Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

Poke, poke.

Wait, isn't that an angel sitting behind her?

She glanced at the proctor and saw that he was far away from her, so Zhi immediately turned her head to see why the angel was poking her.

What came into view was a silver-haired girl engrossed in answering questions, but a piece of draft paper was pushed in front of her, on which was written: "Please treat the answer sheet kindly. If you kill it, there will be nowhere to answer the questions."

Hey, is this incredibly naive suggestion really written by that angel who can work with Dark Spirits?

To be honest, if she wanted to kill the answer sheet-taker, she'd need her old Mystic Eyes of Death Perception; now she could only poke a few holes in it with a pencil. Besides, she has two answer sheets here, one of which has your name written on it, girl.

Suppressing the urge to complain, she forced a smile, nodded to the angel, then restrained the malice she was about to unleash and obediently continued writing "On the Method of Cutting Open the Throat in the Easiest Way".

Time slipped away slowly amidst the scratching of pencils and the gentle snoring of the group leader.

The maliciously written answer sheet is complete. I'm confident that if the examiner reads it carefully, they'll immediately become a murderer.

Once she finished, Asahina became nervous, because at the end of the exam, she needed to help Ori distract the proctor so that she would have enough time to replace Angel's answer sheet.

But why make her do this?!

"As for Asahina, all she has to do is act cute towards that middle-aged man, and she can inflict tons of damage on him!"

This was another instruction from the captain, and as Asahina recalled it, a cheerful smile appeared on her face.

That bright, cheerful smile is so relatable! If you changed Yuri's hair color and eye color, she would look exactly like another leader.

She shook her head violently, recalling the voice and smile of the person who was once most important to her. She took a deep breath and suddenly stood up from her seat when the exam ended.

"T-Teacher!"

"Um, is there anything I can help you with, young man?"

The middle-aged man looked over; now was the moment to decide the winner!

Clench your right hand into a cat's paw shape, raise it slightly and place it next to your head, while slowly tilting your head to create a natural expression, and finally gently open your mouth to deliver the fatal blow.

"Meow--?"

Asahina used a cute attack!

The classroom fell silent for a second, then two streams of blood gushed from the noses, splattering the aisle.

Attack detected! Exceptionally effective! The proctor suffered tons of damage!

The classroom floor looks completely red! It's definitely not just the proctor who's suffered tons of damage; just listen to the howling of wolves, and you'll know how many innocent boys have had their first blood taken!

The sound of the teacher's bulky body collapsing to the ground, along with the commotion in the classroom, startled the sleeping group leader. She raised her head blankly, subconsciously raising her hand to wipe the corner of her mouth. Inadvertently, she knocked a remote control to the ground, with the buttons facing directly at the floor.

As Otonashi was marveling at how powerful each of the Ashes was, a sudden sense of crisis sent a chill down his spine. Before he could even locate the source of the danger, the seat equipped with jet thrusters carried him straight toward the ceiling.

bump--!

The classroom fell silent again. Zhi's eyes twitched as she replaced the angel's answer sheet with her murderous work.

The entire process went completely unnoticed. The series of unexpected events left all the students in the classroom staring blankly at the chair that had fallen straight down after the fuel ran out, and at the poor newcomer whose head was stuck in the ceiling, dangling there precariously.

Asahina's hand was still holding the cat's paw, and the leader was wiping drool from the corner of his mouth.

Zhi placed the collected answer sheets on the chest of the fallen teacher, just like the stacks of paper money offered at a grave.

The battles on the afterlife front were, as always, a chaotic mess.

————————————————————————————————————————

Are you two afraid of sunlight?

In the infirmary, Xiaoyan was confirming the race of two boys who appeared to have been attacked by vampires.

The person being questioned, who was asked to stand in the sunlight, shook his head.

Are you afraid of flowing water?

The tap in the health room was turned on, and the two people being questioned shook their heads again.

"Do you dare to eat garlic?"

She pulled out two cloves of garlic from somewhere and stuffed them into their hands.

"Are we really supposed to eat this?"

The baby-faced boy stared reluctantly at the food that emitted a pungent odor.

"Yes."

The girl with long, straight black hair nodded seriously.

After exchanging a glance with the bespectacled staff officer, Da Shan closed his eyes and threw the garlic into his mouth, immediately bursting into tears from the spiciness.

Observing the two people's reactions carefully, it was found that Takamatsu, the experimental subject, remained calm, while Oyama, the reference subject, seemed unable to stand it—perhaps he simply couldn't stand garlic.

It's probably because Dashan died during the mutation process that he was resurrected by this world. After Zhi confirmed that he hadn't become anything "inhuman," they could use the excuse of checking their health to conduct experiments on them as a comparison.

I recorded the results in the medical record book in my hand. Incidentally, the contents of this medical record book were compiled by the former exorcist based on her experience, and they looked very much like the weaknesses of the vampires that are familiar in novels.

