stroking his chin.
Seeing a chance for survival, a flicker of hope appeared on their faces, and they started stripping themselves down.
Their faces froze almost instantaneously, as their bodies collapsed like they lost support, falling lifelessly to the ground.
Intense pain followed, accompanied by sharp and shrill cries.
Blood pooled around, leaving four neatly cut ankles; the thrown sword had autonomously used its five fingers to sever their lower legs.
As Shigeuchia admired the grimace of fear and pain on their faces, he walked leisurely towards them.
The weird sword leapt into his hand and he grabbed hold.
He then raised his arm.
In the next second, the sword swung down, spraying blood onto the neat glass windows of nearby stores, silencing their screams.
The golden-haired braid man hummed a cheerful tune, stepping lightly, continuing his search for his next prey.
This scene played out relentlessly in various parts of Shinjuku.
Whether encountering cursed spirits or cursed sorcerers, the outcome was invariably death.
The entire Shinjuku seemed to have turned into an ancient noble hunting ground, with humans trapped within becoming the hunted prey.
The clouds parting from the night sky revealed a bright moon disk, gradually being stained by the continuous slaughter below; even the moon seemed to turn red.
