Chapter 169: Public Execution on TV, The Wonderful Function of Onimaru Kunitsuna
Watching "Mask" directly press the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's head into the sewage puddle on the ground in an extremely rough manner, the audience watching the live broadcast in front of the screen were all dumbfounded.
"This guy... is he really a serial killer? Could there be a mistake?"
"No... it should be that 'Mask's' combat power... is very strong?"
"But this sorry appearance... really... is hard to say."
....
And Rio, who was at the scene, nodded with satisfaction seeing this scene in front of her.
The first phase of the plan was perfectly completed.
First, with an absolutely crushing posture, without showing any spirit medium abilities, knock down the Teru Teru Bozu Killer.
Because it was through TV, and due to the camera's movement speed, the audience in front of the screen couldn't feel how terrifying "Mask's" speed and explosive power were.
They would only think...
Is this Teru Teru Bozu Killer a bit too weak?
Pinned down in one move?
This was the first step to eliminate fear.
And the second step...
Rio leaped down from the roof, splashing a pool of water.
Under the vigilant gazes of the Police Department members, she walked slowly to Yagami Soichiro and said faintly.
"Chief Yagami, please ask your subordinates to all evacuate."
In the last train incident, Yagami Soichiro had seen Rio dressed like this and knew the opponent was one of "Mask's" companions.
Moreover, the astonishing scene he saw at that time, a huge white bone wall rising instantly, he still couldn't forget to this day.
That was simply...
Like superpowers!
Judging from the fact that dozens of firearms shot simultaneously just now, but the Teru Teru Bozu Killer was still standing...
This incident, just like the train failure last time.
Was absolutely not something ordinary humans could handle.
Thinking of this, Yagami Soichiro didn't hesitate at all and directly issued an order to his surroundings.
"Everyone, retreat to a safe distance!"
"Chief Yagami..."
"Listen to me, I am the on-site commander-in-chief!"
"Understood!"
As the Chief of Criminal Investigation Bureau, Yagami Soichiro had continuously made many contributions and was experienced; in the hearts of his subordinates, he was a trustworthy boss.
Although his order at this time seemed very outrageous, the Police Department members as subordinates still obeyed and did as told.
Seeing that with just one order from Yagami Soichiro, the Police Department members immediately retreated backwards until they disappeared in the rain, Rio had a thoughtful look and thought secretly.
As expected.
Everything Yoru does has a reason.
At first, Rio couldn't understand why an organization like the Super-Quant Club, hidden in the dark, unable to be understood, recognized, or known by the world, would need a Police Department official as an assistant.
It seemed now, it wasn't just the intelligence the "Chief of Criminal Investigation Bureau" could provide.
Yagami Soichiro himself was also a minority in the Police Department who possessed both ability and a strong sense of justice, and held a high position, willing to provide convenience for the Super-Quant Club's actions as an assistant.
"Reporter, cameraman, you stay."
Hearing this sentence from "Mask", the reporter and cameraman looked at each other and both nodded.
What was in front of them was a once-in-a-decade... no, a once-in-a-century news event!
Mysterious Hero VS Serial Killer.
This was simply a modern version of Sherlock Holmes VS Moriarty.
How could they miss such a great live broadcast opportunity?
After saying this sentence, Yoru released the hand pressing on the back of the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's head, looking down at the opponent.
"Stand up."
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer struggled to get up from the sewage. The look in his eyes towards Yoru was filled with undisguised resentment and hatred.
"Giving you a chance to explain your actions, and then..."
The smile pattern with white tracery appeared on Yoru's black mask.
"Become the most ridiculous clown in everyone's eyes."
"Tch..."
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer gritted his teeth tightly. Because he was just pressed into the sewage, his hood and the mask on his face were completely wet and stained with muddy water, making him look very sorry.
However...
He first glanced at "Mask" standing in front of him, then looked at the three spirit mediums in the distance.
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer could feel it.
These four people also possessed some kind of special ability.
Fight one against four and break out?
No...
This was not a good choice.
