It was a monster with disheveled hair, supporting itself on the ground with its hands, and possessing only the upper half of a body.
Her blood-covered hands and scythe showed clearly the crime she had just committed, "Gah! Gah! Gah!"
When the door opened, the half-bodied vengeful spirit lifted her head with a twisted smile and looked over.
Although her face was that of an ordinary woman, when combined with her half-body and eerie grin, it was enough to scare an average person into fainting on the spot.
But for Hikari, there was nothing to be afraid of.
Because strange stories, monsters, and eerie things like this, this wasn't his first time seeing them.
And with power at his side, these ghosts and vengeful spirits were nothing to fear.
However, while Hikari was observing the half-bodied vengeful spirit, her gaze wasn't on him.
She was staring at the small girl beside him, Miss Mary.
"Gah! Gah! Gah!", After letting out a hoarse, ugly laugh like a male duck, the half-bodied vengeful spirit rasped in her broken voice, "You noticed it, didn't you, Miss Mary?"
"I came all the way to this hotel looking for you. It was a real pain to find you, but luckily, you came to me yourself."
Miss Mary frowned, "What do you want from me? I'm not your friend."
The half-bodied vengeful spirit cackled, "Of course I came to devour you. I don't know why your aura feels so weak right now, Miss Mary, but since I found you, then please, become my nourishment, just like these lowly humans!"
"Hmph! You think you could've talked to me that arrogantly before?", Miss Mary said angrily.
"Heh! Heh! That was then, this is now!", The half-bodied vengeful spirit didn't seem interested in wasting more words. In those black, hollow eyes burned a feverish light as she stared at Mary's body, barely restraining her impulse to attack and devour her at once.
But just then, the vengeful spirit noticed Miss Mary's body move, not to attack, nor to flee, but to lean toward someone beside her.
Seeing that, the vengeful spirit realized for the first time that beside Miss Mary stood a weak-looking, completely unremarkable human.
Still, for a human to be with someone like Miss Mary, who was herself a supernatural being, he couldn't be an ordinary person.
The vengeful spirit sneered, "So that's it, Miss Mary, you're actually hanging around with a human now. No wonder you've gotten so weak. This guy's aura is faint, but there's something unpleasant about it, hard and foul like a stone in a toilet. What is he, a demon hunter?"
"Demon hunter?", Hikari raised an eyebrow. The vengeful spirit was probably talking about someone like Dean Winchester from Supernatural TV Series. [T/N: The G.O.A.T.]
He wasn't sure if that label applied to him. After all, he had caught quite a few urban legends and female spirits himself, but technically speaking, he was just an ordinary student, wasn't he?
The half-bodied vengeful spirit saw his thoughtful look and sneered, "Hmph! So what if you're a demon hunter? I've killed more than one before! Humans, all of them are my prey!"
"You're all mouth for someone with half a body. Though I'll admit, your design's kind of unique," Hikari looked at the vengeful spirit propping herself up on her hands, holding a scythe. Though she didn't look that out of place, there was something faintly ridiculous about her.
"Miss Mary, don't you think she looks a little weird?", he asked.
"Of course I do! Actually, the first time I saw her, I made fun of her too!", Miss Mary nodded repeatedly, completely agreeing with him.
"No wonder she's targeting you, you must've offended her before," Hikari said, looking as if he suddenly understood.
"Hehe! I was just telling the truth!", Miss Mary replied with a mischievous smile.
"Hey! You two, are you ignoring me?", Seeing that strange human casually chatting with Miss Mary as if she weren't even there, the vengeful spirit froze, then grew inexplicably angry.
After all, she had come here to kill and devour Miss Mary. And yet the two of them acted like she didn't exist, how dare they.
Sensing her irritation, Miss Mary glanced at her calmly and said, "You half-paralyzed thing, I used to beat your kind up for fun. Now that Hikari-kun's here, do you really think we need to care about you?"
