Chapter 78: Gods Are Also Evil Spirits, The Appearance of the Second Ghost Hand
Traveling alone with Sakurajima Mai?
Very good proposal. It makes my two heads start spinning.
"No problem."
Seeing Yoru talking to the air again, a look of helplessness appeared in Rio's eyes.
Now, she naturally wouldn't think the girl named Sakurajima Mai was his imaginary friend.
Presumably, due to some unknown reason, only Yoru could observe her existence.
Rio was very curious about this.
What kind of state was a target in if even Miko with the "Sight" couldn't observe her?
Did this have any connection with the theories of Quantum Mechanics?
However, curiosity aside, Rio didn't take the initiative to ask.
Since Yoru didn't say, he must have found a solution.
Waiting for the so-called Senpai Sakurajima Mai to truly appear before them and asking the person involved directly was obviously a more scientific and rigorous method.
"Alright, ready to depart. After visiting that place, you guys can enjoy your spring break properly."
....
An hour and a half later, on the outskirts of Kyoto.
"This is the place?"
Miko looked at the slightly dilapidated old shrine in front of her, with thick dust accumulated on the statues, clearly not visited for a long time. She hesitated.
"You aren't thinking of praying for the help of those so-called gods, are you? Didn't you write in your diary that if gods really exist, they aren't kind and don't want to help you?"
Yoru smiled.
"I still think so now."
Miko was even more confused.
"Then why come to the shrine to pray..."
"You misunderstood."
Yoru waved his hand, walked to the offering box of the shrine, and said faintly.
"I'm not here to pray for anything this time."
While speaking, Yoru took out several hundred-yen bills and a dozen coins from his pocket and threw them into the wooden box.
The coins collided with the inner wall of the wooden box, making a dull yet inexplicably clear sound.
Miko, and Rio who had awakened Soul Manifestation and possessed the ability to see evil spirits, noticed the air inside the shrine ripple like the surface of a lake after a pebble was thrown in.
Clap.
Yoru clasped his hands together, lowered his head, and looked like he was praying sincerely.
"Haa..."
Jingle~
A strangely eerie breathing sound, accompanied by a crisp sound like wind chimes colliding, rang out behind the Super-Quant Club members.
Rio and Miko turned around and saw a creature with a head shaped like a goat, four or five meters tall, on all fours, with a translucent golden body, standing quietly there.
At this moment, a sense of nervousness arose in both girls' hearts.
Whatever this thing in front of them was....
It was terrifying.
This terror was different from evil spirits with twisted faces releasing evil auras.
It was more like....
An aloof indifference that completely disregarded humans.
"This thing... is... God?"
No matter what, Miko couldn't connect the goat-headed monster in front of her, huge and emitting silent pressure, with a so-called god.
As ordinary people, Mai and Yui couldn't see the existence of the god.
But they weren't as oblivious as Hana.
Just seeing the changes in Miko and Rio's expressions and feeling the sudden deathly silence where not even a bird chirped, the two girls knew something must have happened.
"Came out as expected."
Yoru turned around, looked at the translucent golden monster with a goat head, and smiled nonchalantly.
"The soul of a spirit medium is very attractive to you, right?"
The Goat God opened its mouth, spewing obscure and incomprehensible words.
"@@#&¥(!#)!)"*
Yoru frowned, the smile on his face gradually disappearing.
"Speak human language."
"@&!#...."*
Just as the Goat God spoke again, halfway through, something unexpected happened to Miko and Rio.
"I told you to speak human language!"
Without any hesitation, Yoru made a grasping motion with his left hand. The Pale Ghost Hand appeared instantly and ruthlessly gave the Goat God a resounding slap on the face.
Slap!
The dull sound of the slap not only knocked the Goat God's head sideways but also made Miko and Rio feel as if the slap landed on their hearts.
Breathing stopped abruptly.
Immediately after, both girls' pupils dilated in shock.
What did Yoru just do?
He slapped a god!?
This is a genuine god enshrined in a shrine!
"What gibberish are you spouting? Can't understand a single word."
Yoru maintained his nonchalant appearance, walked slowly to the Goat God, and smiled.
"Be sensible, sign a contract, and save yourself unnecessary physical pain. Understand?"
Responding to him was an earth-shattering roar from the finally recovered Goat God.
"Why bother?"
Yoru shook his head regretfully, a black long katana appearing in his right hand.
"You asked for this."
Although his words sounded reluctant, Yui and the others clearly saw a few hints of excitement and anticipation flash in Yoru's eyes.
Obviously.
Slaughtering evil spirits was Yoru's old trade.
But beating up a genuine god gave him an unprecedented sense of novelty.
Good thing Yoru became an exorcist.
Otherwise, with this mental state, he would be no good to society.
"Open your eyes, Hyakume!"
"Reveal your true form, Hone-Onna!"
