Chapter 55: Chapter 55

Jin’s POV
   Naturally, Tengu didn’t come alone. There’s at least hundreds of ghosts flying all over the place, all ready to do their master’s bidding. Tengu points at Jin and co. And spews out more gibberish. At his order (probably), all the ghosts draw their weapons and start attacking.

   “Please take care of Tengu, Minase-kun. We’ll take care of his subordinates.” Ayumi tells Jin.

   “Roger that.”

   Jin uses wind magic to fly upwards and clash with Tengu sword to fingernails. Man, those are some sturdy fingernails.

   Tengu shouts out more nonsense that Jin doesn’t understand. The blood dripping out from his tongue are splattered on Jin’s armor.

   “Oh, looks what you did. Now my armor is dirty with your blood.” he chides.

   More unfathomable gibberish.

   “Again, I can’t understand you. Is entering my dream the only way you can speak properly?”

   Tengu eventually stop spewing gibberish and focus on trying to claw Jin with his fingernails. If they’re just regular fingernails, they definitely can’t put a scratch on Jin’s Adamantium armor. However, considering that they’re not broken after clashing with Felfarthen, Jin concludes that those fingernails are anything but normal. It’s best that he does his best on not being scratched.

   Every once in a while, a spirit appears out of nowhere and tries to stab Jin with his weapon. Unfazed, Jin either parries or block the weapon and return the favor with a much faster speed. Rather than hoping to kill Jin, those spirits are mostly used as a distraction so that their master can use the chance to finish Jin off, only to no avail.

   Jin could already tell from Tengu’s backstory from being an exiled former emperor, but the spirit is a poor fighter. His movements are clumsy, and he can barely see through Jin’s attacks. Even so, Jin still has a hard time in defeating the leader of the ghosts since his subordinates are doing their best to distract him or even taking the attack for him, and the former emperor has lots of subordinates.

   Similar to the katana used by Topknot last night, Tengu seems to have the ability to absorb life force. His technique is still clumsy and obvious, but he’s getting stronger and stronger the longer they fight.

   Jin is concentrating on his fight with Tengu, so he doesn’t have any leeway to check on others. Even so, none of them are making any cry of pain or despair, so he assumes that everything is fine for them so far. Then again, the number of spirits around them is not decreasing anytime soon.

   Jin senses that a spirit is sneaking up on his back. He was about to pierce him with Felfarthen until he hears a loud shriek of pain from behind him. He turns around long enough to see multiple talismans being stuck on his body. Jin beheads the spirit with his sword. Another wail, and the ghost disappears.

   “Thanks, Ichihara!” Jin says while turning his attention back to Tengu.

   “You’re very much welcome!”

   Even with his strength increased after absorbing Jin’s life force, Tengu is still nowhere as strong as he is. Tengu knows this too, which is probably why he’s taking his distance and letting his subordinates fight Jin.

   “Oh come on! All that talk in my dream, and this is the best you can do? Saying that I’m disappointed is way bit of an understatement!” Jin taunts.

   Tengu shrieks out in rage and says more gibberish.

   “Again, you really need to get some translator if you want me to understand you. Or maybe you could get a new tongue.”

   Tengu looks at him with a look of pure hatred. Even so, he did not fall for his taunt and come closer. Such a shame. Then again, Jin starts to feel a little woozy after having quite a lot of life force sucked out of him. He needs to keeps his distance for a while too. However, that’s not really an option for him since a few spirits with the life-absorbing weapons like Topknot used start to surround him, and all of them are equally good as that samurai, or even better. Audrey helped out once in a while by firing Holly Bullet at them, thus making it easier for Jin to fight them.

   All of a sudden, Aldenia appears on the sky while doing a kicking pose towards a spirit nearest to Jin. The impact was so strong the spear he was holding was broke into two. Without stopping, Aldenia punches the spirit’s face and disintegrates him. On a side note, some part of her body are covered in flour.

   “Hell yeah! How do you like that?” she shouts.

   From the way she’s able to move around like she’s standing on land, it’s most likely the effect of Float, a Level 3 Spell that utilizes Wind Magic. She can’t cast Silent Bubble, another Level 3 Spell, so most likely she got boosted by Audrey.

