Looking at the man's headless corpse and the dark green flaming humanoid figure that let out a piercing roar before writhing and disappearing, Miko Yotsuya merely sighed softly. She took out her phone and sent three words to the group chat.
Miko Yotsuya: It's done.
Rio Futaba: It's done?
On the other side, Rio Futaba received the message and picked up her binoculars to observe the distance. Sure enough, the dark green sea of fire that had surrounded the building, reduced to less than two meters high by Hina Amano's rain, had now completely disappeared.
Rio Futaba: Are you injured? How's your current condition? Where are you? I'll come pick you up.
Miko Yotsuya: No need.
Miko Yotsuya first replied with this, then looked at the headless corpse on the ground. After a few seconds of silence, she sent another message.
Miko Yotsuya: He came for me, I killed him with one strike. That's what happened.
Rio Futaba: Well... anyway, let's regroup first.
...
That evening, at Ye Xing's home.
"Imperial Concubine, what do you think?"
Hearing Ye Xing use this familiar opening line right away, Rio Futaba looked exasperated. She adjusted her glasses and said with displeasure:
"Only at times like these do you remember me."
"Hey, that's not fair. There's also..."
"Stop, don't say anymore."
"But I haven't said anything yet."
"Don't I know you? No dirty jokes allowed."
Rio Futaba said this with some annoyance, then collected her thoughts. Looking at the Supernatural Society team members present, she spoke while pondering:
"We can confirm that this enemy was indeed a psychic like us. According to Amano, their spiritual power was quite strong, even able to hold out against the rain she created for a while."
After saying this, Rio Futaba turned to Miko Yotsuya.
"Miko, since you were the one who eliminated the enemy, what are your thoughts?"
"Hmm..."
Miko Yotsuya recalled the battle in the alley, speaking thoughtfully.
"First and foremost, the other party actually believed that with an ordinary firearm, he could completely control the situation even when my Hyakume wasn't nearby. This indicates he thought that without his soul's true form for protection, he himself couldn't defeat someone armed with a gun, lacking either the ability to dodge gunfire or the defensive capability to withstand bullets."
"Second point: the enemy's soul true form type is completely different from ours. Although our souls' true forms are called evil spirits, their appearances are more human-like. Even Futaba's Bone Woman, though composed entirely of bones beneath her kimono, at least has a pretty face. But that enemy's soul true form was more twisted and grotesque in appearance than actual evil spirits."
"Finally, before executing him, I deliberately drew out some information through conversation. While we can't confirm whether the enemy had companions, we can confirm his purpose for this action was to lure us out and kill us."
After listening to Miko Yotsuya's analysis, Yui Yuigahama asked, puzzled.
"I have a question - since the enemy's spiritual power level was so strong, why was he instantly defeated by Miko? Doesn't that seem... somewhat inconsistent?"
"Not inconsistent at all."
Miko Yotsuya shook her head, speaking in a calm tone.
"Futaba, over to you."
Rio Futaba rolled her eyes, looking completely exasperated.
"You've really been infected by Ye Xing, haven't you? Can't even be bothered to analyse things yourself, just treating me like a tool now?"
Though she was muttering under her breath, Rio Futaba took up her usual role of analysing available information, explaining to Yui Yuigahama.
"Although the enemy's spiritual power level was strong, that's all it was - just strong spiritual power."
"In his mindset, without the protection of his soul's true form, a psychic is just as fragile as an ordinary human."
"Actually, in principle..."
Here, Rio Futaba hesitated, glanced at Ye Xing sitting nearby, a blush of embarrassment colouring her cheeks as she feigned composure.
"In principle... psychics themselves are indeed quite fragile. It's only because of our... special cultivation method that... you understand what I mean, right?"
Not only did Yui Yuigahama understand, but so did all the members present.
This enemy, though also a psychic with remarkably strong spiritual power - at least on par with Rio Futaba's level - made his fatal mistake by assuming the Supernatural Society members shared his same weakness of having overly fragile true forms without their souls' true forms for protection.
The most absurd part was that he had to pick someone else, yet specifically chose the only member operating alone - Miko Yotsuya.
Care to guess why all other members operated in small groups while only Miko Yotsuya was acting alone?
Precisely because she's ridiculously strong!
That guy thought he held the advantage, swaggering about with his pathetic gun.
In reality, from Miko Yotsuya's perspective, what he held was no different from a water pistol.
No need to be faster than bullets - just faster than the enemy's reaction time to pull the trigger.
One glance revealed the truth, verified as...
Pure delivery.
"Though, fortunately, Futaba, you developed that method for rapidly deploying spiritual armour."
Miko Yotsuya looked at Rio Futaba and revealed a gentle smile as she said,
"Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to slay the enemy so easily."
Listening to everyone's conversation, Mai Sakurajima slightly furrowed her brows and said thoughtfully,
"Hearing you say this... why do I feel... the enemy is behind the times?"
