"Oh, I see..."
Light Yagami responded noncommittally.
Though he found the idea of having BGM during combat in this situation somewhat... abstract.
But...
That suona piece the other had just played was actually quite hype-inducing?
Was this the passive assimilation effect of abstract charisma?
Just as Light was deep in thought, he heard Ye Xing chuckle softly and speak up.
"Light-kun, your time is running out."
Hearing this, Light first frowned slightly, puzzled by the statement.
Then his expression changed abruptly as realisation struck. "You... the outfit you're wearing this time... it wouldn't happen to be identical to the previous two occasions, would it?"
"Of course."
Ye Xing replied as if stating the obvious.
"I don't change my name when standing or sitting, my whole brand is about being open and above board."
Then he said something that left Light torn between laughter and utter bewilderment.
"If I don't wear this outfit, how would the Metropolitan Police Department know it's me?"
Light's eyes reflected bitterness, anguish and resignation.
'Are you insane?'
'Who commits crimes like this without even changing clothes, deliberately wanting the police to know?'
Light considered what level of cases the other had committed those previous two times?
Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten - killed over twenty armed kidnappers.
Broke into Kyoto Municipal Museum - with a strong likelihood of stealing Japan's national treasure sword, Onimaru Kunitsuna.
What tier of criminal was this?
Not just in Japan - even looking across all of Japan or the entire world, there weren't any at this level.
Now stealing Onimaru Kunitsuna - what next?
Stealing the Imperial Seal?
Mandated by Heaven, Eternal Prosperity?
Light didn't dare imagine.
But one thing he could be absolutely certain about:
Among those fleeing pedestrians earlier, someone must have called the police.
Their outfits were far too conspicuous.
The Metropolitan Police Department weren't fools.
Even if this was his first public appearance in this getup, just hearing about a mysterious figure in a black coat and pure black mask would instantly make them realise it was the perpetrator from those two cases.
The kindergarten incident was one thing.
But Onimaru Kunitsuna!
If that national treasure sword were truly in this Ito-kun's possession, the MPD leadership would undoubtedly mobilise all forces.
Even if they couldn't recover the real Onimaru Kunitsuna...
Wouldn't killing the perpetrator achieve the same result as no witness, no evidence?
Regarding the darkness lurking within the MPD, the negligence of certain high-ranking officials, as the son of the Criminal Affairs Bureau Director, Light knew a thing or two.
Precisely because of this.
He believed more in his own brand of justice, focusing on results rather than procedural justice.
How long until MPD officers arrived at the scene? Light couldn't be sure.
He only knew one thing.
Ito-kun was right.
Time was running out for him.
As Light Yagami pondered, Ye Xing observed his reactions.
Killing someone using Soul Materialisation—a method that left no traces, could be summoned again even if the soul's true form perished, and at most caused minor backlash—required no resolve, courage or determination. Anyone could do it.
But facing the Metropolitan Police Department's armed units en route, staring down imminent gunfire, risking death today in this very place...
Would Light Yagami, who proclaimed justice and sought to punish evil, remain true to his convictions?
This was precisely what Ye Xing wanted to confirm.
Two seconds later.
Light Yagami's gaze gradually hardened.
The two dark crimson streaks on his pure white mask twisted slightly.
"A new world free from decay and sin lies before us."
Though his face remained hidden beneath the mask, the bloodshot eyes, combined with the twisting scarlet patterns that resembled bloody tears, made him appear less like an agent of justice.
More like... an evil spirit meting out slaughter as punishment.
Click.
Light Yagami picked up a firearm from the ground, racking the slide with a crisp sound.
Together with Ye Xing, he ignored the staircases leading to the second and third floors, striding directly towards the corridor's end.
A locked, rusted iron door stood before them.
In these older buildings, originally constructed as shops or converted into rental apartments, property owners often secretly built small basements.
Such matters were... difficult to regulate.
As long as qualified construction teams ensured no damage to load-bearing structures, authorities tended to look the other way.
Now.
As psychics, both Light Yagami and Ye Xing could sense it—a twisted, nauseating stench like congealed blood days old, emanating from behind that rusted door.
The wisps of black mist seeping through the gaps confirmed their suspicions.
Behind this door... in this building's basement...
Lurked one or more powerful evil spirits whose strength might even exceed the Reverse World's average.
Indeed.
The power disparity between evil spirits across both worlds was vast.
An evil spirit ranking mid-to-lower tier in the Reverse World could—when combined with a mere Class C Gate in Kyoto's surface world—instantly elevate the surrounding area's danger level to Class A or above.
