Tokyo: I can enlighten all obsessions

Kamiki Tetsu tossed the shriveled black cochlea in his hand a couple of times, feeling the cold, damp sensation in his palm, and his mood visibly improved.

Although the process was a bit noisy, getting a blue-quality [set piece] made it definitely worthwhile.

"Well, it looks a bit disgusting, but it's still a rare drop."

He muttered something under his breath and casually stuffed the ominous-looking spell into the pocket of his cheap suit.

After doing all this, he slowly turned around, stepping on the rubble and the black blood left by the vengeful spirit, making a "crunching" sound, and walked towards the two people huddled in the corner.

Ren Saionji refused the hand that Hisana Kujo wanted to offer her.

Even though he had almost been cut in half at the waist by the vengeful spirit's wind blade, and the excruciating pain in his abdomen felt like a saw was tearing him apart with every breath, he still gritted his teeth, forcibly controlling his spasming thigh muscles, and shakily straightened his body.

This is the composure of Hong Kong's elite.

As long as you are still alive and can stand, you must never show weakness in front of others.

His expensive bespoke suit was now a tattered rag, mixed with dust and bloodstains, and he looked as disheveled as if he had been pulled out of a sewer.

Even so, the first thing Ren Saionji did after standing still was to raise his hand, which was covered in scratches, and nervously straighten his crooked tie.

Then, he looked up and stared intently at the high school student in front of him who was playing with a utility knife.

Before this, he had never given the people in the Shinjuku branch a second glance.

In his circle, this place was nothing more than a garbage dump used to dispose of waste, a nursing home long abandoned by the times.

But right now.

In this dead end filled with rules of despair, he, the ace, lay on the ground like a dead dog, while the "branch employee" he looked down on the most forcibly tore open a path to survival.

This huge sense of disparity was like a resounding slap in the face, striking his pride hard.

The air remained silent for a full three seconds.

"...Ren Saionji. Minato Ward Countermeasures Officer."

The man finally spoke.

He looked at Kamiki Tetsu, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. The word "thank you" was stuck in his throat, more painful than swallowing a dead rat.

Ren Saionji took a deep breath, enduring the stinging pain in her lungs, lowered her head, and said in a hard tone:

"...I never expected that the person who saved me would be a newcomer from the Shinjuku branch."

"I thank you for your help earlier."

"I will keep track of this favor."

Faced with the solemn promise made by this elite agent.

Kamiki Toru sighed.

He raised his hand and casually scratched his messy hair with the handle of the utility knife, which was still stained with wet blood, making a rustling sound.

Then, under Ren Saionji's gaze, he uttered a string of numbers:

"6229-1028-4472-8819".

Silence fell once again.

The atmosphere of relief and relief that had just been felt was abruptly shattered by this sudden string of numbers.

Ren Saionji was stunned for a moment, her brain seemingly overloaded, before finally tentatively asking:

"...This is your private contact number?"

Although exchanging contact information in this setting is somewhat abrupt, it is, after all, the privilege of the strong.

If it's for easier communication in the future, then so be it...

however.

Kamiki Tetsu stopped scratching his head, gave him a look as if he were an idiot, then shook his head and corrected him:

"Is your phone number really that long?"

"This is a savings card number from Mizuho Bank's Shinjuku branch."

The boy paused, then added very considerately:

"By the way, I only accept instant bank transfers, since I'm worried about checks bouncing."

Ren Saionji's previously tense face finally froze completely.

Even when faced with those twisted and terrifying vengeful spirits, this countermeasure officer had never been so at a loss.

He opened his mouth, as if trying to confirm whether he had misheard something, or whether his auditory nerve was malfunctioning because of the vengeful spirit in his ear.

In this awkward, deathly silence...

"Waaah..."

Kujo Hime let out a mournful cry.

She simply couldn't stand it anymore.

As the shrine maiden of the Shinjuku branch, she felt that her partner had completely disgraced the branch at this moment.

The girl reached out her other hand and tugged hard at Kamiki Tetsu's dusty sleeve, her voice low and filled with anxiety:

"Kamiki-kun! Shut up!"

"Whether it's extortion or debt collection, please wait until we get back, okay?!"

As she spoke, she frantically tried to wink at Toru Kamiki, attempting to awaken this money-grubbing man's professional ethics:

"Don't forget we still have important business to attend to!"

"A mission! A mission!"

Kujou Hisana leaned close to Kamiki Toru's ear and urgently reminded him in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Those four missing First Division investigators... while they're most likely gone, the [high-value cursed artifacts] they were carrying are definitely still at the scene!"

When the girl mentioned the words "high value," she emphasized the pronunciation.

"According to regulations, there's a hefty commission for recycling this equipment! If it gets swallowed or damaged by other vengeful spirits, we'll have made a wasted trip!"

"Oh, right!"

Kamiki Tetsuya seemed to have been suddenly switched on, and his previous lazy and frivolous demeanor vanished instantly.