   And then, Jin notices something weird about Tengu and those protecting him. For some unknown reason, they seem to be cowering from Aldenia. They’re trying their best to hide the fact, but Jin is sharp enough to notice.

   “All right, who’s next?” she shouts while thumping her chests with her fists like a gorilla.

   Tengu barks something at his subordinates. They move forward reluctantly. Seriously, why are they so scared of her? Well, questions can be asked later. For now, let’s use this to their advantage.

   “Say, Aldenia. Do you want more boost?” Jin asks the tomboy.

   “You bet I do! Give me everything you got!”

   “No, that would be too dangerous. Just some will suffice.”

   He touches her right shoulder with his right hand and casts Strengthen on her. A single second later, she exhales in excitement.

   “Wow, this is awesome! It’s nothing like those times when nee-san boosted me with her Strengthen. You’re like the ultimate battery, Minase!” she exclaims.

   “I don’t really like the metaphor you chose, but whatever. Just go wild.”

   “You don’t have to tell me twice!”

   Aldenia starts to attack the spirits around them like a raging bull. As Jin has half expected, those spirits are rather hesitant to fight her, and their movements are duller when they were fighting him.

   “Come on! Let’s stop wasting time on these small fries and head straight to the boss!”

   “Sure thing.”

   They forced their way through the thick walls made by the spirits and face Tengu directly. The ghost looks around and barks more order to his subordinates. They surround Jin and Aldenia rather hesitantly.

   “Hey, if you guys are not going to fight, then do us a favor and MOVE!” Aldenia yells at them.

   From their expressions, Jin could tell that they’re more than happy to oblige, but they can’t risk pissing off their master either.

   “We got to finish this quickly. The longer this takes, the more life force they’ll take from us.” Jin tells Aldenia.

   She looks at him with a surprised expression.

   “They can do that?”

   “Didn’t you notice yourself getting weaker?”

   “Not at all. By contrast, I feel like I can move a mountain.”

   Oh, right. He did cast Strengthen on her.

   “I meant before I cast Strengthen on you.”

   “The answer is still no. It’s either that or change was so minor I can’t tell the difference. Does that matter right now?”

   “I guess not.”

   While the two of them are fighting the other spirits, Jin notices that Tengu is just standing there and concentrates on absorbing their life forces.

   “Stop hiding behind your goons and fight like a man!” Aldenia shouts.

   “That’s the problem, ain’t it? He’s no man.” Jin mutters.

   Unfortunately, the cheap taunt didn’t work. Jin really wants to end this right now by using a high Level Spell. However, the Spell might end up getting absorbed by Tengu and all his cursed weapons. They would have to do this without relying on Spells too much.

   Speaking of which, Jin takes a quick glance at Audrey. She’s providing support to Ayumi and Meiko who’re attacking at the front while doing their best to protect the mage from harm. Again, offensive spells are no-nos, which is why she could only cast supportive ones at her allies like Strengthen.

   Eventually, Aldenia broke out of the circle formed by the spirits and charge straight towards Tengu.

   “En garde!” she shouts at the leader of the spirits loudly.

   Jin follows suit and joins in the attack to defeat Tengu. Being engaged in a two-against-one fight, Tengu starts to lose his composure, especially when Aldenia is around.

   A few rapid attacks later, Aldenia manages to break through Tengu’s defense and gives him an uppercut. The punch to his lower jaw sent him flying upwards. Literally. As Aldenia and Jin are about to continue their relentless attacks, more interference came in the form of random spirits.

   “Move out of the way!” Aldenia tells them.

   Naturally, they refuse to oblige. Tengu, on the other hand, decides to leg it and disappeared into thin air. All his subordinates vanish a few seconds later.

   “Some former emperor he is. Nothing but a coward.” Aldenia grumbles.

   “It can’t be helped. He’s not a warrior, remember? Come on, let’s go down.”

   “Yeah.”

   With the fight being over for now, the two land on the ground and meet up with the rest.

   Similar to Aldenia, Audrey, Ayumi and Meiko are covered with lots of flour. The factory is in an absolute mess too, with majority of the sacks torn open and its content lying everywhere.

   “Well done, you two.” Ayumi says to them.

