Chapter 372: Return to the Otherworld
"Her life force... it recovers automatically?"
The Nine-Tailed Fox was shocked as it sensed the change in the life force within Yurikawa Hana's body, followed by a surge of secret ecstasy. Originally, it had merely viewed Hana as one of those rare ordinary humans born with exceptionally strong vitality, which is why it had decided to save her until now to repair the remaining fragments of its heart-jade.
But it never expected that Yurikawa Hana's life force was renewable! Moreover, the recovery speed was quite staggering.
"Is it because she ate food?"
The Nine-Tailed Fox's eyes quickly darted toward the tower of empty bowls stacked on the table. If its memory wasn't failing, Hana's life force had begun to gradually recover the moment she started eating.
"In other words, as long as I keep feeding this body, she can produce a continuous stream of life force for me to heal my wounds?"
The moment this thought surfaced, the Nine-Tailed Fox wasted no time in verifying it.
"Boss, another bowl!"
The shop owner, who had just breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Yurikawa Hana finally put down her chopsticks, froze when he heard the request for another bowl of noodles.
"Um, little girl... you've already eaten so much. Are you really okay?"
Wiping sweat from his forehead, the owner inquired cautiously. The portions at his shop were quite generous, and Hana had specifically ordered the largest options available.
"I told you to serve it, so serve it! Why so much nonsense!"
If it weren't for the fact that exposing itself was unwise right now, the Nine-Tailed Fox would have started a massacre long ago. Hearing this insignificant human dare to question its decision, the Fox leaked a tiny sliver of its aura. The sheer pressure caused the owner to collapse directly onto the floor in terror.
However, things often happen by pure coincidence.
Hikigaya Hachiman, who was searching the streets for traces of the Fox, was currently only two blocks away. Sensing the leaked aura, Hachiman snapped his head up.
"Is it actively luring me over?"
The Fox's aura lasted less than a second before vanishing again. Realizing the target was not far away and situated in a busy downtown area, a flash of hesitation crossed Hachiman's face.
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"Your noodles are here."
The waiter glanced at the owner slumped on the floor and then, with a fawning expression, served the noodles the Nine-Tailed Fox demanded.
[I'm full...]
Picking up the chopsticks, the Nine-Tailed Fox was about to test its theory when a thought flashed through its mind—Hana's consciousness felt completely satiated. The Fox said nothing, simply beginning to drain the life force from Hana's body in silence. As her vitality weakened, the feeling of fullness vanished instantly, replaced by a desperate, gnawing hunger.
"So that's how it is."
As the noodles entered her mouth, the Fox didn't care about the taste, instead focusing on the sensation. Yurikawa Hana's stomach was like an endless conversion engine; once her life force dropped below a certain threshold, it would automatically convert all ingested food into vitality. And seemingly, there was no upper limit to this conversion!
"Leaving immediately!"
Having confirmed its theory, the Nine-Tailed Fox instantly abandoned its plan to destroy Tokyo for now. It decided to hide in some remote town instead. After all, given enough time and enough food for Hana, it would have an inexhaustible supply of life force!
But just as the Fox prepared to stand up, it realized that at some point, the pedestrians outside the street had completely vanished. Turning back toward the shop, the owner who had been sitting on the floor and the waiter who had been busy in the kitchen were also gone.
"I thought you had set a trap for me, but did you just accidentally leak your presence?"
Pushing the door open, Hachiman saw at a glance that Yurikawa Hana's body had been occupied by the Nine-Tailed Fox. A pang of worry for Hana's safety flashed through his heart, but on the surface, Hachiman stood calmly in the hall, waiting for the Fox's response.
"How troublesome..."
Looking at the persistent Hachiman, the Fox's expression turned incredibly grim. It had only leaked a sliver of aura out of irritation, and the range of detection should have been at most one kilometer. Tokyo was so vast—how could Hachiman just happen to be within that one kilometer?!
BANG!
Without warning, the ground beneath Hachiman's feet cracked open. His body instantly lost its balance, falling downward, but Hachiman didn't panic in the least. Spiritual power within him condensed into the Ghost-Slaying Blade to parry a frontal assault from the Fox, while another portion of his energy transformed into a spiritual flow that propped him back up to the surface.
"Stronger again?"
Seeing Hachiman fluidly manifest his spiritual power into various forms, the Fox felt a surge of annoyance. It had gone through so much trouble to absorb the three spirit beasts and recover its strength, yet Hachiman had caught up again in such a short time!
Taking advantage of the Fox's momentary distraction, Hachiman launched a proactive attack. Spiritual flows coiled toward the Fox from both sides, while he simultaneously sealed off the sky and the ground to prevent escape.
However, facing Hachiman's attack, the Fox merely shot him a contemptuous look. A pitch-black rift opened in the air behind it, instantly swallowing its entire form.
"That's—!"
The familiar aura emanating from the rift immediately reminded Hachiman of the otherworld space where he had summoned Rimuru long ago.
"This is bad..."
He thought of the dense swarms of evil spirits of all ranks within that otherworld, and those three Ghost Gods—who, while they had fled upon seeing Rimuru, were actually god-tier entities. If the Nine-Tailed Fox managed to connect that otherworld with reality...
Just thinking of the possibility made Hachiman's mood turn sour.
In reality, Hachiman's worries were somewhat redundant. He wasn't the only one who knew about the spirit-filled otherworld. The reason the Chief Exorcist of Tokyo left it alone was naturally because countermeasures were in place to prevent those spirits from emerging on a large scale.
Meanwhile, inside the otherworld: A rift snapped open in the sky, and the figure of the Nine-Tailed Fox abruptly appeared in a wasteland of ruined buildings.
"The scent of a human?"
Yurikawa Hana's vigorous life force was like a lone beacon in the dead of night, instantly attracting every evil spirit within several hundred meters.
Gazing at the spirits surrounding it with greedy eyes for this precious vessel, the Nine-Tailed Fox snorted coldly. One by one, bursts of black spiritual "fireworks" erupted around the Fox, obliterating the encroaching shadows.
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