He dusted off his suit, as if the person who had just asked for money wasn't him at all.

"I almost forgot the important thing: recovering public property is our inescapable responsibility."

After he finished speaking, he turned his head and looked at the man who was barely standing.

"Hey, can you still move? Investigator Saionji."

"After all, we need to retrieve the bodies... I mean, the equipment. We might go deeper into the area next."

Ren Saionji took a deep breath.

Despite the lingering pain from his abdominal wound, which felt like a burning sensation with every step, he gritted his teeth, nodded, and pulled a tactical terminal with a shattered screen from his pocket.

"No problem, don't underestimate the resilience of the Minato Ward Countermeasures Division."

Even with serious injuries, this elite maintained his professionalism.

He adjusted his breathing, temporarily ignoring the still-bleeding abdominal wound, and his tone became unusually grave:

"Thank you again for the rescue."

"Although we were in a sorry state, we haven't been completely without achievements in the ten or so minutes we've been in this [Calamity Domain]."

Ren Saionji's fingers swiped rapidly across the broken screen, bringing up a simplified map model filled with red warning icons, which she then pushed in front of Toru Kamiki and Hina Kujo:

"This is intelligence we obtained at a terrible cost... even at the cost of several operators."

Ren Saionji's voice was low and heavy, filled with suppressed pain.

"I'm now sharing all the underlying rules of this realm and the distribution of vengeful spirits with you."

Ren Saionji took a deep breath and tapped his finger heavily on the cracked screen.

"The enemy we encountered was not a chaotic bunch of wandering ghosts."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over Kamiki Tetsu's shoulder, and surveyed the massive ear remains, now reduced to black ash:

"Based on the contact records we obtained with our blood, what governs this area... is a [Calamity] level spiritual barrier corresponding to the five human senses."

"Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch."

"These five concepts are personified as five extremely terrifying 'vengeful spirits,' which roam this enclosed space, hunting down the senses of any intruder."

At this point, Saionji Ren paused, his face darkening.

Clearly, the experience of being humiliated by that "hearing" vengeful spirit was an extremely unpleasant memory for him.

There were originally five.

"They were interdependent, forming a perfect sensory hell. Our team was defeated one by one because it couldn't handle the rule-breaking of multiple senses at the same time."

He turned his head and looked at Shinki Tetsu, a complex meaning creeping into his eyes:

"But things are different now."

"You just killed the monster that represented hearing."

Ren Saionji crossed out a red mark on the screen, then held up four fingers, his voice cold and deep:

"So, barring any unforeseen circumstances."

"There are four left blocking our way."

"The five senses...?"

Upon hearing this word, Toru Kamiki frowned slightly.

He subconsciously pressed the "eavesdropping cochlea" in his pocket through the fabric.

The previous "eyeball" was not simply vision, but "voyeurism".

The "ear" mentioned earlier wasn't just about hearing, but rather "eavesdropping."

Both of them have one thing in common.

That is a morbid invasion of other people's privacy.

If we follow this logic...

The remaining three cannot possibly be as simple and pure as "smell", "taste" and "touch".

However... Kamiki Tetsu's brows did not relax after he figured this out; instead, they furrowed even more.

Something's not right.

He muttered something under his breath, his gaze sweeping over the room, now a scene of devastation from the battle.

Although these two monsters have disgusting rules and troublesome abilities, in the end, the "class" they display is really too low.

They're like rats in the gutter, only good at hiding in the shadows and doing shady things.

This level of resentment, at best, only puts one at the level of a "third-class evil spirit".

Even if there are five of them, they are just five larger rats.

How could it possibly live up to the rating of "Fourth Grade - Calamity", which symbolizes "disaster"?

more importantly--

Kamiki Tetsu recalled the intense dizziness he felt when he first stepped into the apartment complex.

That was a forced "spatial displacement".

It's not just about pulling people into the barrier; it completely ignores the laws of physics and forcibly separates them, who are investigators.

This grand undertaking rewrites reality and reshapes space...

"Hey, this level of power isn't something a few perverts who like to eavesdrop or peep on women showering could create, right?"

Kamiki Tetsu looked at Saionji Ren, lost in thought:

"Can a mere desire to invade privacy really become a spiritual obstacle to one's domain?"

"There's definitely something even more powerful hiding behind these five vengeful spirits."

"you're right."

Ren Saionji nodded solemnly.

He clutched his abdominal wound, his gaze sweeping over the distorted walls around him.

"In fact, after we entered this place, the analysis class of the Countermeasures Department had put forward a similar hypothesis."

"A concept based solely on the five senses is insufficient to support such a vast field."

As he said this, he clenched his fists, his tone filled with deep resentment:

"But unfortunately, we were unable to verify this."

"That spatial displacement completely shattered our tactical formation."

"Forced to separate, isolated in different rooms, and then systematically defeated by targeted rules..."

He stared at the extinguished signals on the screen, his voice heavy:

"As for the real core hiding behind the scenes... we haven't even had a chance to take a look."