The vengeful spirit was furious, "Miss Mary! You damned puppet spirit! I let it slide when you insulted me before, but now you're this weak and still act all high and mighty."
"Can't tell north from south, you doll spirit! So you're relying on this human, huh? Then I'll just kill him right in front of you!"
"Hmph! Weak human, die for me!"
Perhaps it was Miss Mary's words that pushed her over the edge, or maybe she just couldn't stand seeing Hikari and Mary chatting so intimately, the half-bodied vengeful spirit let out a furious roar.
Without another word, she pushed off with one hand, swung her scythe with the other, and leapt at Hikari at terrifying speed.
Despite having only half a body, her jumping speed was astonishingly fast, and in the momentum of her charge, the scythe's blurred afterimage made it easy to believe it could slice through steel and concrete alike.
But in the face of that enraged attack, Hikari simply lifted his leg calmly, and kicked.
BANG!
The half-bodied vengeful spirit, rushing in at full speed, hit the sole of his shoe and was instantly launched backward like a soccer ball, smashing into the hotel wall with a thunderous crash.
"Uh… Gah?", The half-bodied vengeful spirit slowly slid down from the wall, looking dazed.
"What the hell? How could a human move that fast? Not only did you read my attack, you kicked me away with that much strength?", she said in disbelief.
"Hehe! Now you see how amazing Hikari-kun is," Miss Mary said, crossing her arms with a smug smile. She had been ready to help, but after watching that, she just enjoyed the show instead.
"No wonder you're so confident, puppet spirit. Turns out this human exorcist really does have some skill," The vengeful spirit frowned slightly, "But I wasn't using my full power just now. Human, don't get cocky—"
Smack!
Before she could finish, a figure flashed before her eyes, grabbed her head, and slammed her back into the wall with tremendous force.
Her words were cut off by the sound of her skull and body hitting solid plaster.
The one holding her, of course, was Hikari.
His hand was covered in pitch-black, inky demonic energy, the power of the oni clan.
Ever since exchanging techniques with Kiriryuin Kaede, Hikari had absorbed a fair bit of oni power through his "Love Aura" and energy-absorption abilities. When used, that power enhanced both his strength and endurance immensely.
And when channeled through the Kiriryuin family's special control techniques, its effect multiplied severalfold.
Although he had plenty of other ways to deal with urban legends and evil spirits, it wasn't every day he met one with such speed and strength. Naturally, he wanted to test this power properly.
And relying on that oni energy alone, Hikari could easily pin down and pummel this so-called half-bodied vengeful spirit one-sidedly.
After having her head slammed into the wall several times and being thrown around repeatedly, the vengeful spirit's mind was spinning.
But gritting her teeth, she suddenly broke free during one of the throws and darted away.
"You… you human, you're really something. To use oni power, no wonder your strength is so monstrous! No wonder that puppet spirit trusts you so much, even fell in love with you! But this ends now!"
She shouted, and a foul, corpse-like stench filled the air as thick death energy surged from her.
Saturated in that power, she felt the strength coursing through her body and grinned with satisfaction.
Wielding her scythe, she once again lunged at Hikari at incredible speed.
Though he had overwhelmed her with oni power earlier, in truth, death energy and oni energy came from the same root.
Hikari's real advantage lay in his raw physical power, his oni energy itself wasn't especially great.
So the vengeful spirit didn't fear him. She believed that going all out, she could match or even overpower him.
But as she charged in, confident she could now fight him evenly, Hikari simply smiled.
When her razor-sharp scythe was about to slice across his waist, he didn't strengthen himself with oni energy, instead, he withdrew it.
'What, out of power already? Just as I thought, humans are trash!', the vengeful spirit thought with scorn, pouring all her strength into the next swing, determined to cut him clean in half and vent her rage, and maybe scare that puppet spirit in the process.
But just as her blade was about to reach his waist, a golden light flared in Hikari's palm, and within that gold flashed a streak of blue lightning.