Since he finally managed to call the TV station reporter and cameraman over at the risk of exposing his identity, and started the full live broadcast.
Then he must use this opportunity to make the world notice him!
Thinking of this, the Teru Teru Bozu Killer made a decision.
Complete the TV station's exclusive interview first.
Then, kill everyone at the scene.
After finishing speaking with Yagami Soichiro, Rio walked up to the TV station reporter and cameraman, saying faintly.
"You can start the exclusive interview now."
"Eh, oh... okay."
The reporter froze for a moment, then looking careful, holding the microphone, walked up to the Teru Teru Bozu Killer.
"Um... Mr. Teru Teru Bozu Killer, may I ask why you did such behavior, what is the motive?"
After all, as a professional TV station reporter, the first question she asked was what the audience in front of the screen wanted to know the most.
At the same time, this also satisfied the twisted desire for attention in the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's heart.
"Why do these?"
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer faced the camera live broadcast, pointed to the pouring rain falling from the sky, opened his arms, a brainwashed fanatical look appearing in his eyes.
"Only by completing the living sacrifice to the gods in this way can sunny days be brought!"
Hearing these outrageous words, the reporter couldn't help freezing, puzzled.
"You mean... the so-called living sacrifice is killing those young girls, making them into the shape of Teru Teru Bozu, and offering them to... the gods?"
"Correct!"
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer at this time was like having suppressed it for a long time and finally venting it out. His speaking speed became much faster, and his voice sounded incredibly excited.
"Only this method can appease the gods' anger, otherwise the rainstorm will not stop!"
Hearing this sentence, Yoru standing not far away looked at Rio beside the cameraman.
As expected.
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer's motive was just as the Super-Quant Club members guessed.
Then next.
It was time to start turning him into a clown.
Yoru walked up to the camera as if greeting the audience in front of the screen and waved his hand.
"Hello everyone, I am 'Mask'."
The reporter, cameraman, and the Teru Teru Bozu Killer were all stunned.
What are you doing?
Do you really think this is a big star's exclusive interview?
And at this time, Amano Hina, who was watching the TV live broadcast, saw Yoru's action and murmured to herself.
"Finally... it begins."
She stood up and pulled open the glass door of the balcony.
The rain outside, wrapped in a violent wind and carrying a biting chill, beat against Amano Hina's face.
Looking at the heavy rain pouring down like a river, Amano Hina took a deep breath, clasped her hands together again, lowered her head, and closed her eyes.
....
"So you mean, if the method of living sacrifice is not adopted, the rain will never stop?"
Listening to the reporter's question, the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's heart reached its peak.
"That is beyond doubt. The only one who can prevent the city from being submerged and save the entire Sakura Prefecture is me, the gods' proxy..."
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer opened his arms and raised his head, looking full of momentum.
But when he was halfway through speaking, he froze.
The reporter and cameraman followed the direction the Teru Teru Bozu Killer was looking and looked up into the sky.
The rain... stopped?
"The sky has cleared up."
Yoru's right arm draped over the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's shoulder. The two just stood in front of the camera like that, and he specially emphasized again facing the camera lens.
"The rain has stopped."
Silence.
Deafening silence, even making people feel somewhat awkward.
The sudden stop of the rain, combined with the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's confident, extremely arrogant words about gods and living sacrifices just now...
"This guy... is a madman, right?"
"A psycho."
"Exactly, what does the rain stopping or not have to do with you killing people or not?"
"Where are there gods in this world?"
"A clown with a brain problem."
....
Although he was a serial killer who committed five appalling cases, after all, most of the audience hadn't even seen photos of the crime scenes and victims.
The rumored cruel methods were indeed enough to make them feel fear.
But after the live broadcast started, what kind of performance did this so-called Teru Teru Bozu Killer have?
First, an arrogant declaration.
Then his head was grabbed by someone with one hand and pressed into the sewage on the ground like pressing a dog.
Immediately after, he talked nonsense about gods, changing the weather, and living sacrifices.
