Chapter 11: Chapter 11: First Shikigami

With nothing much to do, Adam decided to stop by the crime scene after having breakfast. He put on a hoodie and jeans and left the cabin with Pumpkin inside the hood. On the way there, he ran into two crew members who were having an interesting conversation and quickly used Glamour to conceal himself.

"Did you see the body?"

"Which one?"

"I'm talking about the passenger found dead in the lower decks... Huh? Wait a second, there's more than one?!"

"Forget I said anything!"

The two of them stopped their discussion. Just when Adam was about to leave, one of them continued the conversation.

"Hey, didn't something like this happen on the last trip as well?"

"Shh, we're not supposed to talk about that. Are you trying to get us in trouble?!" She looked around to see if anyone was listening in.

"Why are you getting so worked up?"

"Look, just don't wander around alone at night and you'll be fine. Anyway, keep your mouth shut or you'll get us both fired."

Adam left after ensuring nothing else important was being discussed, and headed for the buffet. As he had been banned from entering by the manager, he snuck into the kitchens and stole the food trays when no one was looking. He ate the food at his cabin and returned the trays after finishing his meal.

It took him some time to find the crime scene.

The corpse had already been taken away and he didn't find the spirit of the victim nearby. He investigated the area and found a clump of hair, oozing with yin energy, floating in a puddle of water. Right next to the puddle was a trail of water that led to other parts of the ship. He followed the trail and ended up at the stern. All the signs seem to suggest his quarry had escaped overboard and was no longer on the ship.

Adam deployed his shikigami to patrol the ship in case the creature returned. For the next few days, there were no further attacks but he didn't let his guard down. His efforts paid off when one of his shikigami reported back to him.

Adam rushed toward the location and found the nure-onna, a creature with the head of a woman and the body of a serpent, coiled around a man. He had arrived too late. She was pressing her lips against the man's and sucking out his soul. While she was engrossed in feasting on her victim, Adam stealthily planted silence talismans around them using Burrow. The talismans created a zone of silence that muted all sounds in the area. He didn't want anyone coming to investigate.

Then, Adam formed seals with his hands and forcefully exhaled from his mouth. A stream of fire rushed out and consumed the nure-onna and her victim. As he couldn't utter the incantations in the silence zone, the flames were weaker than normal.

However, the nure-onna emerged unscathed from the flames moments later and slithered toward Adam with blinding speed. Before he could even react, she had already coiled herself around his torso and neck. She glared at him with her face mere inches away and opened her mouth to bite him with her fangs. Before she could do so, Adam snapped his head forward and slammed his forehead against her face. He could feel his horns pierce something soft. As he pulled his head back, her eyeball was ripped out of its socket.

"Aaahhh!" The nure-onna writhed in pain and loosened her grip on Adam.

Adam grabbed the dripping wet hair of the nure-onna and effortlessly pulled her off. He then repeatedly slammed her head against the wall. While the nure-onna was still dazed, he took out a revolver from his inventory and placed the muzzle of the gun against her head. It was the .357 revolver he stole from the triad boss' office.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

The soul of the nure-onna left her body but Adam grabbed her soul before she could escape. He removed the silence talismans and then dragged her corpse back to his room. The nure-onna was a wealth of materials. Her blood and skin could be used for drawing talismans. Her hair could be weaved into protective equipment. Her meat and organs could be eaten. However, he had other plans for her.

Adam returned to his room and immediately started harvesting the parts in the bathroom. He had to act quickly since the blood, organs, and some portions of the flesh spoiled easily. Fortunately, the inventory prevented spoilage or he would have had trouble storing the collected materials. By the time the corpse of the nure-onna's newest victim was discovered, Adam had already finished his work.

After taking a shower to wash off, Adam stared at the mirror for a while. He could have sworn his horns were much larger than before. He hadn't been paying much attention to them but they have almost doubled in size. He was using his fringe to conceal them but now that was no longer possible. A short incantation and a few hand seals later, the horns disappeared like they were never there.

For the next few days, Adam preoccupied himself with making the soul core for the nure-onna. He had temporarily trapped her soul in one of his paper dolls but he needed to create the core to make her his first permanent shikigami.

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Among onmyōji, this method of creating a permanent shikigami was considered heterodox and its practitioners were branded heretics. In a fantasy world, Adam would be treated as a necromancer and shunned by all. In order to create a shikigami in this manner, Adam had to create a core using either the brain or the heart to contain the soul, and then perform rituals to prevent decomposition before reconstructing the body. If he had better materials, he could even modify the shikigami to become stronger and more durable.

One major advantage of this type of shikigami was that he could create, upgrade, and repair the shikigami as long as he had the materials. He could also send them on suicide missions, while other types of shikigami with their free will intact could refuse. The disadvantage was their lack of autonomy. He had to manually control their every movement.

After another week of hard work, his first shikigami was completed. He took close to ten days, but he was confident he could make the next one within three days.

Inside the cabin, the shikigami was laid on the ground while Adam was finishing with the last touches. She didn't look much different from before other than missing an eye.

Pumpkin was watching Adam hard at work on the sidelines when he decided to climb up on the shikigami.

"Meow!"

"Shoo, go play somewhere else." Adam grabbed a handful of treats and threw them into the corner.

Pumpkin promptly scrambled off the shikigami and helped himself to the bribe. After gobbling down the treats, he returned and climbed up the shikigami again.

"No, you're going to get fat at this rate."

"Meow!"

When Adam refused to give him any more treats, Pumpkin decided the shikigami would be his new footstool.

After a while, Adam was finally done. As he formed seals with his hands, the shikigami started moving and startled Pumpkin into jumping onto the bed. He applied Glamour before letting the shikigami out of the cabin.

Through the shikigami's vision, he only saw the ship's crew members while passing through the corridors. After finding out another death had occurred, most of the passengers stayed in their cabins except during mealtime.

Adam controlled the shikigami and started testing out her capabilities. He was able to maintain control over the shikigami from his cabin without any problem. He could also make the shikigami perform complex movements and she was responsive to his commands. That was despite the fact that the nure-onna's soul trapped inside the soul core had been attempting to resist. The soul core was the means of controlling the shikigami, but the soul within had no choice in the matter.

The only issue Adam encountered was that the missing eye was causing the movements of the shikigami to be less precise, as it was difficult to judge depth perception when looking through the vision of the shikigami.

As Adam stared out the cabin porthole while controlling the shikigami, he saw buildings coming into view.

After nearly two weeks, the ship finally reached the port of Tokyo.

***

Nightmare - Urban Legends

Main Objective: Resolve 7 paranormal events (3/7)

Side Objective: Find the missing child (1/1)

Side Objective: Investigate the school haunting (1/1)

Side Objective: Solve the cruise murders (1/1)

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