   “Actually, I barely did a thing. It was mostly Aldenia.” Jin tells her.

   “Um, no. All I did was bulldozing my way through. Beaides, Tengu got away in the end.” Aldenia disagrees.

   “Him getting away aside, their movements were duller since they were afraid of you.”

   “Afraid of Aldenia-san, you say? Even Tengu?” Ayumi asks.

   “Even him. They were pretending to be calm, but the moment she got hyper, they absolutely lost it and legged.”

   Ayumi considers it for a while.

   “Perhaps they were scared of how alive she is.” she says.

   “...That’s actually a thing?”

   “Yes. Certain people are so brimming with life that spirits are afraid to go near them.”

   “Does that mean that ghosts will shy away from me as long as I’m being hyper?” Aldenia asks Ayumi with a dreaded tone.

   “I’m afraid so.”

   Aldenia buries her face with her hands and starts to weep.

   “In any case, Tengu has gotten away. Whatever should we do now?” Audrey asks.

   “Now that we found Tengu’s remains, we could perform a ritual and force him to rest in peace.” Ayumi says.

   “I don’t really think that’s a good idea.” Jin gives his opinion.

   “Why is that?”

   “If it’s that easy, he would made sure to protect his bones even if it means him dying for the second time. The fact that he left just like that tells me he’s planning something.”

   “I, I guess this seems a little too easy.”

   “Exactly. I say we leave the bones right where they are until he’s dealt with. Until then, someone should keep watch on them in case someone steals them.”

   “Will someone actually do that?” Aldenia asks.

   Jin looks at her. She’s much calmer now, although her eyes are still a bit wet.

   “You’ll never know. Better to be safe than sorry.” he replies.

   She grunts.

   “I’ll call the onmyojis at Fushimi right now with my shikigami.” Ayumi says.

   “Thanks.”

   “Should we tell Esty-san of our temporary victory?” Meiko asks.

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   “We most definitely should. One of us should call her.” Audrey agrees.

   Everyone looks at Jin.

   “...Fine, I’ll be the one to do it.” he grumbles as he takes out his phone.

   The demon picks up almost immediately.

   “Are you all right?” is the first thing she asks.

   “Um, yeah. I’m fine.”

   She gasps loudly.

   “D-Don’t be mistaken, okay? I don’t care about your well-being at all!” she stutters.

   Even though they’re not face-to-face right now, Jin could still tell that she’s blushing.

   “All right, all right. Calm down. I know you don’t.”

   “What about the others?”

   “They’re fine too.”

   “That’s Minase-kun isn’t it, Esty-chan? Please let me talk to him!” Jin hears Watanabe’s voice coming from the other side of the phone.

   “Can’t you see that they’re still talking to each other, Anri?” he also hears Wakaba’s voice.

   “I can’t help it! I have so many questions for him! A! Lot! Of! Questions!”

   “Sorry, Jin. I told her that you’re Silver Wolf. One thing just led to another.” Estyshana says apologetically.

   “Well, she’s bound to find out one of these days.”

   A pause.

   “Although I wished the day never comes.” he mutters.

   “Please, Esty-chan. Let me talk to him!” he hears Watanabe pleading.

   “Um, I’ll be passing the phone to Anri.”

   “Sure, go ahead.”

   Jin quickly moves his phone a few inches away from his ear.

   “IS IT TRUE THAT YOU’RE SILVER WOLF?”

   Yup. Moving the phone was definitely a smart move.

   “Yes.” Jin admits.

   “Wow, way to keep a secret like that from your friend! Do you hear it? That’s the sound of my heart breaking into a million pieces!”

   “Yes, yes. I’m really sorry about that.”

   She sniffles. “It’s fine. Now that I’m calmer, you have plenty of good reasons to be secretive about it.”

   “I’m glad that you understand.”

   “I’m still angry, though. You’re treating me to a meal of yakiniku the next time we meet.”

   “Um, that’s tomorrow.”

   “What’s your point?”

   He sighs. “Fine. But just once, okay?”

   “Yay! It’s a deal! Don’t you dare go back on it!”

   “I won’t. Now can you pass the phone back to Von Mantus? I still have things to talk to her.”

   “Sure. Minase-kun still wants to talk to you, Esty-chan.”