Although they didn't know what Yoru was thinking, feeling the tense atmosphere at this moment, Rio and Miko didn't hesitate to call out the True Names of their souls respectively.
Yui and Mai couldn't see anything.
This was actually a good thing.
For them, as long as they weren't hit by the katana in Miko's hand, there would be no risk of injury. Just retreating to a safe distance was enough.
"@@!&#!"
Clearly, the god wasn't deliberately spouting nonsense to Yoru.
But its language was just like this.
Following the god's words, two little girls with short stature like toddlers and fox faces appeared in the field.
As soon as they appeared, they rushed towards Miko and Rio tacitly, one to the left and one to the right.
"Hachishaku, go help Rio!"
Hearing Miko's words, Hachishaku immediately flashed and stood in front of Rio together with Hone-Onna.
Although Rio had awakened the ability of Soul Manifestation, this was only her second time using it, and she hadn't had time to undergo exorcism-related training.
Not to mention psychological quality.
No matter how calm and collected Rio was, she ultimately couldn't compare to Miko, who completely enjoyed the process of killing evil spirits and could maintain a straight face even facing them.
Therefore, she needed Hachishaku's help more.
"Oh? Adopting a strategy of defeating them one by one?"
Facing the Goat God several times larger than himself, Yoru just smiled nonchalantly.
"You overestimate your own strength and the strength of these two divine envoys beside you."
The Goat God had no intention of talking to him. It just opened its huge mouth and, accompanied by a deafening roar, bit viciously towards Yoru's head.
Although this guy emitted an aloof aura completely different from evil spirits.
In Yoru's eyes, so-called gods were the same as evil spirits.
Just lowly existences coveting humans in the dark.
"Come on!"
The Pale Ghost Hand moved with extreme agility, instantly appearing above the Goat God's head. Five sharp fingers pierced directly into its neck.
The Goat God let out a roar of pain. Its wide-open bloody mouth was less than a meter away from Yoru, but it couldn't get any closer no matter what.
"Such a huge body..."
Yoru wore a kind smile on his face. A row of serrated teeth with barbs appeared on the blade of the black katana in his hand.
"Definitely won't die that easily, right?"
The moment his voice fell, he lowered his body, gripped the katana with his right hand, and slashed it across the Goat God's abdomen.
The serrated teeth with barbs tore a gash in the Goat God's abdomen.
The pain caused was dozens of times greater than a cut from a regular katana.
"ROAR!!!"
The Goat God's translucent golden body flickered a few times, twisting its head constantly, trying to break free from the Pale Ghost Hand's restraint.
Its bloody mouth opened wider and wider, until finally, exceeding the limit of normal creatures, it split into several petals. Like some Cthulhu evil god, mouths with sharp teeth in various parts forcefully pried open the Ghost Hand, swaying constantly in the air.
"Finally revealed your true face?"
Looking at the twisted god revealing its true appearance, which was even more twisted than an evil spirit despite emitting a holy aura, Yoru wasn't surprised.
This thing was a monster to begin with.
In the original plot, Miko received help from this so-called god and got three chances for the divine envoys to intervene.
Sounded like a good god protecting humans.
What was the price?
The price was that after using the three chances, Miko would become a divine envoy like those two fox-faced little girls.
And those two little girls were originally humans too.
This was the ritual of offering sacrifices to gods to pray for safety.
"Coveting human souls yet disguising yourself as an aloof so-called god..."
Yoru flicked the black katana in his hand, looking straight at this twisted god in front of him.
"Truly a disgusting existence."
Since the Goat Evil Spirit revealed its true form, it meant it was going all out.
Several petal-like mouths with sharp teeth launched attacks from all directions simultaneously.
Two petals went to restrain the Pale Ghost Hand floating in mid-air.
The rest bit towards Yoru's body.
Clearly, this so-called god possessed intelligence equal to humans, just like Great Yokai Tamamo-no-Mae.
Although it couldn't understand why a mere human, even a spirit medium, could summon something like the Pale Ghost Hand, it could make a decision immediately: target the mortal Yoru, who would be torn to pieces instantly if hit just once.
If the god were facing Miko and Rio right now, its plan to bypass the Soul Manifestation and attack the spirit medium's body directly would be seamless.
The problem was.
Yoru wasn't an ordinary spirit medium.
"Want to eat?"
Yoru's smile became even brighter. With a wave of his right hand katana, he blocked several giant mouths biting towards him.
Then, he actually shoved his left arm proactively into one of the giant mouths.
"Then eat this!"
Even the god itself was confused.
Shoving an arm into my mouth proactively?
Is there such a good thing?
It didn't think much and bit down directly.
Sharp teeth all over the mouth pierced into Yoru's arm.
He seemed to feel no pain at all, even asking with a light chuckle.
"Hehe, how is it? Delicious?"
As his voice fell, the god's massive translucent golden body suddenly began to tremble violently.
