"Kei-kun! Are you okay?"
Eiko Hozuki hurried over to Keitaro Gentoga's side and helped him up, her eyes full of worry as she looked at him.
"Y-Yeah... I'm okay." Though he was still shaken, Keitaro forced a stiff, awkward smile under Eiko's concerned gaze. "Thanks to Xu Fu-chan, and..."
He turned to look at Red Hood, who stood off to one side like a guardian deity. She only gave him a cold glance.
"Red Hood, or Hood, or Red Hood Hood, call me whatever you like."
"Then... thank you, Hood," Keitaro said carefully, testing the name out with obvious caution.
Red Hood gave no reaction at all. No reply, no change in expression.
"Kei-kun, you look kind of pale..." Eiko frowned slightly. "Did you get hurt somewhere just now?"
"Ahaha... no, no, I'm fine. Really..."
Keitaro answered with darting eyes.
There was no way he could admit it. He'd felt an overwhelming, terrifying chill just now... and the source of that chill was Red Hood, the very one who had protected him moments earlier.
Yayoi Hozuki was also studying Red Hood with complete seriousness. She'd wanted to see her for so long, and now, at last, her curiosity had finally been satisfied.
But as she watched Red Hood's back from up close, a question suddenly rose in her mind.
She remembered Xu Fu telling her yesterday that Red Hood was not an evil spirit, but a doll Xu Fu had made.
The problem was that, in Yayoi's eyes right now, Red Hood was continuously giving off a black aura almost identical to that of an evil spirit... no, even more muddied and dangerous than an ordinary one.
Was that normal?
"Wow! So you're the Red Hood Xu Fu-chan told us about? Hi, hi!" Eiko grabbed one of Red Hood's hands with great enthusiasm, her voice overflowing with gratitude. "Thank you for saving my Kei-kun. Once we get back, let me treat you to a meal! I can recommend some of my favorite restaurants around here!"
Keitaro flushed at Eiko calling him "my Kei-kun," but he quickly realized something else.
"Eiko... you can see Hood?"
"Huh? Why wouldn't I be able to?" Eiko asked in surprise.
Yayoi's eyes widened too, her gaze flicking back and forth between Eiko and Red Hood.
Eiko was an ordinary person with no Spiritual Sight, yet she could see Red Hood and even hold her hand. Which meant... Red Hood wasn't a spiritual body?
Yayoi had a lot of questions, but she also knew what mattered most right now. Anything about Red Hood could wait until later, when she could ask Xu Fu. The priority now was dealing with the evil spirit that had already shown itself.
She lowered her head and quietly glanced at Keitaro's ankle. In the dim light, it was easy to mistake it for a rope.
But in truth, it was a tongue.
An evil spirit's tongue.
"Ahhh... it's all your fault... all because of you... I hate you... I hate all of you..."
The evil spirit spat out the tongue Red Hood had mercilessly severed and clung to the ceiling, muttering curses of hatred without end.
It was an old woman's evil spirit. Her hair hung in disarray, her arms and legs were grotesquely long and twisted, and her waist looked as though it had been crushed under something heavy—her flesh mangled, bones piercing through skin and jutting out into the open.
"Uwah~! What an ugly old hag. If you look that disgusting, don't come out and scare people~" Xu Fu covered her mouth with one hand, not bothering to hide her utter disgust. "Even the number one cutest beautiful girl in the world, Xu Fu-chan, got grossed out by you~ So then~! How are you going to compensate me?"
"I can't see her, but..." Eiko backed away a few steps with a complicated expression and moved behind Xu Fu. "Isn't it kind of mean to provoke her like that?"
"What do you mean, provoke her~? I'm just telling the truth," Xu Fu said indignantly. "She's the one in the wrong. Instead of resting in peace like she should, she had to stay here and go around disgusting people. If not for her, Xu Fu-chan would still be sleeping in a nice soft bed right now~!"
Based on the old woman's appearance, Xu Fu and the others had already identified what kind of evil spirit this was. Her features perfectly matched one of the suspicious cases Eiko had looked into.
When this old woman was alive, one of her family members had fallen ill and needed an organ transplant. The hospital had in fact found a compatible donor, and that person had even agreed to donate.
But not long after, the donor suddenly changed their mind and refused. And organ transplants, by their very nature, required willing consent. The hospital couldn't force someone to donate. This was a hospital, not some human trafficking ring in Myanmar.
The old woman's family, however, refused to accept that.
Hadn't they promised to give us the organ? How could they just back out like that? If they back out, what are we supposed to do?
The old woman wanted to speak with that person, but because the hospital had kept both sides' information confidential, she had no idea who the would-be donor was. So first she went to the hospital demanding their personal information, intending to go find them herself.
Naturally, the hospital refused. No matter how many times she swore she only wanted to talk and would never harass or force the donor, the hospital still would not disclose any information whatsoever.
The old woman refused to give up. Through phone calls, "chance encounters," rumor-spreading, and even showing up in person, she harassed the hospital director more than thirty times. The director was so fed up after she tracked him down to his own home that he called the police, and even then she still would not stop.
If she could harass a hospital director like this just over a phone number and some personal details, it was hard to imagine what she might have done if she had actually learned the identity of the person who withdrew their consent.
Then one day, the old woman came to the hospital again to keep pleading with the director. On the road outside the hospital entrance, she was hit by a car and later died of her injuries.
Because she had been such an unbearable nuisance, the doctors and nurses all remembered her vividly. Whenever Eiko asked around, she kept hearing people complain about the old woman.
"It's all your fault... all this hospital's fault... If you'd just given me that person's information... I wouldn't have been hit by that car... I wouldn't have died... I want all of you to pay with your lives...!"