There are no crosses or holy water here, so it seems that with the current conditions, it's impossible to thoroughly study the characteristics of this vampire-like clan.

We must at least find some way to distinguish them from ordinary people without using the magic eye of the weaver.

Otherwise, they would be too passive in the absence of Zhi.

However, after almost all the experimental projects provided by the organization had been tested, and Gao Song, who had been confirmed to have mutated into a non-human, did not show any discomfort at all regarding these tests.

Could it be that the infiltrator wasn't using vampire clan technology? Or perhaps, because of the characteristics of ash, the ability of that fellow ash user mutated?

"Hey, Akemi-san, have those two really turned into vampires? They don't look like it at all."

The energetic girl Yui followed closely behind Homura, watching the entire experiment with great interest.

"It's not certain yet. We're just making assumptions based on their cause of death and the only wound on their bodies, the bite mark on their neck."

"Sigh—so vampires really do exist."

"Hey, hey, that kind of thing only exists in novels, Akemi-san, stop messing with us."

While rinsing his mouth at the tap, Da Shan complained to Xiao Yan.

"So, one last question: have you ever felt that your mind is being controlled?"

As soon as the question was asked, Ash's calm black eyes stared straight at a certain advisor, trying to catch any subtle change in his expression.

It was still that indifferent face; the muscles in his cheeks twitched, but it wasn't making an expression; it was just moving his mouth as if giving a reply.

I don't think so.

However, the moment he gave his reply, the slight tilt of his head caused the sunlight from the window to reflect off his glasses, turning them completely white and obscuring his gaze.

No change in expression was captured, except for the most important thing: the eyes.

"Hyuga-kun, can I borrow something from you?"

"Huh? What is that?"

"Could you let out a little blood?"

"Blood, of course... wait a minute! Why do I have to bleed out?!"

"Of course, it's for the final test—do you expect us girls to provide it?"

"Ah, okay, I understand. It's just a little blood."

He stood up from the hospital bed where he had been lying, put a simple, dark ring back on his hand, took a beaker from the cabinet in the infirmary, drew the tactical dagger from his waist, and walked to the sink.

"Big Mountain, make room for me."

"oh oh."

The baby-faced girl, having just finished rinsing her mouth, moved aside from the sink, seemingly unaware of what was happening. But in that instant, the blue-haired boy grabbed her wrist.

The tactical dagger slashed down.

"Ooh ooh ooh!"

"Okay, Miss Xiaomei, is this enough?"

Hinata placed the beaker filled with bright red blood in front of Homura, completely ignoring the baby-faced girl screaming in agony beside her.

After receiving the blood-smelling red liquid, Xiao Yan's gaze alternated between the bespectacled advisor and the blue-haired elder.

They showed no signs of vampiric impulses whatsoever.

I checked the execution group with the Magic Eye before, and there should only be one mutant, the strategist.

The twenty-two angels have fallen.

No matter how many times he came, Otonashi always felt that the SSS group occupied the principal's office and made a ruckus every day by crossing the administration building to hold meetings there, yet no teacher would stop them. In fact, he could hardly see any other teachers every time he came, which was a very strange thing.

With these thoughts in mind, he slowly climbed the stairs, intending to go to the principal's office to meet up with the others.

As he passed the administration office, the door, which he had always remembered as closed, was suddenly opened by a silver-haired figure.

They were angels.

He subconsciously stopped in his tracks, watching the girl walk past him expressionlessly.

He raised his hand to greet her, but then suddenly realized that her presence here meant that the so-called "Angel's Fall" operation must have been successful. She must have been called in by the teacher for a reprimand because of the dangerous answers on her test paper.

He couldn't bring himself to say hello; he could only watch the girl leave alone.

Damn it, how many times has he seen that lonely figure from behind!

Something deep inside him compelled him to disregard everything and embrace that lonely figure, but...

The girl with dark eyes appeared again. She seemed to have been waiting for the angel downstairs. As soon as she saw the lonely figure, she did what Otonashi couldn't do and hugged her.

Watching the two girls walk away, Otonashi stood by the window, looking at the clear sky of the afterlife where it never rains, and remained silent.

During the lulls in the chaotic battles, he gradually pieced together the fragments of his memory.

But the puzzle is still missing two pieces. The first piece is the one from his oldest memory, the one who kept him working and going to the hospital, the one who supported him through the first half of his life, the one whose face and voice he could no longer recall, the one whose voice and voice he could only hear echoing in his ears, the one calling "brother".

The other image is that abruptly stopped tram, the tram that took him to the afterlife as he was about to embark on his dream journey in the latter half of his life. He always felt that the scene was not the end of everything, because when he recalled these things, he did not feel the intense resentment of his dreams being interrupted or his life being played for. Instead, he was unusually calm, as if he had already let go of everything.

Perhaps it was because of this mindset that he was completely unable to fight against that girl.

But he also firmly believes that without the prejudice he had from the beginning, he would be better able to see the true nature of so-called angels.