The split petal mouths retracted instantly. Its tall body lay on the ground, letting out extremely painful roars, rolling constantly on the ground.
Back on the rooftop of Sobu High, there was also an evil spirit that tried to devour Yoru.
The outcome was being burst directly.
At that time, the number of evil spirits Yoru had devoured was roughly between a few hundred to a thousand.
Now, with the top-tier buffet of the Otherworld, the number of evil spirits he had devoured had increased unimaginably in a short time.
Six or seven thousand?
Seven or eight thousand?
In short, the evil spirits Miko had seen in her entire life probably weren't as many as Yoru had devoured.
As the old saying goes:
I've eaten more evil spirits than you've seen.
This god was much stronger than ordinary evil spirits, but it couldn't contain the power fused from thousands of evil spirits in Yoru's flesh and blood.
Right now, it felt like a person being force-fed ten pounds of bread and then chugging two barrels of mineral water.
Body about to explode.
"Hehe, like to eat?"
Yoru stopped smiling, looking at the god struggling painfully on the ground, and shook his head.
"Daring to eat even me? You really are turning the world upside down."
At this time, Miko and Rio had already defeated the divine envoys attacking them.
These divine envoys, frankly speaking, were a bit magical.
Like Soul Manifestations, these two fox-faced little girls wouldn't truly disappear after dissipating; they could appear again.
Perhaps the principle was the same.
Hyakume and Hone-Onna's power came from Miko and Rio themselves, which was why the users would be exhausted after the Soul Manifestation was destroyed.
These two divine envoys themselves might have no power either, using the power of this god.
Regardless, after this short battle, Rio and Miko had only one thought in their hearts.
So weak.
These two fox-faced little girls are really weak.
Take Hachishaku as an example.
If Hachishaku's power was 10, then Hyakume was 12. Although Hone-Onna hadn't grown up yet, since her ability leaned more towards pure combat compared to Hyakume, she was about 13.
As for the two divine envoys...
4? 5?
Giving a score of 5.5 would be considered very generous.
Plus, seeing the god emitting pale golden light revealing its ugly true form now, its massive body rolling miserably on the ground, Rio and Miko looked at each other with the same thought.
Just this?
So-called gods are this weak?
Just then, the god lying on the ground suddenly extended several petal giant mouths again, biting towards Miko and Rio standing there.
"Come out."
The Pale Ghost Hand fell down, pinning the god's body.
And the petal giant mouths it split out were firmly grasped by another Ghost Hand that suddenly appeared in mid-air.
"There's another one?"
Not only the god as the victim, but Rio and Miko didn't expect this scene either.
There are actually two Ghost Hands?
This Ghost Hand appearing before their eyes for the first time had the exact opposite color to the Pale Ghost Hand. The skin was deep pitch black, but the nails were a chilling pale white.
Like the Pale Ghost Hand when it was first born.
This Pitch-Black Ghost Hand had only grown to about the wrist.
"What... is this thing?"
Rio frowned slightly, muttering to herself.
Judging from her Hone-Onna and Miko's Hyakume, as long as they continued to devour evil spirits, the power of Soul Manifestation could gradually grow.
Hyakume initially had only two eyes.
Now there were thirteen, including a top-tier modification part like the Slaughtering Ghost's eyeball.
But both Rio and Miko thought the growth of the Pale Ghost Hand would be in the order of one arm, then shoulder, head, and the other arm.
Result: Shoulder hasn't grown yet, but another hand grew first, and the color is completely opposite?
What species is the true form of Yoru's Soul Manifestation?
Honestly.
Yoru himself didn't expect this situation.
Unlike Rio and Miko who knew the True Name of their Soul Manifestation upon awakening.
Until now, he didn't know the True Name of the Ghost Hand.
The End of the Eight Million wasn't the name of the Ghost Hand.
It was the True Name of his other Soul Manifestation.
A transmigrator living two lives.
So having two Soul Manifestations was very reasonable, right?
Then the question arose.
Looking at this posture, the Ghost Hand seemed to have no lower body.
What thing had only an upper body and no lower body?
Many answers appeared in Yoru's mind.
The Gedo Mazo summoned by Nagato for the first time.
Mist Hashira Tokito Muichiro.
And the most heavyweight one.
"Will we win? Gojo-sensei?"
"We will win."
"Sorry, Sukuna-sama, I couldn't make you use your full strength."
....
Yoru cast aside his increasingly outrageous imagination, thinking it didn't matter what the true form of the Ghost Hand was.
As long as he continued to devour the souls of evil spirits and wicked people, one day, it would manifest.
Immediately after, Yoru walked slowly to the Goat-Headed God, revealing a kind and amiable smile.
"Now..."
Hearing this familiar tone, Hachishaku in the distance recalled that night which changed her spirit life, and her body couldn't help but tremble.
"Which part of you should I eat first?"