"It's you—the one who created this space."
The setting was a classroom.
Yami Tsukishiro had brought Eriri here.
In the corner, a male student was squatting, his complexion pale and drained of life. His mouth moved restlessly, yet the words spilling out hardly sounded human.
I don't want to be first! I don't want to be first! I don't want…!
He didn't look like a person anymore at all.
Yami could feel it clearly—the shrouded barrier surrounding the school was born from the energy leaking from this boy's body. A twisted, negative energy… the mark of a rampaging node.
I said… don't force me to get first place in the exam again!
Monster: Wraithful Spirit
Rank: Fourth Level
Title: Elite
Race: Undead
Meme Abilities:
Level E: Fear (Lv. 3)
Level D: Malicious Curse (Lv. 4)
Level C: Domain of Resentment (Lv. 4)
The grudge it carried was overwhelming.
The boy suddenly lifted his head. His face was streaked with blood, scarlet lines tearing across his skin. Then—he let out a scream, unleashing the power of a howling curse that surged toward Yami like a wave.
Without hesitation, Yami pulled Eriri into his arms.
His right hand flexed, empty in the air.
A golden light flared. Dragon claws shining like stars tore forward, and with a single crushing snap—click!—the fourth-level undead was obliterated.
As the monster's existence shattered, so too did the realm of resentful spirits. The suffocating gloom blanketing the school melted away, replaced by the ordinary colors of life.
At the school gates, a passerby blinked in confusion as he suddenly saw students chatting in the courtyard.
"Huh? School should be over by now… why are there still so many students inside?"
The students turned, wide-eyed.
"He saw us…? The door—it's open!"
With a loud bang, the gate swung outward.
In an instant, waves of teachers and students poured out, thousands of feet rushing across the ground. The sheer momentum left the passerby frozen in place, heart pounding in shock.
---
"Eriri! Are you okay?"
At Yami Tsukishiro's house, Sayuri immediately hugged her daughter, her voice full of worry.
"Oh, I'm fine. Yami-kun would never let me get hurt."
Eriri waved her hands, trying to brush it off. Still, even as she pretended to push Sayuri away in embarrassment, the smile tugging at her lips refused to fade.
After resolving the resentful domain at the school, Yami had brought Eriri straight home.
"Yami-kun, what exactly happened at school?" Utaha asked quietly, her gaze sharp.
"…It's not just the school." Yami's expression turned serious. "The entire world is in chaos."
At the very moment the rampaging node appeared, he had sensed it—strange energy drifting through the air everywhere. A suffocating pressure, invisible but heavy. Negative energy.
That was what had given birth to the undead monsters within the school.
When this energy gathers, it twists into something irreversible—spirits, demons, abominations, all born from resentment.
The level-four wraith he had fought earlier was nothing more than the accumulated grudges of students who had died there.
If the phenomenon blanketed the world, then the academy was far from the only place struck by calamity.
Yami closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath. Even now, his shadow soldiers—thousands of them, created in the Apocalypse world—were moving through the city. They hunted in silence, slipping through alleys and walls, seeking out the clusters of negative energy and purging the monsters that took shape.
As long as Yami's power didn't run dry, those soldiers could die and rise again without end.
Of course, he wasn't doing it purely to play the hero. Monsters carried value. Each one left behind magic stones, and some—like the wraith—bestowed meme abilities when defeated.
That wraith had given him [Fear], an E-rank meme. Barely useful, but five thousand stones from a single kill wasn't something to scoff at. A few more, and his power would grow quickly.
But he wasn't naïve. Negative energy might be spreading fast, but strong monsters wouldn't just appear overnight.
Through the shadows of his soldiers, Yami had already witnessed the city's first chaotic battles. Law enforcers and soldiers fired relentlessly, but ordinary bullets barely scratched the undead. Grenades, at least, worked—blowing the creatures into chunks.
What caught his attention most, however, were ordinary people who had awakened abilities from the virtual world. Against the monsters, their powers burned like miracles.
"…So guns aren't completely useless," Yami murmured. "That's something."
"Yami-kun, what should we do now?" Eriri asked nervously, her hands still clutching Sayuri's sleeve. The image of the bleeding, twisted monster from school lingered in her mind.
Yami reached out and gently ruffled her hair, his tone calm and reassuring.
"Don't worry. We'll just keep living normally. Let's eat first."
--
During dinner, Yami's phone buzzed.
A message from Mizuki—just as he expected.
Mizuki had already sensed it: the world tipping into chaos, the storm of negative energy swirling across the globe… and Eriri's condition at school.
He also mentioned that his own shadow soldiers were sweeping through the city, cleaning up the scattered monsters.
From here, the rest was up to the Alliance.
No matter what madness lay outside, it couldn't reach Yami Tsukishiro's life.
The villa itself was surrounded by Yami's own shadow soldiers, a silent barrier that no spirit could cross. With that protection, the night felt almost ordinary again.
After her bath, Eriri slipped into her slippers, padding softly down the hallway. Without hesitation, she walked straight toward Yami's room.
Utaha and Sayuri both noticed.
"Tsk."
Utaha clicked her tongue in irritation, but didn't voice her jealousy. Instead, she simply turned on her heel and returned to her own room with an annoyed flick of her hair.
"Eriri…"
Sayuri hesitated, but ultimately didn't try to stop her daughter either.
In her heart, she had already accepted Yami Tsukishiro. After all, he had revealed his overwhelming power without hesitation to save Eriri. To Sayuri, that meant he had already chosen to take responsibility.
Still, watching Eriri grow up so fast left her with complicated feelings.
Her daughter was still so small… would she really be okay? Would she be hurt?
And then, unbidden, the memory of Utaha came to mind. That state she'd been in earlier—gasping for breath, legs trembling, lips bitten red. Sayuri's cheeks flushed at the thought.
For a moment, she even felt the urge to march into Yami's room and lecture him to be gentler, to teach him "proper guidance" personally.
But… she had no such experience herself. In the end, she sighed softly and let it go.
Well… I'll leave it to them.
Even so, she couldn't shake the thought: judging by the voices Kasumigaoka Utaha had let out that night, her daughter was about to receive the pounding of her life.
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