Chapter 53: Onmyoryo Action Specialist

"There is no problem at all."

"What do you think?"

"Who knows."

"No way."

"That's hilarious."

The original head stretched and elongated, while the remaining four heads, tangled with long hair and dripping with slime, wriggled out from within the torso.

The five heads first looked at each other, letting out different, eerie laughs, and then turned simultaneously to look at the people outside the carriage.

This bizarre and grotesque scene made even Uesugi Toru, standing directly behind her, twitch his facial muscles.

This ghost looks way too abstract...

A moment later, two pitch-black stars appeared above the heads of the five schoolgirls, instantly dispelling Uesugi Toru's thoughts of stabbing from behind.

Because unless he used Kaga Kiyomitsu, he probably wouldn't be able to sever all five heads in a short time, and if he took out Kaga Kiyomitsu, his identity would be directly exposed in front of Kitano Runa.

The tram only stopped for a few minutes, and getting entangled then would not be worth the trouble.

During the few seconds Uesugi Toru was weighing the pros and cons, a pot-bellied middle-aged man slowly emerged from the thick fog not far away.

The man wore a tattered suit, with a stiff smile plastered across his face.

Likewise, two stars appeared above his head.

——[Sumidagawa High School Dean of Students (2-Star)]

With Uesugi Toru's eyesight, he could naturally see that a deserted and dilapidated school was nestled behind the thick fog.

A crooked roadside sign stood by the road, bearing the characters [Sumidagawa High School].

"These guys had better pray for their own luck."

At this, Uesugi Toru didn't even take a step past the tram threshold—two 2-star fiends were already more than enough to easily pin him to the roadside and crush him to death.

"A-A ghost!"

The auntie who had run the fastest screamed, collapsing onto the ground in a heap, dropping even her smartphone from sheer fright.

She wanted to crawl toward the tram, but the moment she turned her head, she locked eyes with the ten eyes of the five-headed schoolgirl.

"Ah—!"

The auntie shrieked, then actually passed out right there on the path.

But the malevolent ghost, brimming with overwhelming resentment, couldn't care less whether you were dead or alive. The dean let out an eerie, low chuckle, grabbed the auntie by her ankles, and hoisted her up.

Then, he swallowed the unconscious auntie whole, piece by piece, until her originally emaciated abdomen swelled up, tearing the lower hem of her suit and swaying in mid-air like a bloated stomach pouch.

Seeing this, the remaining students also let out terrified screams, stumbling and fleeing in all directions like headless flies.

One female high school student who screamed the loudest actually ran straight into the eerie grounds of Sumidagawa School, and within two seconds of her figure disappearing, a shrill, miserable scream echoed out.

Uesugi Toru remained indifferent.

He figured that if anyone had run toward the tram initially, he could have lent a hand to block those five schoolgirls.

Even now, when the five schoolgirls had excitedly left the tram entrance to hunt for food, still no one ran toward this lifeline of a tram.

These people were utterly, hopelessly foolish.

Go back and sit down—

The exact moment this thought crossed Uesugi Toru's mind, his peripheral vision caught the blurry shadow of a girl's ponytail.

"——Run into the tram! Everyone!"

It was Hattori Ayako.

Without a moment's hesitation, she stepped across the tram threshold and sprinted wildly toward Miyanoya, who was slumped on the ground, having lost control of both his bladder and bowels in terror.

Save whoever she could!

Seizing the brief moment when the five schoolgirls looked away toward the other side, Hattori Ayako extended her palm toward him: "Miyanoya-kun! Take my hand!"

At this moment, in Miyanoya's eyes, Hattori Ayako—who was usually at odds with him—looked like an angel descending from heaven, nearly moving him to tears of collapse.

Yet, how could the five schoolgirls possibly miss such a commotion?

"That's hilarious."

One of her heads instantly stretched out, wearing a horrifying, ferocious smile as it sprinted directly toward Hattori Ayako.