After all, the Reverse World is the domain of evil spirits, a realm of death where ordinary humans must never set foot.
Of course, it now has another name.
The all-you-can-eat buffet of Kyoto's top exorcist.
"Ito-kun, we—"
Before Light Yagami could finish speaking, Ye Xing's entire right arm—hidden beneath his coat and gloves—transformed into the pale ghost hand.
Then, he performed an action that left Light completely unprepared and unable to react.
Bang!
Ye Xing swung his fist, and the iron door before them collapsed with a crash.
Before Light could even process what had happened, he felt his feet leave the ground.
"Off you go."
Ye Xing grabbed Light by the scruff of his collar with one hand, lifting him like a kitten, and unceremoniously tossed him through the door.
Then, he dug his fingers into the iron door, hoisted it up, and with an almost brutish motion, slammed it back into place, sealing the entrance once more.
Light landed in an undignified heap on the ground, his head spinning.
Struggling to his feet, he turned to look at the now-warped iron door, still embedded in the wall and blocking the entrance. He shook his head with a wry smile.
"Was... was that really necessary?"
Hearing Light's bitter chuckle, Ye Xing's tone was almost gleeful.
"Good luck, Light-kun. Try not to die."
Light sighed in resignation, rubbing his temples as he muttered to himself.
"His personality... is truly awful."
He understood the meaning behind Ye Xing's actions.
It was simply to test whether he could handle the evil spirits wreaking havoc in the surface world on his own.
Light knew the principle well.
Killing someone with Soul Materialisation was no challenge at all.
The true test of skill lay in battling evil spirits.
Only by defeating them could one be considered a qualified psychic.
And this, unfortunately, was Light's weak point.
His application of Soul Materialisation had taken a rather unorthodox turn through his own experimentation.
Taking a deep breath, Light pushed aside his nervousness and strode forward along the unlit staircase descending before him.
The stairs weren't long, nor were there any turns. After just a few steps, he found himself in the building's basement.
What met his eyes, however, made his pupils constrict in shock.
In the flickering light of the aged basement, a "thing" was busily moving about.
He called it a "thing" because no other word came to mind to describe the entity before him.
It was as if over a dozen adult male bodies had been glued together with adhesive.
But that wasn't all.
Parts of their bodies had fused into a massive lump of flesh.
Only arms adorned with expensive watches flailed in the air, and faintly discernible faces emerged sporadically from the fleshy mass.
The Black Dragon Society's uniform tattoo patterns overlapped where the bodies merged, forming eerie symbols resembling cursed seals.
And the "thing's" dozen or so arms were far from idle.
Some were assembling various parts on the table with extremely practised movements, piecing together firearms one after another.
Others were mixing various chemical ingredients on another table.
After entering the building, the doubts that had been lingering in Light Yagami's mind were finally answered.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department's investigation, the Black Dragon Society had approximately thirty members.
Yet he had only killed fourteen just now.
So the remaining members had all turned into... this.
At that moment, Light Yagami's gaze swept across a transparent bag placed in the corner of the basement, containing pale blue crystalline objects.
"So this is the so-called hallucinogen..."
Looking at that bag, undisguised disgust flashed in Light Yagami's eyes.
If there was anything he hated most in this world, drugs would at least rank in the top three, if not the first.
Decay, depravity, sin.
Every word Light Yagami despised pointed directly to this nauseating substance.
"Die."
The blood-tear pattern on his white mask had grown increasingly larger, almost dyeing the entire mask red.
Moreover, the mask's shape had transformed from its initial resemblance to Ye Xing's design into one with a sharply protruding nose, resembling his true spiritual form - Emperor Sutoku - taking on the legendary appearance of the yokai Great Tengu.
"Emperor Sutoku!"
As Light Yagami's voice fell, his true spiritual form, Emperor Sutoku, reappeared, emitting an ear-piercing screech as it charged towards the fleshy mass covered in arms.
Meanwhile, Light Yagami himself wasn't idle either.
He aimed his gun at the monster formed from the fusion of over a dozen humans and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
With the gunshot and blinding muzzle flash, the first bullet struck one of the mass's arms with precision.
Yet to Light Yagami's surprise, the creature's movements didn't stop.
The bullet hole in its arm didn't bleed either - only wisps of black Qi emanated from the wound before it visibly healed before his eyes.
"What the hell is this?!"
Light Yagami's current astonishment spoke volumes.
He was a psychic, but not a qualified exorcist.
Had Miko Yotsuya or Rio Futaba been present, they would have immediately recognised from the mass's appearance that this creature, like the long-tongued man they'd encountered before, was a monster completely fused with humans.