"That's indeed the case."
Miko Yotsuya noncommittally agreed.
"After all, his cultivation method is unknown. If I were to speculate, perhaps he enhances his spiritual power by killing humans or creating negative emotions. This would also explain why, despite being a psychic like us, the appearance of his Soul Materialisation differs so greatly from ours. Imagine - we continuously develop new applications for our Soul Materialisation abilities because we need to combat the city's supernatural threats and protect Kyoto. If one only wanted to kill ordinary humans, there would be no need to develop so many abilities at all."
The members all nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
Killing ordinary humans?
This wasn't just true now - anyone who had practised Soul Materialisation even slightly could already achieve this by making their Soul Materialisation choose whether to appear before ordinary people and evade the observation principle. Compared to fighting those evil spirits, it was as easy as turning one's hand.
No demand, no motivation.
While the panel's values might be similar, the Supernatural Society members' rich combat experience and the various developments of their Soul Materialisation abilities couldn't be summarised by spiritual power intensity alone.
"The enemy... definitely has companions... no, definitely has higher-ups who can command him."
Hearing Ye Xing's sudden statement, Rio Futaba asked curiously,
"How do you know that?"
"Is that even a question?"
Ye Xing waved his hand dismissively and replied with a laugh.
"If we include Light Yagami, who's far away in Tokyo, there are five of us who have appeared publicly: me, Light Yagami, Miko, Futaba, and Mai."
"To initiate such an incident alone, challenging at least five psychics by himself."
"He's already this arrogant, plus that ability to create flames, clearly shows he's not a newly awakened psychic. If no one was restraining him, he would definitely have launched large-scale operations like this before. Dark green fire scenes... would we have missed news about such incidents?"
"So it's quite clear he was previously under restraint. This time in Kyoto, perhaps he could no longer endure it, or perhaps as his spiritual power increased, his sanity became increasingly deranged, leading him to make this foolish decision."
Having said this, Ye Xing stood up and waved to the members.
"Continue your discussion. I still need to go find old So. With such a major incident occurring, I must communicate with him."
...
Ten minutes later, in the office of Soichiro Yagami, Head Commander of the Special Operations Group and Director of Criminal Investigations at the Kyoto Metropolitan Police Department.
"Ah, really..."
Even though it was nearly nine o'clock in the evening, Soichiro Yagami remained seated before his computer, his square-jawed face showing clear worry, with several additional wrinkles visible on his forehead.
"Yahallo, old So."
Hearing the familiar voice, Soichiro didn't even look up, merely pointing towards the small refrigerator in the office and saying in a deep voice.
"There are drinks and water inside. Help yourself."
"Right then."
Transformed into his Mask appearance, Ye Xing was thoroughly familiar with the place. Every time he entered this office at the Kyoto Metropolitan Police Department, he felt as if he had returned home.
Only after Ye Xing had seated himself on the opposite sofa did Soichiro finally look up. Gazing at those smiling eyes beneath the mask, he sighed heavily and rubbed his temples.
"Listen, dark green flames - how am I supposed to control public opinion about this? The commotion this time is too great, isn't it?"
Ye Xing opened a can of chilled Coca-Cola and replied indifferently.
"Well, I don't know either; it wasn't me who created them. I'm the victim here, old So."
"The victim?"
Soichiro shook his head with a wry smile.
"The one who caused this incident has the same abilities as you, right? Have you found him?"
"Yes, found him."
Ye Xing lifted a black sports bag beside him, stood up, and placed it on Soichiro's desk.
"Here, he's inside."
Although Soichiro had already guessed what was inside the sports bag, he still opened it to look.
Sure enough, it was a man's head, with eyes still wide open - truly a case of dying with unresolved grievances.
"This..."
Soichiro's expression didn't change in the slightest. He merely took a pair of transparent gloves from his desk drawer, put them on, and carefully removed the head from the sports bag.
As a veteran detective, what scene hadn't he witnessed?
A mere head was far from enough to make Soichiro Yagami feel fear. Rather, he was so accustomed to such things that not even the slightest ripple disturbed his heart.
"This cut... was made by a sharp weapon..."
With just one look at the severed neck, Soichiro immediately reached his conclusion, which genuinely surprised him.
Don't be fooled by those television dramas showing how a single sword stroke cleanly separates head from body, making it look effortless.
In reality, to cleanly sever a head like this requires not only extremely high-quality weapon materials but also truly terrifying explosive power from the person wielding the weapon.
"Hmm... I can hand this over to the forensics department and run a comparison in the Metropolitan Police Department's database to find this person's identity information."
Ye Xing nodded and smiled.
"Yes, that's exactly why I came."
"You... really know how to make trouble for me."
Soichiro Yagami put the head back and sighed helplessly, then changed the subject.