"Hattori—"

Miyanoya's eyes bulged, his vision splitting with rage, wanting to warn Hattori Ayako, who had just grasped his hand.

However, how could an ordinary human possibly react faster than a 2-Star fiend?

By the time Hattori Ayako turned her head in astonishment, the creepily smiling schoolgirl head was already face-to-face with her, within arm's reach.

Yet, instead of being scared back, she gritted her teeth through her trembling and tried to grab the head and neck with both hands: "Miyanoya-kun! Run!"

Miyanoya scrambled on all fours, frantically charging back toward the tram, but that head had already touched the fabric of Hattori Ayako's abdomen.

Her death was practically a foregone conclusion.

A helpless sigh rang out.

"Sigh..."

Boom!

The air detonated. Five dark, muscular, corded fingers clamped tightly around the schoolgirl's neck, forcing a hoarse, piercing shriek from her throat.

The hood and fox mask slid back slowly, revealing Hannya's expressionless, smiling face: "Classmate, would you like to try the latest outdoor asphyxiation game?"

The four heads that had originally stretched out toward the surroundings snapped back simultaneously, only to freeze instantly in a state of intense shock the moment they laid eyes on Hannya's true face.

Uesugi Toru noticed this detail—so this was the so-called "Might of Gods and Demons."

Considered a passive skill. Not bad.

Naturally, Hattori Ayako, who was looking at him, also stood frozen stiff until Uesugi Toru said coldly, "Why aren't you running yet?"

Hattori Ayako gratefully withdrew her gaze and quickly ran back inside the tram.

"Hmm... Is anyone else still outside?"

Uesugi Toru glanced around, finding that the remaining people had either died horrible deaths on the spot or had already squeezed themselves into the dean's stomach pouch.

In that case, there was no longer any reason to linger outside.

He smiled at the schoolgirl, whose ten pupils were filled with malice, as a wood-splitting hatchet materialized out of thin air in his hand: "Classmate, we shall meet again another day."

With that, the hatchet chopped down fiercely!

To Uesugi Toru's surprise, the hatchet—with its somewhat blunt edge—easily and effortlessly severed a neck as thick as an ordinary person's calf.

The effect of this "Greed, Hatred, and Ignorance" was unexpectedly quite good.

Uesugi Toru raised an eyebrow as he heard the shrill roars of the five... no, now four schoolgirls.

"This is bad, time to get on the train."

Naturally, the speed at which the schoolgirl could stretch her neck couldn't match Uesugi Toru's foot speed, so she could only watch helplessly as Uesugi Toru stepped back into the tram, flying into a rage of utter powerlessness.

"As expected, I can't attack within the tram's zone? Is this some kind of rule?" Uesugi Toru pondered, "Or is it because the tram itself is an immensely powerful urban legend?"

There was no immediate answer to this hypothesis, but by contrast, Uesugi Toru noticed that the number of passengers in the carriage had changed to "2" after the five schoolgirls got off.

Not only that, but that number had been "1" before he went back out.

"In other words, only urban legends and fiends count as passengers inside this vehicle."

Uesugi Toru raised his head and found everyone's gazes focused on his face—to be precise, on the Hannya mask.

Gratitude, fear, curiosity... various emotions intertwined.

Yet, Uesugi Toru couldn't be bothered to care, because the well-fed dean outside was walking toward the tram, looking as though he wanted to board as well.

This was an unstable factor...

Hattori Ayako, standing near the door, said, "We can't let that monster on! He'll eat—"

"Let that fellow outside board."

At that moment, however, someone interrupted her.

Uesugi Toru glanced sideways to see a young woman sitting in the corner, holding a slender cane with her eyes closed, as she spoke:

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Hannya."

Her phrasing was impeccably polite, yet it sent an inexplicable chill down Uesugi Toru's spine.

"—I am Kujo Tsubaki, a 2-Star Action Specialist of the Onmyoryo."