Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Urban Legends

"Commencing teleportation in 3... 2... 1... 0."

"You have arrived at your destination."

In the blink of an eye, Adam found himself standing alone in a dark alleyway.

Adam was dressed in a Kariginu, an outfit worn by nobility during the Heian period. He became inspired to get his own after seeing Ashiya Dōman wear them. After getting a good look at his surroundings, he uttered an incantation while forming hand seals. As Glamour started taking effect, it weaved a layer of image over his clothes. He was still wearing a Kariginu but the appearance of his outfit had changed into a polo shirt and jeans.

Adam stepped out into the busy street. Although it was already dark outside, the street market was still bustling with customers. Red paper lanterns were hanging everywhere in the surroundings. An elderly woman was haggling with the butcher over a foot. Fingers could be seen bubbling in the cooking pot of a food stall. Jars of fetuses were openly displayed on the shelves of a nearby shop. Similar scenes were happening throughout the market.

Adam joined the market-goers and began looking around the stalls. He was browsing a stall selling paper effigies when he noticed a small gathering in front of a skewer stall. To his surprise, he sensed the distinct ki of a human in the middle of the crowd. He pushed his way through them and saw the kind-looking stall owner offering an eyeball skewer to a terrified little girl. When the girl refused, the man grabbed her hand and tried to force her to take the skewer.

Seeing this, Adam took out a salt shaker and sprinkled salt at the stall owner until he let go of the girl. The spectators who had gathered there recoiled back in horror, fearing the salt would touch them.

"Ow, ow, ow, what the fuck you doing?!"

"I should be the one asking that. You know Enma hates people who harm children, right? Do you want to burn in hell for all eternity?"

"Haaa, what the hell you talking about?"

"...you don't know Enma? What about Yánwáng? Yamarāja?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! Hand the girl over! I saw her first!"

"...I see, so it's fine even if I do this?" Adam took out a bag of salt from his inventory.

The stall owner tried to run when he saw the bag. However, Adam threw a handful of salt at him before he could escape. The salt passed through the man's body and he dissolved into thin air as if he had never been there. The spectators around them ran away screaming at the top of their lungs and the area was deserted in a matter of seconds.

According to what Adam read in the Onmyōdō books, the inhabitants of the otherworld were under the jurisdiction of Enma, and any act of vigilantism would incur his wrath. That was the reason why he didn't just kill the stall owner earlier on. He also read that Enma's subordinates were able to swiftly reach any of their destinations due to how time and space operated differently in the otherworld. After waiting for a while, there was still no sign of Enma's subordinates appearing.

His worst fears had been confirmed.

Enma was the ruler of the otherworld. His primary duty was judging the spirits that entered his realm and keeping the peace of the otherworld. Furthermore, he was also responsible for maintaining the barrier that prevented inhabitants of the otherworld from entering the material world. His absence was catastrophic for the denizens of both the otherworld and the material world.

However, this predicament was too heavy a burden for Adam at the moment. Even if this world needed saving, that would be a job for a higher-level Dreamer. His job was far simpler.

***

News of Adam's actions had spread and the street market was now devoid of any people.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." Adam beckoned to the girl.

The girl hesitated for a moment before following him. When they passed by the paper effigy stall, Adam pocketed one of them. He led her back to the alleyway where he first arrived and stared at the entrance for a moment.

"Hmm, it's not here anymore, but it should still be somewhere close by." Adam turned back and started inspecting the nearby buildings and alleyways. He checked each and every door as well as the hallways of the buildings.

"Mister, what are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for the entry, or should I say, the exit... Found it!"

Behind the door Adam opened was a corridor lined with doors on both sides. The passage seemed to stretch out forever. The dull yellow paint on the walls was peeling off and the worn carpet was emanating a musty smell.

"What is this place?" The girl followed him into the corridor with hesitant steps.

"It's the threshold between the human world and the spirit world." Adam looked back at her. "Don't touch anything or stray too far from me, understood?"

She gulped before nodding.

Adam and the girl started opening the doors and going through them, and each time they entered a doorway, they ended up in another corridor that looked exactly the same. However, he continued picking the doors without any hesitation.

However, after passing through a dozen doors, both of them stopped dead in their tracks. A mannequin was standing in the middle of the corridor. Adam opened one of the doors while keeping an eye on the mannequin. He let the girl go through first and then closed the door after stepping through.

The pair carried on with their journey. They managed to pass through a few more doors without incident before they encountered a mannequin again. This one was standing much closer to them.

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"It's following us!" The girl grabbed hold of Adam's clothes and caused the Glamour to dispel. She was too shaken by the mannequin to even notice the change in his attire.

"No, it's another one."

The pair went back through the doorway they came from and closed the door. They retraced their steps a few doorways back and picked another door. This time, a mannequin was standing right in front of the door. Adam slammed the door shut. Almost immediately, the door started pounding and the sound of something attempting to get through came from the other side.

"It's trying to get in!"

"Let's go!" Adam grabbed the girl's hand and started sprinting toward the next door. The pair flung the door wide open and bolted through a succession of doors.

"W-wait, I can't breathe." The girl panted heavily.

Adam picked her up and kept going. Finally, a door opened to somewhere that wasn't a corridor and he rushed outside. When he looked behind, the door had vanished.

After catching her breath, the girl stared at Adam with her mouth wide open. She finally realized he was wearing something different from before.

"Oh, this?" With an incantation and a combination of hand seals, Adam reapplied Glamour on his clothes.

"Wow, can you teach me how to do that, mister?"

"I could, but don't you have somewhere important to be? You'll be in trouble if you don't get home soon."

"Ahh, mama's going to kill me."

"Is your house nearby?"

"It's over there." She nodded and pointed in a direction.

The pair started heading in that direction. They were walking past a park when they heard the frantic cries of a woman.

"Jiayi! Where are you?! Jiayi!"

"Ah, that's my mama, I have to go now. Bye bye, mister!" Jiayi ran toward the distressed woman. "Mama!"

"Oh, thank Buddha!" The woman embraced Jiayi in her arms.

"Mama!"

However, the touching scene didn't last long.

"Lin Jiayi, where the hell have you been?! You've got a lot of explaining to do, young lady!" The woman grabbed her by the ear and started twisting.

"W-wait, I can explain myself!"

***

Nightmare - Urban Legends

Main Objective: Resolve 7 paranormal events (1/7)

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

***

While Jiayi was experiencing the greatest trial of her life, Adam was drinking from Shuten-dōji's Gourd on a sleeping pad placed on a cot in his tent below the park.

Small orbs of fire were gathered on his palm. He had just formed a temporary contract with these spirits and was fulfilling his end of the bargain. In exchange for working for him, he would have to feed them his yōki.

Once they were done feasting, Adam took out a stack of paper cut in the shape of human figures and uttered an incantation. One by one, the small orbs of fire flew into the paper dolls. He burrowed out of the ground and released the stack of paper dolls. The paper dolls took flight and flew in different directions.

While his shikigami was off to work, Adam sat down on a park bench and started studying the paper effigy’s structure. If he could analyze its production method, he might be able to improve his paper dolls. Even if that didn't work out, he was still curious about how it was made.

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