Chapter 242: Ushi-oni Reappears
In the hospital room, Misaki Naomi, who was crying softly, felt the continuous cold chill at the back of her neck suddenly disappear. The terrifying sensation of being gripped by an evil cold claw at the nape of her destiny was completely gone. It was a strange perception that had persisted from the moment she was cursed by Miyako until just now.
Ever since being cursed, Misaki Naomi had always felt an invisible executioner standing at her sides, raising a sharp slaughtering blade, slowly chopping down with inescapable absolute power. Every moment, she could actually feel her destiny rapidly approaching its end. The fear of death was constantly frying the scant reason left in her brain.
But just moments ago, that suffocating sensation of death and despair had disappeared.
Although there was no evidence, Misaki Naomi knew she had survived. The Sword of Damocles hanging over her head was gone.
Misaki Naomi wept with joy. She eagerly got out of bed, wanting to find that not particularly tall figure, but the Chosen Alliance investigators guarding outside the door seemed to have anticipated it. They stood in a row, staring at her like conjoined twins, splashing a basin of cold water on her heart with their absolutely rational gazes.
She immediately calmed down. She couldn’t leave; she could only wait here for Uncle’s triumphant return.
He Jia’an suddenly appeared out of thin air, jumping onto the bed in Rumi Kawakami’s room in the Inner World. He endured the dizziness brought by shuttling through space and barely managed to stand steady on the bed without falling.
“It’s over?” He Jia’an shook his head. His nose caught the bloody smell drifting in the air, which he was extremely familiar with but didn’t dare confirm whose it was until he reached the stairwell and saw the incomplete dog’s corpse, along with the Shiba Inu head fallen at the corner downstairs. Only then did he confirm the fact.
“Miyako’s Curse, I have exorcised it.” At that moment, Matsumoto Gin’s voice came from downstairs.
He Jia’an stepped over the Shiba Inu corpse to the first floor and saw that Rumi Kawakami’s mother’s bones had also been chopped into several sections by the sharp blade in Matsumoto Gin’s hand. Matsumoto Gin nonchalantly took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the gleaming silver blade, as if it were nothing.
“Things are far from over.” He Jia’an felt that Matsumoto Gin’s tone was somewhat lax. “The culprit that turned Kisaragi High School into a gathering place for Blessing Power—we haven’t dealt with it yet. Unless we eliminate that mastermind behind the scenes, curses won’t stop being born or spreading. Even if we end Hanako’s Curse and Miyako’s Curse now, if we don’t solve the root of the problem, other curses will appear in the future.”
“I know, you don’t need to remind me.” Matsumoto Gin sighed. “It’s just… I suddenly feel a bit weary.”
Matsumoto Gin raised his head, mechanically twisting it sharply, causing He Jia’an to frown and step back involuntarily.
He saw that Matsumoto Gin had a pair of eyes completely covered in black, staring dead at him.
“No matter how we discover, handle, exorcise, or resolve those anomalies, we still can’t stop those anomalies from appearing. Earth’s lives still die because of them, even because of us… In the end, it’s this world’s fault. This world’s essence is madness…” Matsumoto Gin let go of the handkerchief he was using to wipe the blade, stepped over the fallen handkerchief, and walked toward He Jia’an step by step.
As he walked, the demonic blade in his hand flickered with an eerie sheen. Soon, tube-like things sprouted from the hilt, gushing out in unprecedented speed and massive quantity, covering and piercing Matsumoto Gin’s entire body, making him look like a bizarre creature covered in tubes, combined with the increasingly eerie-shaped demonic blade.
“I think your condition isn’t right, Matsumoto.” He Jia’an said while retreating.
He saw black qi in the air gathering toward Matsumoto Gin. The closer to Matsumoto Gin, the more substantial the black qi became, until it turned into spike-like things piercing into Matsumoto Gin’s body full of tubes. Yet he seemed to feel no pain, instead moaning in enjoyment.
“No, He-kun, I’m fine.” Matsumoto Gin, whose face was no longer discernible, said. He seemed to have let go of the blade in his hand, but the tubes from the eerie tachi were still tightly connected to Matsumoto Gin, dragging behind him like a tail.
Matsumoto Gin said lowly: “I’ve just suddenly seen through this world. If the world is mad, then only if we humans embrace madness and actively accept contamination will we not be eliminated by the world…”
“I don’t oppose you becoming an outsider, but I also ask you to respect every human who doesn’t want to be corrupted.” He Jia’an retreated to the door, twisted the door handle, opened the door, and stepped outside.
Matsumoto Gin’s voice was gloomy: “Those who don’t accept corruption will eventually be devoured by this mad dark world. In that case, those who don’t want to be corrupted and contaminated might as well die by my hand before dying in agony!”
With that, Matsumoto Gin lunged out fiercely.
He Jia’an turned and ran. Just as he ran out the door, a massive twisted rope-like thing composed of dense tubes rushed out of the Kawakami family’s door, its extending part impacting and crushing everything in its direction for hundreds of meters.
“This guy got controlled by the demonic blade just like that?” He Jia’an found it unbelievable, because he thought Matsumoto Gin shouldn’t be so vulnerable as to suddenly succumb to the demonic blade’s bewitchment.
Thinking of the black qi that had wrapped around Matsumoto Gin earlier—which was clearly the curse power permeating the Inner World air—but for some reason had suddenly gathered massively on Matsumoto Gin. Matsumoto Gin’s anomaly was obviously influenced by the curse power; his negative emotions and dark desires were infinitely amplified in a short time, causing his spirit to succumb to the demonic blade.
“What exactly happened to Matsumoto while I wasn’t there yet?” He Jia’an couldn’t help but guess that Matsumoto Gin had been set up by someone.
Matsumoto Gin let out a monstrous roar beyond human voice. Then the tubes emanating from his body rapidly retracted, only to explode outward in all directions like simulating an explosion with entities. The expanding tubes came like an avalanche, leaving no object unscathed in their path.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp…
A massive bird silhouette suddenly swept over He Jia’an’s head, flying along the path and creating an invisible wind wall behind He Jia’an, severing and blocking all tubes attempting to harm him.
“It’s really Ushi-Oni!” He Jia’an was doubly shocked. Seeing that deformed giant bird with a monstrous human face appear again, he didn’t feel terror at all—instead, he felt nostalgia.
But soon, He Jia’an became puzzled, because Ushi-Oni’s nature was to abduct and protect children. How could he, a thirty-something over 110 pounds big child, be its protection target?
So there was only one answer: this Ushi-Oni still retained humanity, or rather, it knew and recognized him. It didn’t want to see him harmed, so it had repeatedly intervened to save and protect him.
