While I was chanting a curse, the system said I was Xiao Yan?

Haibara Yu jumped out of the car, closed the door, and jogged after him. His eyes were bright, and his face showed the excitement of a newborn calf that was not afraid of tigers.

"Wow, this is Kabukicho! This is my first time here!"

Tianyan glanced at him: "First time?"

"Um!"

Haibara Yu nodded vigorously: "I've only ever seen it on TV before, I never imagined it would look like this in daylight... well, a bit shabby."

"It's a bit dilapidated during the day, but it's a different story at night."

Tianyan withdrew his gaze: "But we're not here to play around. We'll leave once the mission is complete. Don't linger on the streets. This is the world of adults, not a place for people our age to set foot in."

"Understood!" Haibara Yu's voice was full of energy.

Nanami Kento nodded in agreement, immediately feeling that this new senior was very reliable and reassuring.

If Gojo Satoru-senpai were here, he would probably encourage them to hang out here at night. Nanami thinks she would definitely refuse, but Haibara Yu might not.

The three walked along the street for about five minutes and then stopped in front of a building.

It was a four-story building with mottled exterior walls, broken windows, and an entrance locked with rusty chains, indicating that no one had been there for a long time. However, the sign on the front of the building was still faintly discernible, indicating that it had once been a dance hall.

Tianyan pushed open the car door and got out, glancing up at the building.

A faint smell of decay, mixed with alcohol and perfume, wafted from the building. It was the scent of curses, but also the real smell, the lingering aura of the building before it was abandoned.

Haibara Yu's voice held a hint of excitement: "This must be it! The aura of the curse is very strong!"

"Um."

Tianyan pulled the mission sheet out of his pocket and glanced at it again: "The address shown on the mission..."

Standing at the entrance, I compared the address above the dark, gaping entrance with the real one.

"This is it."

A putrid, cloying smell wafted out, mixed with dust and mold.

Haibara Yu peeked inside, then shrank back, muttering, "It's so dark..."

Nanami didn't speak, but his fingers curled slightly, and his knuckles turned white.

Tianyan noticed the two people's reactions.

The darkness somewhat dampened Haibara Yu's excitement, replacing it with a cautious tension.

Nanami's expression remained unchanged, but his breathing became slightly faster than before, a natural reaction of his body under pressure.

Two newcomers, their first real-world experience.

It's normal to feel nervous.

Tianyan didn't say anything like "Don't be nervous," because those words wouldn't have helped. He simply took out two milk candies from his pocket and handed one to each of them.

"Take it."

Haibara Yu took the candy, then paused for a moment, "Senpai, what's this...?"

"toffee."

Tianyan unwrapped the milk candy and popped it into his mouth: "Holding it in my mouth, it's sweet, it can help clear my head."

Haibara Yu looked at the milk candy in his hand, then at Tenyan, and then smiled.

"Thank you, senior!"

He unwrapped the candy, popped it into his mouth, and a small puff appeared on his cheek.

Nanami looked down at the candy in her palm, paused for a second, then quietly unwrapped it and put it in her mouth.

The sweetness melted in his mouth, and his shoulders relaxed slightly for a moment.

"Let's go."

He turned and walked towards the doorway: "I'll go first, Haibara in the middle, and Nanami behind. Keep your distance and don't get separated."

"Yes!" Haibara Yu's voice echoed in the doorway, carrying a youthful vigor.

Nanami nodded without saying anything, but his steps were a bit more steady than before.

Tianyan stepped into the darkness.

Behind the door was a narrow corridor with yellowed wallpaper on the walls on both sides. The patterns on the wallpaper were no longer visible, leaving only stains of varying shades.

Most of the fluorescent tubes overhead were broken; only two or three were still lit, emitting a buzzing electrical sound and a pale white light.

At the end of the corridor was a double door. Tianyan walked to the door and pushed it open.

The door wasn't locked.

He pushed open the door, and behind it was a spacious hall.

This must be the former dance hall.

The high ceiling and mirrors embedded in the walls reflected blurry light and shadows.

The floor was an old-fashioned parquet floor, the paint was almost worn away, revealing the grayish-white wood grain underneath.

Directly opposite the entrance is a stage, on which stands a steel pipe. The chrome plating on the pipe has rusted and is mottled.

The hall was dark, with only a few windows high up letting in a faint light that streaked across the air in gray-white beams.

The air was thick with that sweet, rotten smell, several times stronger than at the entrance.

Tianyan stood at the door, his gaze sweeping across the hall.

"There's something there."

Haibara Yu peeked out from behind him, his hand already gripping a cursed tool—a short sword with intricate runes engraved on its blade, gleaming faintly with a blue light in the dim light.

Nanami Kento stood at the very back, holding a knife wrapped in incantation paper, with incantation power beginning to condense on it.

Tianyan could sense something moving in the corner of the hall.

more than one.

"The three on the left."

Nanami Kento whispered, "The two on the right, and the ones behind..."

Before he could finish speaking, a rustling sound came from above.

Tianyan raised his head.

On the ceiling, several distorted, cursed spirits hung upside down, like bats, their limbs gripping the gaps in the ceiling, their bodies suspended in mid-air.

They are not large, the largest being no more than half a meter long. They look like flattened lizards, with grayish-black skin covered with tiny bumps. Their four claws are long and thin, with nails that are curved like hooks.

Their eyes were scarlet, gleaming with a greedy light in the darkness.

"They are all level three."

Tianyan's voice was calm: "Haibara, three on the left, Nanami, two on the right."

"What about the top one?" Haibara asked.

"Leave the rest to me."

As soon as the words were spoken, a cursed spirit on the ceiling released its claws and slammed down on the three of them like a stone!

Tianyan didn't even move.

He simply raised his right hand, fingers spread, palm facing the falling cursed spirit.

"call out!"

A black iron-colored bone spike shot out from the palm, moving so fast that it left a black afterimage in the air, and precisely pierced through the body of the cursed spirit.

"grumble!"

A short, sharp scream.

The bone spikes pinned the cursed spirit to the ceiling, and black liquid dripped down the spikes onto the floor, making a faint corrosive sound.

The cursed spirit's body twitched twice, then quickly withered and turned into a cloud of blackish-gray mist.

Haibara Yu's eyes widened, his mouth slightly agape: "So fast..."

Nanami Kento's pupils also contracted. Although the light was dim, he still couldn't see clearly. The speed of the Tianyan bone spur was too fast for his eyes to keep up with.