As a result, before he even finished speaking, the rain suddenly stopped, delivering a harsh slap in the face.
This is simply...
A clown grandstanding to court favor.
And this was just the beginning.
Facing the Teru Teru Bozu Killer standing in place, completely unable to accept reality, Yoru intimately draped his arm over the opponent's shoulder and started full output.
"You don't really think you are some proxy chosen by the gods? A special person who can change the weather, right?"
"Between the so-called living sacrifices and the weather clearing up, it's just a coincidence."
"Looking at your confident and extremely arrogant appearance, you really think of yourself as a big shot?"
"Your actions are meaningless, just like a dog wagging its tail begging for pity... oh no, calling you a dog is too insulting to dogs."
"You are just a crying giant baby desiring attention from the outside world."
Speaking of this, the smiling white pattern appeared on Yoru's black mask. He leaned close to the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's ear, his voice not loud but enough for the opponent and all the audience in front of the screen to hear clearly.
"What everyone cares about are just those five innocent dead girls. As for you?"
"You are nothing. No one has the slightest bit of interest in you yourself."
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer's pupils shrank. He knocked away Yoru's arm, retreated a few steps, and covered his head with his hands.
"No... it's not like that!"
His eyes became increasingly twisted, roaring almost madly.
"You don't understand what I've been through at all! From childhood to adulthood..."
"Mmhmm, mmhmm, got it, got it."
Yoru looked completely bored, waving his hand nonchalantly to interrupt.
"Anyway, it's just cliches like bad family environment, lacking attention growing up, or being played by gyaru-type girls in school, right?"
Yoru looked at the Teru Teru Bozu Killer standing there, as if looking at the opponent, but his eyes didn't reflect the opponent's figure at all.
This familiar gaze of being ignored despite clearly being in the field of vision made the Teru Teru Bozu Killer feel even more angry in his heart.
"No one wants to know about you."
Yoru's voice carried a smile.
"Just like there is garbage in a trash can, rats in a sewer, and cockroaches in dirty corners. Isn't it very normal to have a 'you' in Kyoto city?"
"But don't mistake everyone's disgusted gazes towards an insignificant disgusting thing like you for attention."
"No one cares about an inferior existence like you."
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer's eyes twisted, roaring hoarsely.
"No... it's not like that! I am..."
"So much nonsense."
Before the Teru Teru Bozu Killer had time to roar, Miko, wearing a white coat with pale gold patterns and a mask also mainly white decorated with pale gold patterns, appeared behind him unknown when.
"Let everyone see your ugly true face."
As the voice fell, Miko had already reached out and snatched off that yellowing old mask covering the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's face.
At the same time, her right hand drew the long sword from her waist and directly picked off his hood.
The true face of the Teru Teru Bozu Killer was reflected in the eyes of all the audience watching the live broadcast.
Appearing on the screen was an ugly face of a man in his forties or fifties, looking very wretched, even could be said to be shifty-eyed, with a bald patch in the middle of his head and sparse hair.
"No... don't film me!"
After his true face was revealed, the Teru Teru Bozu Killer was like a cockroach exposed to light, at a loss.
Looking at his obsequious, helpless, and panicked appearance, the audience in front of the TV all showed complicated looks.
"So, it's a person like this..."
"Disgusting."
"Criminals who commit such things are indeed ugly in appearance."
"Without the cover of the mask and hood, he doesn't even dare to show his true face? What a coward."
"No wonder he only dares to choose young girls as targets. Truly a sickening rat."
...
Looking at that disgusting face on the TV screen, and thinking of what the opponent had done, the last trace of fear for the name "Teru Teru Bozu Killer" in the hearts of Kyoto citizens disappeared completely.
Just a mental patient who only dares to choose young girls as targets.
Compared to fear, what everyone felt more was disgust and anger.
With this, the goal had been achieved.
Yoru, who was in the live broadcast screen, waved to the audience in front of the TV and chuckled.
"OK, today's live broadcast ends here. Next..."
He looked at the Teru Teru Bozu Killer with a ferocious face, saying softly.