Covered in both the Vajra-Demon Exorcising Force and Heavenly Thunder, Hikari caught the scythe's edge barehanded with ease, then pressed his other, glowing palm against the vengeful spirit's face.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
The moment the blazing light and sacred lightning touched her, the vengeful spirit's already-ugly face burned and melted away, her screams echoing through the room.
Shrieking in agony, she stumbled back, clutching her ruined face.
"You… you're not even human! You can use oni energy and exorcist techniques, your power's so pure! What the hell are you?"
A being who could simultaneously wield demonic energy and pure exorcist power, she'd never even heard of such a thing.
But now she had seen it with her own eyes.
Looking at the calm-faced boy before her, one hand glowing gold, the other crackling with blue lightning, the vengeful spirit finally realized what kind of monster she had provoked.
Terrifying, utterly terrifying. She was no match for him at all.
The moment that thought struck, her will to fight vanished.
Terrified, she backed away as quickly as she could, ignoring her disfigured face, just trying to get as far from Hikari as possible.
When she reached the floor-to-ceiling window, she swung her scythe, shattering the reinforced glass, and leapt out.
The hotel walls were tiled and slippery, but her hands stuck to them like suction cups. Like a gecko, she scrambled upward toward the roof at breakneck speed.
To be fair, while she wasn't the strongest in raw power among urban legends, her speed was exceptional.
Even without legs, with her scythe stowed and body leaping in bursts, she was impossibly fast.
Miss Mary ran to the window and looked out, only to see the faint silhouette of the fleeing vengeful spirit.
She turned back urgently, "Hikari-kun! If she escapes, she'll hide her aura again, I won't be able to track her! Let's get to the elevator and chase her up!"
Hikari shook his head, "No need. That's too much trouble."
He walked to the window, grabbed Miss Mary by the arm, and jumped out.
"Wha?", Miss Mary yelped instinctively as they plunged down.
But almost immediately, she calmed down.
Because Hikari was running, yes, running, along the outer wall of the hotel, ignoring gravity just like the half-bodied vengeful spirit before, sprinting straight up toward the roof.
In moments, they had reached the top.
"Hikari-kun… you're so fast!", Miss Mary said in awe.
The vengeful spirit had climbed like that too, but she was an urban legend, a creature with a different structure altogether. Strong arms, no legs, it made sense for her.
But Hikari was still human.
He not only wielded all those terrifying powers and techniques, his physical ability was off the charts too.
Urban legends usually far outclassed humans in that department, but it felt like Hikari completely outclassed her.
Miss Mary suddenly realized that when Hikari "trained" her, he must've been holding back, a lot.
And now, she could tell that his strength had grown far beyond what it was when they first met.
Maybe he didn't even need her help to deal with the half-bodied vengeful spirit.
He probably only agreed to it to give her some face—or to test her.
Her expression turned a bit complicated as she looked at him.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop, the half-bodied vengeful spirit, panting and ready to flee again, froze in shock as she saw Hikari appear—following her path and arriving even faster.
"You-you're not human!"
"I'll fight you to the death!"
Realizing she couldn't run, the vengeful spirit brandished her scythe and lunged again.
Having observed her attacks, Hikari calmly caught the scythe barehanded once more and pressed his other palm against her forehead.
Then he unleashed his Vajra-Demon Exorcising Force to its fullest.
Pure, blinding exorcist energy surged out, and the vengeful spirit screamed as black smoke poured from her body as if she were being burned alive.
Hikari didn't react, he simply held her in place.
After several dozen seconds, her screams stopped.
And after several seconds more, the half-bodied vengeful spirit's already halved body completely vanished.
Watching how easily she had been destroyed, Hikari compared her to Miss Mary, who had endured his purified energy many times before without being destroyed, and realized that, despite her fiercer appearance, Miss Mary was clearly stronger.