Chapter 29

"How come these two don't speak a word of human language."

Carrying a bamboo sword dripping with viscous blood, Ririko looked puzzled at the two followers on the ground who had already been beaten beyond recognition, yet were still murmuring things like "love" and "all beings suffer."

After a round of chaotic beating, her hands had gone numb from the punching.

But it seemed to have no effect on them at all; she couldn't get any useful intelligence out of them.

"——The reason cultists are cultists is because their brains are mostly abnormal."

A voice without a shred of emotional fluctuation rapidly approached, causing the two followers' bodies to subconsciously tremble and their constantly moving mouths to fall silent.

When they saw the living, breathing Rituna Minami walk up before them, they stopped their mumbling, and their eyes suddenly cleared.

"Seems I'm pretty famous." Rituna Minami first hooked the corner of her mouth, then glanced at Ririko: "Too gentle. You think you can pry intelligence out of them like that?"

Ririko's mouth twitched, but she indeed had no words to retort.

The problem was her beating, but there was no helping it; even exerting full force she couldn't defeat followers with mental problems.

"Heard you two ran into these followers by chance?" Rituna Minami snapped her fingers, and Nure-oni, who had just finished cleaning up the flying head barbarian corpses in the distance, drifted over. "Good job, but too reckless."

Nure-oni floated in mid-air, excitedly staring at the two followers who had fallen deathly silent, eyes impatient.

Seeing Ririko about to retort, Uesugi Toru promptly cut in: "I have a grasp."

Rituna Minami paused subtly, then nodded: "Then good."

"Next, I'll give you two a lesson first."

Meeting the scrutinizing gazes of Uesugi Toru and the other, Rituna Minami said calmly: "Being merciful to enemies is being cruel to yourself."

At some unknown time, the exits on both sides of the alley had been covered by a faint falling rain, temporarily isolating the inside of the alley from reality.

Hiyobou, having completed this arduous task, drifted over swaying, and with a whoosh burrowed into Nure-oni's white clothes.

Rituna Minami looked down at the two silently trembling followers, her gaze flat, like a chef staring at two ugly writhing lumps of meat.

"Don't avert your gaze, watch carefully."

She said.

——Thirty minutes later.

"Select ordinary people with large emotional peaks within Arakawa Ward, directly lure them into the Club or plant seeds, same rhetoric, only the scope and quantity are getting larger and larger."

"But pretty lucky, got a hideout out of them too."

Rituna Minami casually tossed the two white gloves covered in fine tissue onto the ground and stretched lazily.

But Uesugi Toru at this time had no mood to appreciate those beautiful curves; he suppressed the churning feeling in his stomach and looked at each other with Ririko beside him.

He asked: "Dinner, still eating?"

Ririko's face pale, she took a deep breath: "Eat, why not eat a free ride dinner."

Rituna Minami showed a satisfied smile, she clapped her hands: "okok, flirting stops here, I didn't interrogate them this long just to watch this."

Uesugi Toru: "So Nanjo Sister, you're telling us Arakawa Ward will get more dangerous these days, want us to switch places?"

"Bingo! Uesugi-kun you really are smart!" Rituna Minami laughed and rubbed Uesugi Toru's hair.

But the next moment, her tone turned serious.

"Arakawa Ward will indeed be dangerous for a while, but I've already cleared out more than half of the Friendship Club's branches and followers, and drawn most of their attention onto myself."

Rituna Minami raised a finger: "But the 'First Wave' is imminent, no one can say whether other wards that are currently peaceful are truly safe."

She spread her hands: "Stay and face known danger, or leave and welcome unknown challenges, the decision is in your hands."

First Wave.

Uesugi Toru had already heard this word not for the first time.

He looked at Rituna Minami, wanting an answer.

Ririko, on the other hand, frowned tightly; she had already encountered too many bizarre things today, this was far more outrageous than mere Mononoke Fox Dog Raccoon becoming real.

Rituna Minami didn't hide pointlessly anymore, answered: "Just treat it as, those Yokai and Mononoke from history legends are invading reality on a large scale. The many people on Twitter who photographed Yokai before were one of the omens."

Uesugi Toru thought Haku Hannya invading reality was indeed fact, but he didn't expect this wasn't survivorship bias, but truly massive individual cases.

Perhaps in the future, that Ten Thousand Man-Slayer Fang Xiangshi might really enter reality, possibly even bringing the entire Edo Castle with it.

Coupled with the not-yet-fully-upgraded Warai Hannya, and the two or three barely Entry Level skills in hand, Uesugi Toru's palms sweated straight through, a sense of urgency rising in his heart.

Right now, aside from the one-time Nanjo Doll and Ghost Old Man, he had almost no means to resist Two-Star and above Yokai.

——And looking over Rituna Minami's Shikigami, Nure-oni had two and a half stars on its head, the frail-looking Hiyobou also had One-Star Half, higher level than that injured Haku Hannya, and their abilities were even complementary.

Looks like, once Warai Hannya finishes upgrading and the One-Star Card Pool opens, he'll have to accelerate the strategy.

Uesugi Toru glanced at the remaining time —— upgrade completes the day after tomorrow at dawn, then he can use accumulated Soul Ash for a Ten-Pull to greatly improve strength.

"The time point of the Wave's arrival, maybe half a month later, or maybe within these few days."

After delivering an amount of information that could be called terrifying in two sentences, Rituna Minami had no intention of explaining in detail.

She smoked a cigarette, under deep dark circles said: "I have to go work overtime, more sweat now means less blood later, you two take care of yourselves."

"If anything, call me and explain clearly, I'll rush over as fast as I can."

After explaining, the rain curtains on both sides of the alley disappeared, Rituna Minami left in quick steps, leaving behind a clean alley and a somewhat at-a-loss Uesugi Toru and the other.

Silent for a moment, Uesugi Toru asked: "Dinner, still eating?"

Ririko's abdomen let out a gurgling sound, she slowly nodded: "Eat, why not eat a free ride dinner."

Having reached a unanimous decision, the two people wordlessly walked out of this alley that had perhaps become a critical turning point in their lives.

Reaching the street, the coming and going crowds were no different from usual.

Students chatted gossip, pushing and shoving playfully fighting; office workers hurried home from work; old people everywhere in twos and threes, steps slow.

By the ears was the silent turning sound of car engines; in this Japan where everyone is unwilling to trouble others, harsh horns were almost never heard.

Everything was no different from an ordinary evening.

Just at this time, from the utility poles overhead came the sharp cries of crows, a large flock flapped wings and scattered into flight, like sudden dark clouds blocking the setting sun.

Uesugi Toru watched this scene, recalling that the current time point when the sun set was called Oumagatoki in Japan, and the time after that was Hyakki Yagyou.

He felt he was walking into Hyakki Yagyou.

(End of Chapter)