"Are scenes unsuitable for children."
As his voice fell, the live broadcast footage was instantly cut off.
Yukino, sitting in front of the TV, didn't change her expression, but thought secretly in her heart.
Mask?
She always felt that the opponent's tone of voice and the feeling he gave were somewhat inexplicably familiar.
Yoru hadn't come home so late today, nor did he say where he went...
Could it be?
Impossible... right?
....
On the other side.
Yoru looked at the constantly twisting, completely non-human-like face of the Teru Teru Bozu Killer, inexplicable excitement showing in his eyes.
"Next is the segment I am looking forward to the most."
Rio, Miko, and Mai stood beside him. Hearing this sentence and looking at the Teru Teru Bozu Killer, they couldn't help bringing a few traces of pity in their eyes.
"Kill you... kill all of you!"
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer's facial features began to dislocate. His entire body emitted a putrid smell, like a corpse left under the scorching sun for over ten days.
His body began to expand constantly, like a balloon filled with water, turning from his original normal height of less than 1.7 meters into a giant nearly five meters tall.
The surface of his body was still constantly leaking foul-smelling pus, looking disgusting.
"This is..."
Yagami Soichiro frowned tightly seeing the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's changes.
He had seen human bodies become like this, but that was a phenomenon called bloat only in corpses soaked in water for many days.
This guy...
Is indeed not human.
"Who's up?"
In front of this monster that made Yagami Soichiro feel heavy in his heart and the TV station reporter and cameraman dumbfounded and terrified, Rio's tone was still so plain.
"I'll do it."
Yoru took two steps forward. The pitch-black mask turned into viscous flames burning, excitement and expectation showing in his eyes.
Noticing his eyes, Rio, Miko, and Mai all nodded and silently retreated a distance backward.
The three girls looked at the still roaring Teru Teru Bozu Killer who had lost his human form, only one thought in their minds.
The opponent still didn't know what kind of torture he was about to face next.
"Kill you!"
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer roared while his huge body pounced on Yoru.
The latter didn't draw Onimaru Kunitsuna from his waist, just saying softly.
"Come out."
The moment the voice fell, the Teru Teru Bozu Killer suddenly felt a sensation from behind that made him tremble with fear, like being peered at by some terrifying existence.
"That is..."
The TV station reporter, cameraman, and Yagami Soichiro were all too shocked to speak seeing that black and white headless monster nearly ten meters tall suddenly appear.
Pop.
The two ghost hands, one pale and one pitch-black, one left and one right, directly squeezed the Teru Teru Bozu Killer's expanded body until it exploded, like popping a balloon.
What burst out from inside wasn't pus or anything like that, but extremely viscous, fluid-like dense evil spirit aura.
"Is it over?"
Hearing Rio's question, Yoru just shook his head with a chuckle.
"No, although the battle is over, my enjoyment has just begun."
Step by step, stepping on the sewage on the ground, he slowly walked to the Teru Teru Bozu Killer.
After venting all the evil spirit power in his body, this serial killer returned to his original form; even his body became withered.
"Heh... hehe."
The Teru Teru Bozu Killer lay in the puddle, looking at that burning black mask, the madness in his eyes undiminished.
"My body is already dead. No matter what you do, I won't feel anything at all. You cannot make me feel any pain."
"Mmhmm, I know."
Yoru nodded and smiled.
From the moment the marking was completed, he had already discovered it.
The opponent was no longer a living person, but a walking corpse dominated by a twisted human soul and maintained by evil spirit power.
Pain, pleasure, or anything like that no longer existed long ago.
"Oh right, let me introduce you."
Yoru drew Onimaru Kunitsuna with its purely pitch-black blade from his waist, his voice carrying a smile.
"This sword is named Onimaru Kunitsuna. It is a spiritual item that doesn't need to hurt the enemy's physical body. As long as it touches the enemy's soul, it can bring unbearable pain to the opponent."
Speaking of this, Yoru paused and smiled.
"Now you guess, what do I plan to do with this Onimaru Kunitsuna?"