Chapter 29: The First Wave Approaches, The Fork In The Road Of Fate
“Why won’t these two guys say a single word of human speech?”
Holding a bamboo sword dripping with sticky blood, Lili Zi looked puzzled at the two cultists on the ground who had been beaten into an unrecognizable state but were still murmuring words like “love” and “All beings suffer.”
After a round of wild beating, her hands had gone numb.
But it seemed to have no effect on them at all, and she couldn’t get any useful information out of them.
“—The reason cultists are cultists is that most of their brains aren’t normal.”
A voice without the slightest emotional fluctuation approached quickly, making the two cultists’ bodies tremble instinctively and stopping their constantly moving mouths.
When they saw Nanjo Emi walking up to them in the flesh, they stopped their muttering, and their eyes suddenly cleared.
“Looks like I’m pretty famous.” Nanjo Emi first hooked the corner of her mouth, then glanced at Lili Zi: “Too gentle. You think you can pry information out of them like this?”
Lili Zi’s mouth twitched, but she was indeed speechless.
The problem wasn’t with how she hit them, but there was no way around it—going all out couldn’t overcome cultists with mental issues.
“I heard you two ran into these cultists by chance?” Nanjo Emi snapped her fingers, and the Water Ghost, who had just finished cleaning up the Futodama corpses in the distance, floated over. “Well done, but too reckless.”
The Water Ghost hovered in mid-air, excitedly staring at the two cultists who were as silent as cicadas in winter, its eyes impatient.
Seeing that Lili Zi was about to retort, Shangshan Che quickly interjected: “I had it under control.”
Nanjo Emi paused subtly, then nodded: “That’s good.”
“Next, I’ll give you two a lesson first.”
Facing the scrutiny of Shangshan Che and the others, Nanjo Emi said calmly: “Being merciful to the enemy is being cruel to yourself.”
At some point, the exits on both sides of the alley had been covered by a light curtain of falling rain, temporarily isolating the alley from reality.
Hiyori Bo, having completed this arduous task, floated over unsteadily and whooshed into the Water Ghost’s white robe.
Nanjo Emi looked down at the two silently trembling cultists, her eyes flat, like a chef gazing at two ugly wriggling lumps of meat.
“Don’t look away. Watch carefully.”
She said.
—Thirty minutes later.
“Within Arakawa Ward, they select ordinary people with strong emotional peaks, directly lure them to join the Friendship Club or plant a seed, using the same rhetoric, but the scope and numbers are getting larger and larger.”
“But pretty lucky, we got another hideout out of them.”
Nanjo Emi casually tossed two white gloves stained with bits of tissue onto the ground and stretched lazily.
But Shangshan Che had no mood to appreciate those graceful curves right now; he suppressed the churning in his stomach and exchanged a glance with Lili Zi beside him.
He asked: “Dinner, still eating?”
Lili Zi’s face was pale, and she took a deep breath: “Yeah, why not eat a free dinner.”
Nanjo Emi showed a satisfied smile and clapped her hands: “Ok ok, enough flirting. I didn’t interrogate them on the spot for so long to watch this.”
Shangshan Che: “So Sister Nanjo, you’re telling us that Arakawa Ward will become more and more dangerous these days, and you want us to switch places?”
“Bingo! Shangshan, you’re so smart!” Nanjo Emi laughed and ruffled Shangshan Che’s hair.
But the next moment, her tone turned serious.
“Arakawa Ward will indeed be very dangerous for a while, but I’ve already eliminated over half of the Friendship Club’s branches and cultists, and drawn most of their attention to me.”
Nanjo Emi held up one finger: “But with the First Wave approaching, no one can say for sure if the other districts that seem peaceful right now are really safe.”
She spread her hands: “Stay and face known dangers, or leave to meet unknown challenges—the decision is yours.”
First Wave.
This wasn’t the first time Shangshan Che had heard the term.
He looked at Nanjo Emi, wanting an answer.
Lili Zi frowned tightly; she’d encountered too many bizarre things today, far more outlandish than mere Supernatural Phenomenon like Kitsune-dog coming true.
Nanjo Emi didn’t hide it unnecessarily anymore and answered: “Think of it as the demons and Supernatural Phenomena from historical legends invading reality on a large scale. The many demons and monsters captured on Twitter before were one of the omens.”
Shangshan Che thought that White Hannya invading reality was indeed fact, but he hadn’t expected it not to be survivor bias, but truly massive numbers of cases.
Perhaps in the future, that Ten Thousand Kills Fang Xiang Shi might really step into reality, even bringing Edo Castle with it.
Thinking also of the Laughing Hannya that hadn’t finished leveling up yet, and the three or so beginner-level skills in his palm, Shangshan Che’s palms started sweating, a sense of urgency rising in his heart.
Right now, aside from the one-time-use Nanjo Doll and Old Man Ghost, he had almost no means to resist Two-Star and above demons.
—Looking at Nanjo Emi’s shikigami, the Water Ghost had two-and-a-half stars on its head, and the seemingly frail Hiyori Bo also had One-and-a-Half Star, higher than that injured White Hannya, and their abilities even complemented each other.
It seemed that once Laughing Hannya finished leveling up and the One-Star Gacha Pool unlocked, he needed to accelerate his Strategy.
Shangshan Che glanced at the remaining time—the upgrade would complete at dawn the day after tomorrow, and then he could use his accumulated Soul Ash for a ten-pull to greatly boost his Strength.
“The Tide might arrive in half a month, or maybe in just these few days.”
After dropping that terrifying amount of information in two sentences, Nanjo Emi had no intention of explaining further.
She lit a cigarette, her deep dark circles making her say: “I’ve gotta pull an all-nighter. More sweat now means less blood in a couple days. Take care of yourselves.”
“If anything happens, call me and explain clearly. I’ll get there as fast as I can.”
After explaining, the rain curtains on both sides of the alley vanished. Nanjo Emi left quickly, leaving behind a clean alley and the somewhat at-a-loss Shangshan Che and Lili Zi.
After a moment of silence, Shangshan Che asked: “Dinner, still eating?”
Lili Zi’s stomach growled. She nodded slowly: “Yeah, why not eat a free dinner.”
Having reached a consensus, the two walked out of the alley in silence—this alley that might have become a key turning point in their lives.
On the street, the passing crowds were no different from usual.
Students chatted gossip while shoving and playing around, office workers hurried home from work, and elderly people gathered in twos and threes, walking slowly.
The sound of car engines idling filled the ears; in Japan, a society where no one wants to trouble others, harsh honking was almost never heard.
Everything was no different from an ordinary evening.
At that moment, a sharp crow call came from the utility pole overhead. A large flock of crows flapped their wings and scattered into flight, blotting out the setting sun like a sudden dark cloud.
Shangshan Che watched this scene and recalled that in Japan, the time when the sun sets is called Demon Hour, and the time after that is when the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons begins.
He felt himself walking into the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