"The suspect... is there only one?"
"More than that, but he should be the only one currently in Kyoto."
"What are these people... trying to achieve..."
At this point, Soichiro Yagami no longer bothered with trivial concerns about vigilante justice or procedural justice.
How do you arrest criminals with special abilities?
Even if you catch them, how do you conduct a proper legal trial?
Is there any evidence? Methods of operation, eyewitnesses, clues - none exist.
Claiming that someone who wasn't present caused dark green flames that could ignite an entire building, using some kind of special superpower as the method...
Without even thinking about it, the final result would definitely be acquittal. Moreover, the Kyoto prosecutor's office would face public questioning for filing such a ridiculous case, and their credibility would plummet; even the Metropolitan Police Department would suffer collateral damage.
Procedural justice can't protect Kyoto.
"What about public opinion?"
"Sigh."
Hearing Ye Xing's question, Soichiro Yagami sighed helplessly.
"We'll say it was an illusion created by specific light angles, combined with chemical components in the air and that day's humidity... Don't look at me like that. I know it sounds absurd, but compared to the existence of things beyond imagination in this world, people are more willing to believe it was an illusion. It should work."
"Alright, you handle it as you see fit."
Ye Xing stood up from the sofa, but stopped halfway and untied Onimaru Kunitsuna from his waist, hanging it on the office wall.
"By the way, if the enemy is smart but not smart enough, they might come to destroy evidence. I'll leave this sword here for now. I'll retrieve it once we're sure there's no danger."
"Understood."
"One more thing."
Ye Xing opened the office door, waved at Soichiro Yagami, and smiled.
"Don't touch her, or you'll end up one-armed."
"Uh... I understand."
Watching Ye Xing open the door and leave, his back disappearing into the darkness, Soichiro Yagami looked at Onimaru Kunitsuna on the wall with a complicated expression.
The theft case of this famous sword... was how he and the other party first began their cooperation...
How nostalgic.
...
Meanwhile, in the Osaka Municipal Hospital.
"Killed, huh..."
A woman in a hospital gown, her body as thin as a skeleton, with pale cheeks yet a sickly beauty, wearing purple eyeshadow, murmured as she watched the news report about today's sudden fire in Kyoto.
"As expected, even after awakening special abilities, someone originally useless is better off dead."
In front of the woman's hospital gown hung a standard hospital name tag with her name.
Rikka Sakuragawa.
"Don't you think so? Am I right?"
To ordinary eyes, this hospital room appeared empty, with only Rikka Sakuragawa seemingly talking to herself as if possessed.
She gazed at the woman floating beside her - draped in a voluminous priestly robe, her face obscured by a hazy mist, her figure graceful yet radiating an inhuman sense of fear - and spoke with a gentle smile.
"Izanami?"
...
A peaceful fortnight quickly passed, bringing them to the eve of the school festival.
Just as Rio Futaba had predicted, no spiritual attacks like the one at the Yukinoshita building had occurred during these two weeks, confirming Ye Xing's speculation that the young man had made the foolish decision on his own to come to Kyoto and meet his death.
Meanwhile, Soichiro Yagami's investigation had made progress.
After cross-referencing internal Metropolitan Police Department records, they identified the psychic slain by Miko Yotsuya as Tasuke Tamura, twenty-seven years old, registered resident of Fukui Prefecture. After graduating high school with below-average grades, he chose not to pursue further education, working odd jobs in Tokyo for several years before returning to his hometown in Fukui to inherit his parents' old house and make a living through part-time work.
However, about half a year ago, Tamura disappeared without leaving any contact information, like he'd been spirited away, and was listed as a missing person by the local Fukui police. When he reappeared, he was already a headless corpse lying in an alley.
Without needing any special explanation from Ye Xing, Soichiro Yagami understood perfectly well that something must have happened during Tamura's half-year disappearance that transformed him from an obscure, ordinary person into a criminal with special abilities, extremely vicious, and treating human life as worthless.
What exactly had Tamura done during that missing half-year? Who had he encountered to cause such a transformation?
Soichiro Yagami was currently investigating, but since Tamura's hometown was in the rural areas of Fukui Prefecture, where surveillance cameras weren't widespread, progress was slow with little valuable information uncovered. As for accessing surveillance footage across all of Japan, aside from the massive manpower and resources required, just getting police departments in other cities to cooperate was extremely difficult. After all, they were all equal-ranking departments - without a convincing reason, why would they set aside their own cases to assist the Kyoto Metropolitan Police Department's operations?
Overall, they could only patiently wait for Soichiro Yagami's side to make more progress.
"Ye Xing."
After the school bell rang, Kazusa Touma turned to Ye Xing beside her and spoke calmly.
"After this weekend comes the school festival. To maximise our practice time, I've invited Setsuna to stay over at my place. You should come too."