Chapter 14: Subsequent Follow-Up
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Yamabe District, Yamazoe Village.
The residents who had survived the unprecedented disaster were all hiding in their homes. The main streets were deserted, as silent as a ghost town, broken only by the occasional clatter of patrol boots striking the pavement.
These were protective measures arranged by the authorities to prevent any further disasters from occurring... or so the official explanation went.
In reality...
A sliver of light seeped into the dim room. The air reeked of dried beer. Takeout boxes were piled everywhere, blankets and quilts lay crumpled in heaps, and a dispirited young man sat in a daze.
Yamada Ryoka lifted the corner of the curtain. His vacant eyes peered out at the world beyond. When he saw the armed patrol passing by, his fist clenched hard, his teeth grinding together.
Those bastards claimed to be here to help the disaster victims through their ordeal, but in truth they were merely the authorities' lackeys, here to monitor the residents and prevent them from contacting the outside world! Yamazoe Village had been completely cut off. Everything that had happened here was being concealed by the government!
No one knew the truth of the situation. The public had no idea that what had truly destroyed Yamazoe Village was not a natural disaster, but demons!
He had seen it with his own eyes: a person dragged away by strands of spider silk and swallowed by that wicked monster.
He had already compared the descriptions. It was the great yokai of Japanese legend—the Tsuchigumo!
“A pack of damned traitors! How dare they deceive the people like this!”
At the thought of the truth being concealed, Yamada Ryoka slammed his fist into the wall, overcome with grief.
His mother... His mother had died at the hands of that beast! Yet there was nothing he could do. All he could do was squat in his room, sunk in misery.
The more he thought about it, the more his fury grew, but still, he could do nothing.
Clang, clang...
Suddenly, the sound of metal cans knocking together rang out in the room. He turned his head woodenly and saw that, at some unknown point, a strange man in a suit had appeared.
He was strange because he stood inside the room holding a black umbrella, even though the door had never opened.
“You’re angry and desperate.”
The mysterious umbrella-bearing man gave a quiet chuckle. A pale hand placed the last metal can atop the others, and a tower of cans was born.
Twenty-three cans.
“Would you like to see your mother?”
At those words, most of Yamada Ryoka’s wariness instantly crumbled. He stood there stammering, his gaze fixed on the black umbrella before him, then nodded vigorously.
“I would!”
With another soft chuckle, the black umbrella slowly spun once. A blue light gathered across its surface and converged at the tip. Amid Yamada Ryoka’s shock, excitement, and unease, it gradually transformed into the figure he knew better than anyone.
A gentle young widow with long black hair tied in a low side ponytail stood with her eyes softly closed, as though lost in a dream.
Yamada Yakuko—his mother.
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“Mother!”
Yamada Ryoka leapt forward, opening his arms to embrace her, only to pass straight through her. A moment later, an umbrella jabbed into his abdomen. He looked up, only to see the mysterious man open the umbrella again, hiding his face behind it.
“Do not get excited. This woman is currently a spirit. She has no pain and no troubles, but likewise... no awareness.”
Thump.
With a decisive motion, he dropped to his knees.
Bang.
His forehead struck the floor in a flawless prostration.
“Please! I don’t care what you want me to do. As long as you can bring my mother back, I’ll do anything!”
Even if it meant becoming a demon and turning this dark nation upside down!
“Don’t make me sound like some evil mastermind,” the umbrella-bearing man said, seemingly with a sigh. His tone, however, was cheerful. “Resurrecting a soul is a very troublesome business.”
“I’ll pay any price!”
“Then let’s go.”
Go? Where?
The instant the thought arose, he felt the world around him change. The tatami beneath his knees became sharp, stinging gravel. He raised his head, and when he realized where he was, his pupils instinctively contracted.
Endless low hills stretched into the distance, covered in yellow earth and drifting dust. The land was desolate and bitterly cold.
At the far end stood a Self-Defense Force encampment guarding a massive entrance. He remembered that this was where the Tsuchigumo had departed.
“Are you ready?”
Ready for what?
Before Yamada Ryoka could ask, a pale hand covered in bulging veins extended from beneath the umbrella. In the next instant—
Whoosh!
Countless black shadows howled as they clawed their way out of the earth. They were black as ink, their cries as shrill as those of vengeful ghosts. Their vague outlines suggested human forms.
The umbrella-bearing man waved his hand casually, and the shadows surged toward Yamada Ryoka. In the blink of an eye, they engulfed him completely. Wave after wave threw themselves forward, and in an instant they became a liquid-like black sphere.
“Ah!”
Yamada Ryoka’s agonized scream echoed from within. As time passed, it gradually weakened. Then, at some critical point, the black sphere began to collapse. Yamada Ryoka’s figure twisted into a vortex, drawing every shadow into his body without allowing a single one to escape.
Only after the last shadow had vanished did he collapse to the ground, utterly drained, gasping for breath.
Then he suddenly felt countless powers surge within him. Instinctively, he kicked against the ground and sprang upright in one fluid motion. Knowledge that did not belong to him flashed through his mind, one piece after another.
“Congratulations. You have become the vessel of one thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight restless souls. In accordance with the principle of equivalent exchange, you must return one thousand seven hundred and forty souls of the vilest kind to me. The final two are interest.”
“You!”
Yamada Ryoka had no time to investigate the changes within his body. He looked up, but all he saw was the last flicker of black flame.
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He clenched his fists.
“One thousand seven hundred and forty souls of the vilest kind...”
Feeling the power surging through him, he let out a long breath, his gaze resolute.
He had no idea what qualified as “the vilest kind,” but with a population of hundreds of millions in this island nation, he refused to believe he could not gather enough!
Now...
“Let me see what obsession drives the dead.”
He turned his gaze toward the Self-Defense Force camp in the distance. Yamada Ryoka’s body slowly liquefied and seeped into the ground, advancing in the form of a shadow.
———
Bunkyo Ward, the rooftop of Sobu High School.
“You work fast.”
During lunch, Minazuki Shiro watched the scene unfolding through the subordinate he had just recruited. It made for a rather appetizing spectacle.
Everyone knew that boxed lunches in Japan were served cold, while the blood of the island nation’s people ran hot. In a certain sense, this meal came with a hot side dish.
Yamada Yakuko’s soul was genuine. He was no capitalist; if he wanted the horse to run fast, he had to feed it well. After careful selection, Yamada Ryoka—who had depended on his mother alone since childhood—had caught his eye.
“So this world has no reincarnation either. Once things develop enough, I can expand into other areas.”
Minazuki Shiro considered the matter privately.
He did not yet know where the souls of this world ultimately went. Capturing Yamada Yakuko’s soul had been an experiment, and it happened to make a suitable year-end bonus.
Everything depended on how much Yamada Ryoka loved his mother.
Watching the wish-force come in, Minazuki Shiro was in an excellent mood. Still, he could not afford to become too complacent. He had to make every resource count.
[The Umbrella-Bearer]
[Rank: Third Tier]
[Abilities: Unfathomable Visage, Black Solar Flame, Spirit Absorption...]
“A new disguise really is convenient.”
When his gaze shifted to the amount of wish-force, Minazuki Shiro’s mood improved even further.
“The Tsuchigumo does not need to appear for now. Let it honestly ‘recover.’ As for Yamada Ryoka, we’ll see how he performs going forward. Spider Cutter... find it a suitable host. As for the rest, it’s time to start with the civilians.”
As for where to begin...
Everyone knew that the island nation produced an abundance of terrifying ghost stories.
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