   “So, anything else?” Estyshana asks once the phone is back to her hand.

   “Yeah. Tengu escaped.”

   “...You’re useless. And you call yourself a Hero?”

   “That’s a meaningless title that the humans from Ifezan gave to me.”

   “You know what I mean. And? Do you even know where he is?”

   “Nope.”

   “You guys can’t do a thing without me, can’t you?” she asks smugly.

   “True. It’s only been a few hours, but I already miss you. As a result, I could only bring out half of my full strength.” he admits.

   He then hears something drops. He assumes that it was her phone.

   “You made me drop my phone!” she hisses a few seconds later.

   “My bad.”

   “Whoa, what happened Esty-chan? Why did you drop your phone? And why is your face is bright red?” he hears Watanabe asking.

   “Nothing! It’s nothing. Really.” she assures. “How could you even managed to say something so embarrassing without stuttering?”

   “You can’t see me right now, but I’m actually blushing.”

   “Liar! Just, don’t die, okay? Not until I got my vengeance.”

   “Of course, Your Highness.”

   When Jin puts away his phone, he realizes that all the other girls are staring at him with slight blush on their cheeks, even the tomboyish Aldenia.

   “Have you summoned your colleagues, Ichihara?” he asks Ayumi like everything is fine.

   “Huh? Oh, yes. I did. They should be arriving shortly.”

   “Good.”

   “It’s not really “good”. Tengu got away, remember?” Aldenia reminds him.

   He shrugs. “We’ll find him. And when we do, we’ll stop him once and for all.”

   “Are you sure it’s okay to be that optimistic?”

   “We have to, or we won’t be able to sleep at night.”

   “True. I just hope that wherever he is, he’s not causing more problems right now.”

Shino’s POV
   “I haven’t felt this full in ages!” Shino exclaims while rubbing her tummy.

   Her mother chuckles. “I’m glad that you’re happy, but you better watch your weight. Otherwise, you might go fat.”

   “Nonsense. Our daughter is growing, so she needs all the food she can get. Besides, she’ll never go fat. Her body shape will always stays perfect.” her father assures his wife.

   “See mommy? Daddy gets it!”

   “Oh, what am I going to do with you?”

   The whole family went out to have dinner at a high class Japanese buffet restaurant. According to her father, it was extremely pricey, but he felt like celebrating since he just landed a big business. Right now, they’re heading back home in the new car that he bought just last week.

   “It would have not been worth it if I had to pay for one more person, though!” he laughed.

   Shino and mother laughed together with him. Indeed, a family of four is way too crowded. Having a certain someone leave the house was certainly helpful in more ways than one.

   “I see myself in you all the time, Shino! When you’re old enough, my empire will be passed down to you! I firmly believe that you can make it grow even more!” her father always said proudly.

   “I’ll do my best, daddy! No, I’ll definitely make it happen!” she promised him every time.

   “That’s my precious little girl!”

   Yup. She’s the only one who’s fit to be his successor. The failure that she has to call her big brother can rot at some roadside for all she cares-

   SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!

   All of a sudden, the car spins around wildly.

   “What’s happening?” Shino wails.

   Her mother screamed something incomprehensible. A prayer, perhaps. Shino was too freaked out to figure out what she said.

   Eventually, the car stopped spinning. Thankfully, there was no other car around, so no harm was done.

   “What, what just happened, dear?” her mother wheezes.

   And then, her father turn his neck in a really bizarre way in order to look at her.

   “I’m sorry, my love. My eyes went black for a moment there.” he says.

   …Weird. Why is he speaking like a robot all of a sudden?

   “Are you sure you’re fine, daddy?” Shino asks next.

   Her father turns his body enough to look at her. Again, his movement was very mechanical.

   “I’m fine, daughter. I really am.” he assures her.

   “That’s, um, that’s good.”

   For some reason, the way he looks at her is really creepy and unsettling.

   He starts to look around like he’s seeing all these for the first time. It took him quite a while to drive the car again.

   “Now then, let us go home.” he says with a monotonous voice.

   Before her father temporarily lost control of the car, Shino vaguely saw something black and hazy entering her father’s body. No, that can’t be right. She was probably too tired.

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