Chapter 243: 239 Reappearance of the Child-Snatching Bird

239 Reappearance of the Child-Snatching Bird

Misaki Naomi, who had been weeping silently in the hospital room, felt the chilling sensation that had persisted behind her neck suddenly vanish; that terrifying feeling of having the nape of her fate gripped by an evil, icy claw was gone, a strange perception she had maintained from the moment she was cursed by Mimiko until just now.

Since being cursed, Misaki Naomi had constantly felt an executioner standing to her left and right, holding a sharp blade aloft, slowly descending with an inescapable, absolute force; every moment, she could actually feel her life span rapidly slipping away, and the fear of death was constantly searing her brain.

But just now, that suffocating sense 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 had vanished.

Misaki Naomi wept with joy and couldn't wait to get out of bed to find that figure who wasn't particularly tall, but the Investigators from the Chosen Alliance guarding outside the door poured cold water on her with their absolutely rational gazes.

She could not leave; she could only wait here for the uncle to return in triumph.

He Jia'an suddenly appeared out of thin air and jumped onto the bed in Kawakami Rumi's room in the Inner World; he endured the dizziness brought on by traversing space and managed to stand steady on the bed.

"Is it over?" He Jia'an shook his head, his nose catching the scent of blood drifting in the air; he was incredibly familiar with it but dared not be certain until he reached the stairwell and saw the mangled corpse of the dog, as well as the head of the Shiba Inu lying at the corner downstairs, only then did he confirm the fact.

"Mimiko's curse, I have dispelled it." Matsumoto Gin's voice came from downstairs.

He Jia'an stepped over the corpse of the Shiba Inu and arrived on the first floor, seeing that the remains of Kawakami Rumi's mother had also been hacked into several pieces by the sharp blade in Matsumoto Gin's hand, while Matsumoto Gin was taking out a handkerchief to gently wipe the silver-glinting blade.

"Things are far from over." He Jia'an felt that Matsumoto Gin's tone was somewhat lax. "We have yet to deal with the culprit who made Kisaragi High School a gathering place for Blessing power; if we don't remove that mastermind, curses will not stop being born, nor will they stop spreading. Even if we end Hanako's curse and Mimiko'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, and when he mechanically jerked his head around, He Jia'an couldn't help but frown and shrink back a step, only to see the other party staring fixedly at him with a pair of eyes completely covered in black.

"No matter how we discover, handle, dispel, or resolve those Abnormals, we still cannot stop the appearance of those Abnormals; there are still lives on Earth dying because of this, or even dying because of us... In the final analysis, it is actually this world's fault; the essence of this world is madness..." Matsumoto Gin let go of the handkerchief used for wiping the blade, stepped over the handkerchief that had fallen to the ground, and walked toward He Jia'an step by step.

As he walked, the Magic Blade in his hand flickered with a strange luster; before long, tube-like objects sprouted from the hilt and gushed out, covering and piercing Matsumoto Gin's entire body with a speed and quantity never seen before, causing the other party to look like a bizarre creature covered in tubes, combined with that gradually deforming Magic Blade.

"I think your state isn't right, Matsumoto." He Jia'an said while retreating.

He saw that the black Qi in the air was gathering toward Matsumoto Gin; the closer it got to Matsumoto Gin, the more solid those black Qi became, until they turned into thorn-like things that pierced into Matsumoto Gin's tube-filled body, yet he himself seemed not to feel any pain, instead emitting groans as if he were enjoying it immensely.

"No, He-kun, I am fine." said Matsumoto Gin, whose face could no longer be distinguished; he seemed to have let go of the blade in his hand, but the tubes of that bizarre katana were still tightly connected to Matsumoto Gin, dragging behind him as he moved, looking rather like a tail.

Matsumoto Gin whispered: "I just suddenly saw through this world; if the world is mad, only if we humans embrace the madness and actively accept the corruption will we not be eliminated by the world..."

"I don't object to you wanting to become an alien, but I also want to ask you to respect every human who does not want to be corrupted." He Jia'an retreated to the door, twisted the doorknob, opened the door, and retreated outside.

Matsumoto Gin's tone was gloomy: "Those who do not accept corruption will sooner or later be swallowed by this mad, dark world; since that is the case, those who do not want to be corrupted and polluted might as well die by my hand before they die in pain!"

Saying this, Matsumoto Gin lunged out violently.

He Jia'an turned and ran; just as he ran out the door, a massive, twisted, rope-like object composed of a dense mass of tubes rushed out of the Kawakami family's front door, and the extending part impacted and crushed everything within several hundred meters in its path.

"Has this guy been controlled by the Magic Blade just like that?" He Jia'an found it inconceivable, because he felt that Matsumoto Gin shouldn't be so fragile as to suddenly lose to the bewitchment of the Magic Blade.

Thinking of the black Qi that had been entwining Matsumoto Gin just now, that was clearly the Curse Power permeating the air of the Inner World, yet for some reason, it had suddenly gathered in large quantities on Matsumoto Gin; it was clear that he had been affected by the Curse Power, his negative emotions and dark desires had been amplified infinitely, and only then had his spirit succumbed to the Magic Blade.

"Before I arrived, what on earth did Matsumoto encounter?" He Jia'an couldn't help but guess that Matsumoto Gin had been set up by someone.

Matsumoto Gin let out a strange roar that departed from a human voice, and immediately after, the tubes radiating from his entire body retracted rapidly, then suddenly expanded outward again at high speed, as if using physical matter to simulate an explosion; the expanding tubes were overwhelming, and nothing in their path could survive.

Gu! Gu! Gu...

A massive bird figure suddenly swept over He Jia'an's head, flying along the line, creating an invisible wall of wind behind He Jia'an, cutting off and blocking all the tubes that attempted to harm He Jia'an.

"It really is the Child-Snatching Bird!" He Jia'an was deeply shocked; when he saw that deformed giant bird with a strange human face appear once again, he not only didn't feel terrified, he even felt nostalgic.

But soon, He Jia'an became confused, because the characteristic of the Child-Snatching Bird was to abduct and protect children, but how could he, a big child of over thirty years old and weighing over 110 pounds, be the object of its protection.

Then there was only one answer: this Child-Snatching Bird still retained its humanity, or rather, it knew and recognized him; it did not want to see him get hurt, which was why it had repeatedly stepped in to save and protect him.