The groan came again, wet, rasping, and unnatural One by one, shapes began to form in the mist. Long-limbed, bone-thin creatures, their joints twisted at unnatural angles, heads drooping to one side like broken dolls.
Kazane stepped forward with a casual swing of her naginata.
"Rank 4 Yurei, four of them. They're attracted to the residual fear that lingers in old places like this. Shouldn't be a problem."
Soya, meanwhile, swallowed thickly, planting his feet. "Shouldn't be? You're saying that like I've done this before."
"You haven't?" Kazane asked, raising a brow.
"I mean–I've fought before, but not like this!"
Kazane let out a sharp breath that could've been a laugh.
"Try not to die, then."
Without waiting, she surged forward.
She moved like wind·no, like steel cutting through wind. Her naginata spun in a crescent arc, slicing clean through the first Yurei before it could even react. Black sludge exploded from the creature's torso as it screamed and disintegrated mid-air.
Soya barely had time to register it when two more came at him, jaws open, elongated arms reaching like tendrils.
He raised his fists instinctively. One punch to the closest Yurei's face. It reeled, head snapping sideways. But it wasn't enough. The second one grabbed him by the chest, pushing him back into a rusted jungle gym. The metal groaned as it bent under the force.
"Agh! Damn it!"
He struggled, throwing another wild punch. It connected, but the creature didn't even flinch. The third one slithered closer, low to the ground, tongue flicking out from its split jaw.
Soya could feel it again.
That crawling pressure in his chest.
His skin prickled. The air around him went heavy. Like something inside him wanted to rip its way out.
Despite being born with exceptional raw energy and an exceptional amount of energy, Soya Senju lacked the ability to properly flow it. Lacking technique, refinement, all he could do… was punch.
But in this moment–pinned, overwhelmed, and on the brink, Soya encountered his first true catalyst: fear.
The moment the Yurei's claws slashed forward, aiming for his face, it happened.
A flash of something black burst from his chest and wrapped around his arm. Not physical. Not visible to most. The impact of the Yurei's claws was halted an inch away from his face, by pure, violent pressure.
Soya's pupils shrunk.
Humans do not awaken under peace.
They awaken under pressure. And fear… is the most honest pressure of all.
His skin felt like it was burning from the inside out. His heart thudded once, loud and deafening.
And just like that… the floodgates cracked open. Soya Senju unlocked Negative Soul Energy.
Not clean. Not pretty. Not refined. But in terms of raw pressure, he was now the strongest on the field.
Soya didn't understand it but his body moved on its own.
He gripped the creature's face with his left hand and it sizzled under his touch. Steam rose. The curse screamed, thrashing.
His right arm lit up with black threads of energy snapping, sparking across his skin like frayed nerves. He drove his fist into the creature's torso.
BOOM.
A concussive blast of raw Negative Soul Energy burst outward, launching both Yurei into the jungle gym, which collapsed in a spray of rust and metal.
Soya stood there, chest heaving, shadows dancing across his skin. Just then Soya's nose began gushing out blood, his vision blurred slightly and blood leaked out of his ears.
This was a backlash. Soya Senju couldn't flow Soul Energy, so it flowed through him violently instead, and due to his extraordinary reserves, it overloaded his body.
Soya dropped to one knee, coughing violently.
The blood kept coming down his nose, his ears, even the corners of his eyes. His vision pulsed, tunnel-like, his hearing reduced to a shrill ringing. The rush of power had passed, leaving only raw ache in its wake. He gasped like he'd been underwater too long. Then he collapsed
The last Yurei leapt at Kazane from behind but it didn't even get the chance to breathe.
She pivoted once, naginata dancing in her grip like a ribbon of death. The blade split the creature in two before it even touched the ground, a geyser of black sludge erupting behind her like a fountain.
She turned back toward Soya, brow furrowed now.
"Hey," she said, voice sharp as her weapon. "Still breathing?"
Soya wobbled, collapsed on his side.
Kazane frowned.
"Tch. Idiot."
She crouched beside him, fingers pressed to his throat for a pulse not that she needed to. She could feel the energy still leaking out of him in waves. Like someone had cracked open a nuclear reactor.
"You let your energy run wild," she said. "Unrefined output like that? It scorched your cerebral cortex. Microscopic hemorrhages in your frontal lobe. That's why you're bleeding."
Soya groaned, but didn't respond.
"Overflow like that can kill most people." She stood up, eyes narrowing toward the foggy edge of the playground. "Good thing you're not most people."
The pressure shifted.
Again.
A new groan.
Deeper.
Hungrier.
Drawn by the scent of blood and bursting power like flies to carrion.
The fog rolled in harder this time, parting like curtains as something massive stepped out.
It towered over her easily 2.7 meters tall, its back arched and body armored in jagged, obsidian-like shell plates that pulsed with purple veins. Its head looked stitched on from something else, mouth opening like a coffin lid, wide and crooked.
Kazane clicked her tongue. She didn't look worried.
Only annoyed.
"Great. This idiot just had to bleed that much."
She cracked her neck and stood fully upright.
"He wouldn't have been much help anyway. But just great," she muttered.
Soya groaned behind her. Still breathing. Barely conscious. Blood seeped from his ears and nose.
Her naginata shimmered, then disintegrated into motes of smoke, swirling around her hand.
Her technique surged.
A new weapon formed in her grip: a warped katana, jet-black with a handle bound in crimson cloth. The blade curved unnaturally, as though it were resisting the laws of geometry. This was one of her stronger weapons.
