Ghostly Shadows

Without disturbing anyone else, Feiniao quietly got up and walked silently toward the back door of the study.

He gently opened the sliding door, feeling the bustling wind of Sendai, and further expanded his spiritual pressure, probing into those dark corners.

Cold and sticky...that was how it felt that night...

"It's a shadow again, the same ghost..."

But, did they notice me? They seemed unusually alert, only lingering there briefly before disappearing...

Asuka adjusted the sword at her waist, sketching out a picture of the demon in her mind.

Sneaky and using only insidious methods to hunt... Their targets aren't healthy humans, but rather the pitiful people struggling at the bottom of society... Are they truly being employed by others? Can ghosts cooperate with humans?

He wasn't quite sure if Mr. Arashi hadn't taught him these things.

Just then, an unusual commotion arose from the direction of the front door.

"Mr. Harada!"

"My goodness! What happened to you?"

"Quickly! Miss Yuka, bring some clean cloth and water!"

Upon hearing the sound, the bird's eyes narrowed and it immediately turned back.

Standing in the crowded throng was a middle-aged man covered in mud and grime, with cuts and bruises on his knees.

The man was about forty years old, with a square face and a wide mouth. He was leaning against the door frame, breathing heavily. His hair was wet, his lips were purple from the cold, and he was shivering uncontrollably.

"It's alright, you won't die!"

He clenched his fists angrily and shouted at the workers:

"These heartless capitalists are either trying to run me over with coal trucks or trying to drown me in the river! Too bad! I'm lucky to be alive! They want my life, Harada Tadaka, but that's not enough for them!"

Harada Tadaka's voice trembled, his eyes burning with fire, his momentum intensifying. "The more they act like this, the more it shows they fear our power! Brothers, we cannot give up!"

"Yes! These people are absolutely lawless!"

"Let's go find the police, or report them to the city hall!"

"What's the use! They're all in cahoots! Let's fight them!"

"That's right, let's give it our all!"

The workers, already simmering with anger from life, finally had their emotions ignited when they saw their leader, Harada Tadaka, being targeted!

They waved their arms, their angry shouts nearly tearing the bookstore apart.

"Everyone, calm down! Calm down!" Miss Yuka's anxious voice was drowned out by the tide of anger. "Don't fall into their trap! If we really take violent action, they'll have even more reason to send in the military and police, and then things will get out of control!"

A student who looked thin but had a determined look shook his head at Yuuka, firmly refuting her statement:

"Sister Jiehua, you're wrong! The weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons! Only by uniting and confronting these black-hearted bastards head-on will they be afraid! Only then will they give in!"

"That's right! Let's go!"

The crowd's emotions were getting increasingly out of control, but Asuka's gaze remained coldly fixed on Harada Tadaka's feet.

Although the room was small and the shadows cast by the dim light overlapped and intertwined, he still noticed that something was wrong with Harada Tadaka.

His shadow began to fade.

"Were those accidents caused by human intervention, or by ghosts?" Asuka wasn't sure. He simply walked silently into the crowd, using his strong hands to push aside one noisy worker after another.

"Tadaichi Harada? Come out with me for a moment."

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he walked straight up to Harada, ignoring the heated atmosphere in the room, and spoke to him indifferently.

Harada Tadaka, who was already in a bad mood, was suddenly stopped by Asuka. Seeing his cold eyes and strange attire, he felt a surge of anger.

"Who the hell are you?!"

"What do you want? Were you sent by those people? Trying to cause trouble here?!"

He nervously looked around, seemingly looking for something to defend himself. Several workers beside him immediately gathered around nervously, looking at Fei Niao with unfriendly expressions.

Upon seeing this, Asano Mori hurriedly pushed through the crowd, spreading his arms to stand between the two:

"Misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding! Harada-nii, it's me! It's Asheng!"

"...You're from the Asano family. What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Asuka... he's not a bad person! We just came from Marumori Village! We're here to talk to you about my older brother and Fujiyoshi!"

"Fujiyoshi..." Harada Tadaka recalled for a moment, and remembered that there was indeed such a coworker who needed help. He looked at the two of them with a strange expression.

He looked at Asano Mori, a man he knew; he was the younger brother of a coworker and an unpopular military academy student.

As for Asuka's excessively young, expressionless face, and the long sword concealed at his waist... Harada Tadaka had virtually no recollection of it.

"What...do you want to talk to me about?"

Asano Mori looked at Asuka, who then stepped forward and spoke directly:

"Your troubles are more than that. Come out with me, and I'll show you."

"I don't have time for riddles right now!"

"No time? If you drag this out any longer, you really won't have time."

After saying that, he didn't wait for Harada Tadaka to say anything more and walked out of the bookstore.

Seeing his confident demeanor, Harada felt a little strange, but seeing Asano Mori's sincere expression, he could only angrily follow him out and close the bookstore door.

He crossed his arms and stared at the bird with a doubtful expression:

"What is it? Can you tell me now?"

Swish! !

The bird did not answer; its movements were as swift as lightning.

Without any warning, his left thumb suddenly pushed against the tsuba (handguard), and with a clang, the Nichirin Blade sprang out! His right hand, wielding the blade, whistled down!

"What are you doing?!"

Harada Tadaka was horrified, thinking the other party was about to suddenly kill him, and instinctively tried to dodge and call for help.

The colorless Nichirin Blade flashed through the air with a chilling light, but its target was not Harada Tadaka.

Thump! Click!

The hardened road surface made a crisp sound as the flying bird's blade pierced the shadow beneath Harada Tadaka's feet!

"Hiss—!!!"

A agonizing scream, far beyond human comprehension, suddenly erupted from the depths of the shadows beneath the ground!

To Harada's horrified gaze, the shadow on the ground pierced by the Nichirin Blade began to twist and boil violently as if it were alive!

A blurry humanoid silhouette, composed entirely of flowing shadows, was firmly pinned to the blade of the Nichirin Blade and forcibly dragged out of Harada Tadaka's shadow!

It had no facial features; its face was nothing but a deep void. It twisted and struggled wildly, trying to get rid of the long sword that felt like a branding iron to it.

Harada Tadaka stood frozen in place like a fish out of water, his eyes almost popping out.

He felt a chilling coldness shooting up his tailbone and straight to the top of his head, freezing his thoughts.

"What's wrong, Harada-nii-san?!"

"You brat! What did you do to Harada-nii?!"

The commotion drew everyone's attention, and they rushed out, only to see Harada Tadaka standing there dumbfounded, while Asuka stood firmly in front of him with her knife.

Asuka's wrist remained motionless, steadily suppressing the shadowy ghost struggling wildly beneath her blade.

"Did you see clearly? The one who wanted to kill you wasn't human." Asuka paused, her gaze fixed on the distorted ghostly figure, her left hand resting on the still-sheathed Asauchi.

"It's a ghost..."