The long-tongued man had only fused with one human and had been difficult enough to deal with.
How could this mass, fused from over a dozen humans, possibly be easier to handle?
Unfortunately, Light Yagami's experience in dealing with evil spirits was practically zero.
The only thing he could do now was have his Emperor Sutoku attack, driving those black Qi-emitting claws into the mass's body.
"Ugh..."
When Emperor Sutoku's claws pierced its surface, the mass finally seemed to feel pain.
It was injured.
But not significantly.
Then, amidst muffled groans, two arms from the mass suddenly stretched out like rubber bands, directly grasping Emperor Sutoku's shoulders.
Under Light Yagami's horrified gaze, the muscles on its two arms bulged as it tore the towering Emperor Sutoku clean in half.
"What on earth..."
Light was stunned.
His soul's true form, Emperor Sutoku, had been effortlessly destroyed before this thing?
Just what kind of monster was this!?
Before Light could process this further, intense dizziness and weakness flooded his mind and body.
This was the backlash suffered by a psychic when their soul's true form was destroyed.
"Damn... damn it..."
Light gritted his teeth, his mask now completely crimson, its shape identical to Great Tengu's appearance.
He couldn't accept this reality.
Light Yagami's outward demeanour appeared gentle and amiable.
In truth, he was a man of extreme pride.
Facing this powerless situation against the evil spirits, he couldn't accept the reality of his own weakness.
Should he ask Ito-kun for help?
No.
Light shook his head, took a deep breath, and his eyes gleamed with near-madness.
Wouldn't that be admitting his own incompetence?
His pride wouldn't permit such humiliation.
Then his peripheral vision caught something particularly conspicuous on the table where the firearms lay.
Grenades.
Seeing these, sudden fanaticism flashed in Light's eyes.
"Release your resentment, Emperor Sutoku!"
This time, he didn't whisper but snarled through the dizziness and weakness, summoning Emperor Sutoku once more.
As the emperor charged the fleshy evil spirit again, Light sprinted straight for the table.
The movement took less than two seconds.
The intensified weakness and dizziness made Light feel he might collapse at any moment.
He knew - his Emperor Sutoku had been destroyed a second time.
And judging by his physical state, he lacked the strength for a third summoning.
This bloody reality didn't concern Light.
Slowly turning, he stared directly at the fleshy, evil spirit waving dozens of arms like some malevolent god, its masked face twisting into a smile.
Clink.
The pin hit the floor with a clear sound.
In Light's right hand clenched a live grenade.
"Judgment time has come."
Just as Light closed his eyes, awaiting the explosion's roar and the pain of being torn apart, a teasing voice sounded by his ear.
"Didn't take you for the suicidal type."
Opening his eyes, Light saw Ye Xing standing beside him - he hadn't noticed the approach.
After a stunned pause, Light's expression changed. He tried hiding the grenade against his chest while urgently saying:
"Ito-kun, get away-"
"Doesn't matter."
As an ordinary human, Light couldn't possibly move faster than Ye Xing, whose physical abilities surpassed even Kengan fighter Wu Hei.
Ye Xing effortlessly snatched the live grenade from Light's grip.
"Ito-kun, no!"
Seeing Light Yagami's anxious expression and Ye Xing dodging to prevent him from snatching it away...
One would think they were fighting over something precious.
"I told you, it doesn't matter."
Ye Xing chuckled softly as he wrapped both hands around the grenade about to explode.
Light Yagami had no time to stop him - there wasn't enough time.
Only one image flashed through his mind:
The other man's hands being blown to smithereens.
Himself being killed by the explosion's shrapnel.
While the flesh amalgamation evil spirit would most likely survive.
The possibility that both would sacrifice their lives for nothing filled Light with despair.
Yet what happened next left him utterly dumbfounded.
Boom.
The grenade detonated with a muffled thud.
Blinding flames could be seen leaking between Ye Xing's fingers.
But contrary to Light's expectations, there was no scene of hands being pulverised or flesh flying everywhere.
Two seconds later.
Ye Xing opened his palms and casually brushed them off.
Fragments of the grenade fell from his hands onto the ground with crisp, almost musical clinks.
His gaze turned towards the flesh amalgamation evil spirit - a grotesque mass formed from over a dozen fused human bodies with multiple arms - as he smiled.
"OK, tonight's dinner is decided then."
Meanwhile, Light first stared at the fragments on the floor, then looked up at Ye Xing with undisguised disbelief in his eyes.
This man...
Had just contained a grenade explosion with his bare hands?