Its ability: Soul Imprint. The more she clashes with a target, the more of its soul-signature the blade absorbs, copying its spiritual frequency and weakening its defenses. A weapon built not to kill fast, but to kill eventually.
But that took time.
And this Yurei wasn't giving her any.
It was on her in an instant faster than it looked. One of its whip-like arms slashed sideways and Kazane barely ducked. The ground split behind her, trees snapping in half from the sheer force.
She lunged, blade drawn across the monster's torso; it was just a glancing hit.
But that was enough.
The second attack came with no warning. A blast of shrieking energy burst from the Yurei's chest like a cannon. It struck her mid-air and sent her flying, crashing through two trees before she hit the ground, rolling.
Her vision spun. Ribs cracked. She tasted blood.
Still… she stood.
"Again," she snarled.
She charged and feinted low, then came in from the side.
Strike two.
Then three.
Her blade pulsed. It shimmered as the creature began reacting slower, flinching at her hits.
She smiled.
But then–
A tendril wrapped around her ankle.
The twisted Yurei slammed Kazane to the ground. Her cursed blade clattered out of reach, flickering and warped from overuse. Blood pooled beneath her as she coughed, vision spinning, muscles screaming.
She'd been faster. Smarter. More experienced.
And still losing.
The curse's spindly limbs cracked like bone branches as it crawled forward, black saliva hissing against the broken jungle gym's metal. Its dozens of eyes blinked out of sync, mouths mumbling in overlapping tongues.
Kazane raised her arms but she knew it wouldn't be enough.
Then–
The air bent.
Not with thunder. Not with flash.
Just a quiet dissonance, like reality had forgotten to breathe.
And in that breathless space, a woman wearing a loose bomber jacket with a torn shoulder, band tee underneath.
High-waisted jeans and combat boots, messy shoulder-length hair black with subtle ash-gray streaks
She had a single dangling earring shaped like a crescent moon with sharp, bored-looking eyes.
Aira Hoshikawa stepped in.
Casually. Calmly. Like she was showing up to a lecture slightly early.
One fluid step. Then the air in front of her twisted.
A curved line shimmered mid-air half a second before her hand even moved.
The yurei shrieked as an invisible force carved across its shoulder, splitting muscle before the blade physically followed.
Kazane blinked hard.
"...Hoshikawa?"
Aira didn't glance back. Her eyes stayed on the yurei.
"You look like hell," she said, her voice even and steady. "Does this thing give you trouble? Tsk. What happened to teamwork?"
Kazane exhaled, dazed. "You're… joking? Now?"
Aira tilted her head. "I thought it might lighten the blood loss."
The yurei howled and lunged again. Aira stepped aside smoothly, not hurried like she'd already seen the outcome. Another flash, a slash, and its twin projection.
Soul Split Eclipse was her tehnique.
Two slashes. One ahead of time. One behind it. The soul flinched before the flesh understood why.
Kazane watched, half in awe, half in disbelief.
"I heard the execution order was lifted," Aira murmured as she deflected another strike. "Soya Senju, the kid made waves in the exorcist world yesterday."
"You… came for him?" Kazane managed, still kneeling.
Aira nodded slightly. "I had a feeling. Power like that doesn't go quiet. I did some reading. His case file was a disaster but the kind of disaster I like."
Her lips curved into the faintest smirk.
"Explosive raw energy. And a technique with some intriguing history behind it. No control. Like stuffing a hurricane into a soda can. Honestly? I'm a little impressed he's not dead yet."
With a flick of her wrist, the second slash shattered the yurei's remaining limbs in a burst of white-blue afterlight.
It twitched.
Aira exhaled softly. "But if he keeps this up, he will be."
The Yurei roared and expanded its body unnaturally desperate.
"Last chance," Aira muttered. "You're not getting back up from this."
She raised her hand and her second followed, a wave of energy curved over her like a crescent shadow.
The yurei's body snapped in on itself folding like a broken mirror that collapsed inward. A second later, it was gone, scattered in ash and dripping ether.
Silence.
Only then did Aira lower her hands.
She stepped over to Soya's unconscious body. Blood ran from his ears, nose, and fingertips but the pressure in the air was still wild. Burning.
She crouched beside him.
"This much output with no release valve... poor idiot. He doesn't need a doctor. He needs a damn engineer."
Kazane weakly smiled. "You're thinking of training him?"
Aira nodded once.
"He's not safe untrained. Not to others, not to himself. But that technique…" Her fingers hovered an inch above his chest, feeling the subtle pull of that violent pressure.
"That backlash. Raw Negative Soul Energy, he doesn't even know how to use the neutral form and yet here he is, using negative energy. No form, no refinement and yet it still held off Rank 4 Yurei by instinct."
She looked at Kazane now, her gaze sharp, but not harsh.
"I want to teach him. I should teach him. Plus I know that idiot Sora Senju won't do a good job." She said shaking her head disappointedly
Kazane blinked, dazed. "Why? You could've walked away."
Aira stood.
"Because kids like him get swallowed in this world. And the next time he loses control the higher-ups will definitely put that listing back up."
Her expression softened, just a fraction.
"And because I was like him once."
She then lifted Soya up and threw him over her shoulder before walking over to Kazane touching her wound on her side.
Her hand and Kazane's side then became engulfed in a white aura. Then a few seconds later Kazane's bleeding stopped, and her wound healed slightly.
"It's not perfect, since healing others is harder than healing yourself even for me."
Kazane looked down at her wound then back up at Aira. "Was that–"
Aira smirked.
"Yeah, it's Positive Soul Energy."