Xu Fu said flatly, "This old hag really never realized she was the one in the wrong. Not even after dying..."
Yayoi didn't care about any of that. What she cared about was whether this evil spirit was strong, and how useful it could be after capture.
Keitaro and Eiko quietly retreated to the rear. Their job was already done. From here on, all they had to do was stay safely behind the heavy hitters and shout things like "Go!" or "Let's gooo!"
"AAAAAAAH—!"
The old woman let out a hideous shriek. Moving like a spider, she skittered across the wall on all fours before suddenly lunging forward, claws out, trying to tear Keitaro and the others to pieces.
BANG!
A burst of fire flared with the gunshot, and in that instant a huge chunk of flesh vanished from the evil spirit's left chest. Her left arm, severed completely, blew off on the spot.
"GYAAAAAAAH...!!"
Her shrill scream echoed down the hallway. Red Hood calmly lowered the still-smoking firearm, then picked up her plain-looking kitchen knife and slowly walked forward.
Keitaro and Eiko covered their ears and cowered in the back, terrified. The old woman's scream was horrifying enough, but what had truly scared them was the gunshot. This was the first time either of them had ever encountered a real gun in real life.
"Ogugug..."
As she watched Red Hood approach step by step, the old woman's withered body shook uncontrollably. She prostrated herself and repeatedly slammed her forehead against the floor, begging in a pitiful voice, "I was wrong... I know I was wrong... please... have mercy... don't kill me... please spare me..."
Murky tears mixed with blood streamed from her sunken eye sockets, but the sight did nothing to move Xu Fu and the others.
"You don't know you were wrong. You just know you're about to die," Xu Fu said mercilessly, exposing her true thoughts.
Red Hood said nothing. She simply drew the Drake Sword and drove it into the old woman's body, pinning her to the floor.
"AAAAAH...! Damn you... you little brats...!" Seeing that begging was useless, the old woman instantly tore off the mask and glared at them with eyes weeping blood. "You'll all die miserable deaths...! Go to hell...! Die, die, die, die!"
Red Hood looked down at the foul-mouthed evil spirit from above, then slowly raised one foot.
A sharp rush of air split the silence.
Her shoe smashed into the evil spirit's face.
BANG!
The kick was monstrously heavy. The old woman's head caved in and warped like a pumpkin struck by a sledgehammer. Several blackened teeth flew out together with foul-smelling blood and flesh, splattering against the wall and floor.
"..."
Drool and murky blood dripped from the old woman's mouth. Her head rang so badly she couldn't even form a complete sentence.
If they just finished this old woman off, the curse tormenting Yoshida Kotaro and the others would be broken.
But Yayoi had another idea.
"Can you let me have this evil spirit?"
Yayoi wanted to capture the old woman in front of her.
After a brief moment of thought, Xu Fu said, "Even if we kill this old hag, we won't get much Souls from her. Letting you have her doesn't really matter... Hood, what do you think?"
"Your call," Red Hood replied coolly.
Xu Fu nodded. "All right. Then she's yours, Yayoi."
"Thank you."
The old woman was far too weak. She had probably only become an evil spirit recently, and Xu Fu had no interest in her at all. But Yayoi didn't mind. If she turned the evil spirit into a katashiro, that would be like gaining an extra life in battles against evil spirits—and it could also be used as food for other evil spirits.
Yayoi took out a doll, intending to seal the old woman inside it.
"Ugugug... agugugogog...!!"
When the old woman saw the doll in Yayoi's hand, she seemed to realize the miserable fate awaiting her. She suddenly began struggling violently, thick black miasma surging from her body.
Then, with a tearing rip, she pulled a lizard-tail escape.
She forcibly ripped her own body apart, leaving behind the section that Red Hood had pinned to the ground. Using only one arm, she fled at a speed that could rival Bolt's.
Red Hood's expression shifted. She immediately raised her firearm and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Another shot rang out—but this time, the old woman dodged it.
She'd already been hit by that attack once, so now she was wary.
"That old hag is getting away!"
"After her!"
As the evil spirit fled into the depths of the shadows, Red Hood and Xu Fu charged after her at once. After stuffing the portion of the old woman's body left behind into the doll, Yayoi followed close behind, with Eiko and Keitaro right after her.
Though abandoning most of her body pained her terribly, the old woman knew how to weigh the cost. She could recover the lost flesh by devouring other spirits. But if she was shut inside that little girl's doll, she would never have another chance to rise again.
Keeping a wary eye on those chasing her, she searched the hospital for Wandering Ghosts she could devour. Finding spiritual bodies here was much easier than outside.
"There...! There...! Ahahaha...!"
After rounding a corner, the old woman spotted a little girl's spirit at the far end of the corridor. Her face was blurred and indistinct, and she stood alone in front of a half-open door.
At the sight, the old woman was instantly overjoyed and lunged forward without the slightest hesitation.
Red Hood, Xu Fu, and Yayoi all came around the corner as well. But when they saw the old woman charging toward the little girl's spirit, they stopped in perfect unspoken sync instead of intervening.
Keitaro and Eiko were a little slower. By the time they arrived, the old woman had already seized the little girl's spirit and opened her mouth to devour her.
"That little girl is..."
Keitaro's pupils contracted.
He recognized her. She was the same little girl he had seen in the bathroom mirror.
"Wait... that little girl's in danger!"
"Keitaro, don't go over there!"
At the door at the end of the hallway, the old woman grabbed the little girl by the neck, opened her mouth wide, and bit down hard on her shoulder.
---
T/N: let me know hwo you feel about me bolding the spirits dialogue! if you guys dont let me know ill kill heroic spirit @nonome
anyway uhhh i forgot what other thing i was gonna say
future wise: oh uhhh i already finished this arc soooooooooooo