Chapter 54: Butter Shooter, Making a Grand Return
Within the viscous, rolling black mist, hundreds upon thousands of terrifying pupils emerged. At the same instant, all gazes locked dead onto Yoru.
If it were a normal person, even someone with abnormally strong mental fortitude like Miko, being stared at by so many evil spirits would probably be unbearable.
However, facing the terrifying gazes surrounding him, Yoru just yawned and stretched lazily.
"This feeling... it's a bit like a superstar being watched by millions during a concert."
Yoru waved his hand towards the black mist and smiled enthusiastically.
"Friends in the back row, wave your hands and let me see your enthusiasm, okay~?"
Silence.
Only silence.
Unsurprisingly, no response came from the black mist.
Yoru smiled and shook his head, murmuring to himself.
"As expected, trying to cute-sy my way through won't work."
The frivolous smile on his face gradually disappeared. His clothes fluttered without wind, and on the pure black mask, flames seemed to ignite, twisting slightly.
A faint, extremely ethereal voice rang in Yoru's mind.
"Have you finally decided to tear off all disguises and use your full power?"
"Since the world has become so bizarre, why let yourself be bound by so-called 'normality'?"
"Devour all evil spirits and create a world in your heart that qualifies to be called real."
"Here and now, call out my True Name."
Listening to the voice in his mind, Yoru glanced into the black mist.
That thick, tide-like black mist didn't come from nowhere.
It was formed by the aura emitted from the bodies of hundreds upon thousands of terrifying evil spirits gathered together.
At this moment.
The evil spirits revealed their true forms.
Separated by just one "Door," the Kyoto of the Otherworld and the Physical World were as different as hell and the human realm.
"Use that ability here..."
Facing the encirclement of an astonishing number of evil spirits, Yoru whispered to himself, then chuckled and shook his head.
"Just for this much? Not necessary yet."
Just as Yoru condensed a black Tang sword in his right hand, ready to launch an attack on the gathered evil spirits, he suddenly saw the menacing evil spirits start to flee in panic in all directions.
Moreover, they were emitting sounds of panic like animal roars.
"What is this?"
Yoru looked into the distance and saw a humanoid creature wearing tattered clothes with only a few strands of coarse linen hanging on its body. It was about two meters tall, with skin showing a decaying gray color, walking slowly towards this place.
Although this guy's appearance was weird—obviously not human—compared to other evil spirits living in the Otherworld, it looked quite normal.
At least it had a human shape.
Those other evil spirits all looked like Cthulhu Evil Gods.
The zombie-like humanoid creature seemed completely uninterested in Yoru. It simply reached out, grabbed a frantically fleeing evil spirit, opened its mouth to an exaggerated degree, and took a vicious bite out of it.
Evil spirits felt pain too.
Being devoured alive like this naturally caused it to emit deafening screams.
But the zombie-looking monster didn't slow down at all. Like an emotionless machine, it tore the massive evil spirit into pieces bit by bit in an extremely cruel manner and swallowed it into its stomach.
Yoru stood aside and witnessed the whole process.
He showed no fear at all and even started commenting with interest.
"Your table manners are not elegant at all. Occasional screams can bring a different kind of dining pleasure, but if the whole process is like this, it's a bit too vulgar. My evaluation is: Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit—tasteless."
The zombie evil spirit froze for a moment. It seemed it didn't have enough intelligence to understand Yoru's words.
At the same time.
Yoru was observing this evil spirit, which was different from its kind.
It was true that evil spirits ate other evil spirits.
But this was the first time Yoru had seen such an eating method driven by pure instinctive hatred.
Could it be...
You are also an Attack Titan? (Note: Attack on Titan reference).
Driving every single evil spirit out of this Otherworld without leaving one behind?
Jokes aside, Yoru had actually roughly guessed the true identity of this zombie-looking evil spirit.
Also belonging to the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: The Slaughtering Ghost (Oni of Slaughter).
There were many folklore theories about how the Slaughtering Ghost was created, but they all shared one thing in common.
Although the Slaughtering Ghost was an evil spirit, it constantly slaughtered its own kind. It was known as...
"The Reaper of Yokai"
"Oh my, brother."
Thinking of this, Yoru took two steps forward, unreservedly reached out to pat the Slaughtering Ghost on the shoulder, and said enthusiastically.
"So you are the Slaughtering Ghost. Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. We are in the same line of work."
The Slaughtering Ghost looked bewildered.
It didn't possess human-level or higher intelligence like other powerful evil spirits.
The Slaughtering Ghost was an existence like a machine that constantly exterminated evil spirits based solely on its instinctive hatred for them.
Yoru's words, treating it like a long-lost relative, directly fried its already poorly functioning CPU.
The Slaughtering Ghost stood frozen for a long time. Finally, its nose... no, it couldn't be called a nose anymore.
After all, the flesh on its nose had fallen off completely, leaving only two pitch-black holes.
Anyway, the Slaughtering Ghost used this part to sniff Yoru twice. In its eyes glowing with dark green light, a look of confusion appeared for the first time in thousands of years.
Is this a human?
But why does he have the scent of an evil spirit?
The Slaughtering Ghost shook its head and finally locked its attention on Hachishaku and the Pale Ghost Hand following Yoru.
"Brother..."
Yoru examined the Slaughtering Ghost's two eyeballs emitting dark green light and smiled meaningfully.
"Can I borrow your eyeball for a bit?"
"....."
"Not speaking? Silence means consent. I'll be quick, don't worry."
"ROAR!!!"
"What are you shouting for? What are you shouting for? Didn't I leave one for you? It's good enough that you can still see. What, you wanna watch 3D movies?"
....
Fifteen minutes later, 6:00 PM.
"Why isn't he back yet..."
Miko pursed her lips, staring intently at the "Door" in front of her, her eyes filled with deep worry.
According to the news reports from the scene, the kidnappers in the Kyoto Municipal Kindergarten were dealt with at least half an hour ago.
Yoru still hadn't returned...
Could he have encountered some accident in the Otherworld?
Thinking of this, Miko took a deep breath, looked at Yui beside her, and instructed softly.
"You wait here. I'm going in to find him."
"Eh!"
Seeing Miko about to walk forward after speaking, although Yui couldn't see the "Door," she was quick-eyed and grabbed her, hurriedly dissuading her.
"Going in alone? How is that different from seeking death?"
"I must go. What if he's injured inside!?"
"If even he got injured, wouldn't you going in just make it impossible for you to come out too?"
Just as the two girls were arguing, Yoru, wearing his Sobu High uniform, with not a single hair out of place and looking completely unharmed, walked slowly out of the door. He smiled lightly at Yui and Miko.
"Butter Shooter, making a grand return!