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ArabicAnime Crossover: Eating Evil in a Daily World — Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Eradicating the Root of the Problem
That night, inside a dimly lit and reeking izakaya.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!”
The man who had been groping women on the train earlier that afternoon was currently clutching a bottle of cheap shochu. He bypassed the small ceramic cup entirely, chugging the burning liquid straight from the neck of the bottle. Looking at the pathetic mess on his table, the scattered empty bottles, and the flushed, greasy look on his face, it was obvious he had come here to drown his sorrows alone.
“Damn brat…”
The man slammed the heavy glass bottle onto the sticky wooden table. He lifted a rough hand to wipe the alcohol from his mouth, his eyes filling with intense, venomous hatred as the memory of the train car surfaced. He spoke through tightly gritted teeth, the intermittent sharp pain radiating from his wrist serving as a constant reminder of his absolute humiliation.
He had actually been put on the spot by an ordinary male high school student in front of a crowd of onlookers. He had been forced to his knees on the filthy floor of the train, begging for mercy while snot and tears ran down his face.
It was simply too humiliating.
The physical pain in his wrist was entirely secondary. The real issue was that Yozora’s actions had forcibly dragged him out of his pathetic fantasy, shattering the twisted sense of control he gained by bullying those weaker than him. It made him realize, violently and publicly, that he could not control anything at all.
The man genuinely did not think there was anything wrong with his own behavior. That woman on the train clearly did not dare to resist him. Since she did not dare to resist, didn’t that mean she was secretly willing to be touched?
Where did that little animal come from, meddling in other people’s business?
“Sobu High School…”
Because both Yozora and Yotsuya Miko had been wearing their school uniforms, the man had simply done a quick online search for the uniform styles of various high schools in the Kyoto area. It took almost no time to figure out their identities as students from Sobu High School.
He ground his teeth together, his breathing growing heavy and ragged. He would absolutely not let this go. He had to make those two arrogant high school students understand exactly how terrifying it was to provoke a real adult.
The man was already leaning back in his chair, deeply immersed in a fantasy where Yozora and Yotsuya Miko were kneeling on the ground, crying and begging him for forgiveness. Just visualizing the scenario made him shiver with a sick sense of pleasure.
Just then.
The man suddenly contorted, a look of sheer agony twisting his features. He reached out with a trembling hand, desperately clutching the fabric over his chest as he began to pant heavily.
“What… what’s going on…”
He felt as if his beating heart had been seized by an invisible, icy hand. The blood flow throughout his entire body began to slow to a crawl. His oxygen-starved brain misfired, causing his vision to blur and darken at the edges.
“Hoo…”
A strange, hollow voice echoed directly against his eardrums. It carried a cold, eerie aura that was entirely impossible to distinguish as male or female.
“You are a sinner.”
A flood of dark crimson instantly swallowed the man’s pupils. Before he lost consciousness completely, the very last sound he registered in this world…
…was the wet, muffled crunch of his own heart being crushed into paste.
Outside the izakaya, the neon street signs flickered against the damp pavement.
“Well, that takes care of that,” Yozora said calmly.
Having changed into a casual black tracksuit, he stood in the shadows of the alleyway and watched the pale, grotesque giant hand float back out through the solid brick wall to hover obediently behind him.
He considered himself a timid person who actively avoided trouble. Therefore, before trouble could come knocking at his door, it was only logical to nip any potential disputes in the bud. Permanently.
The long, spindly fingers of the pale giant hand twitched. Its jagged black nails scraped incessantly against the alley wall, giving off a restless, agitated energy. With the taking of a human life, the physical form of the giant hand had actually changed. Originally, it had just been the shape of a severed hand, but now, pale, dead flesh had grown slightly upward, forming the beginnings of a wrist.
“The way you grow is completely outrageous,” Yozora remarked casually, eyeing the new appendage.
Honestly, he had been pondering a very specific question lately. What on earth was this thing? If it were an evil spirit, what kind of evil spirit looked like a giant disembodied limb? If it were a guardian spirit, it looked way too bizarre and cursed to be holy.
Yozora vaguely felt that this entity should be classified as a Soul Manifestation, placing it firmly in the category of anti-evil spirit artifacts. The problem was, why did his specific Soul Manifestation look like a horror movie prop? In the past, Gaara had his absolute sand defense, and the Uchiha had Susanoo. Did he just unlock the Hand-sanoo? He wasn’t Yoshikage Kira. He didn’t have that kind of weird hand fetish.
Regardless of its aesthetics, based on the information he had gathered so far, there were three distinct ways for the pale giant hand to grow. The first was the slowest method, which required consuming hundreds or thousands of evil spirits just to barely condense a solid shape. The second was to eradicate the supernatural Gates scattered across Kyoto, which was significantly faster than snacking on random spirits.
Then there was the third way, which was to directly harvest human lives using the hand itself.
Looking at the current results, this final method was undeniably the fastest way to force its growth. Could it be that this was his designated golden finger as a transmigrator? The thing was incredibly convenient for assassinations and left absolutely zero physical evidence behind. The only issue was that he had zero interest in becoming the god of the new world like Light Yagami, so what was the point of having a murder-ghost hand?
“Forget it, having it is better than not having it.”
Yozora wasn’t going to be picky about his overpowered cheats. He actually had a very morbid curiosity about the whole situation. Since this pale giant hand could continuously grow by consuming things… could it one day grow into the complete shape of a human?
If it were a normal person, just looking at the terrifying, cursed appearance of the giant hand would be enough to give them nightmares. They probably wouldn’t dare to consume evil spirits or eradicate Gates, terrified of what the hand might become if its growth accelerated.
But Yozora was not a normal person. His main driving force in life was pure curiosity. Not only was he going to continue consuming things, but he was going to consume them ruthlessly.
The true face of the eerie giant hand? Let me see that dot jpg.
Three days later, inside Sobu High School, during the Friday lunch break.
The classroom was filled with the bright, noisy chatter of students enjoying their free time. Yotsuya Miko sat comfortably at her desk, quietly nibbling on a sweet cream bread while chatting and laughing with Yui Yuigahama, who had pulled up a chair next to her.
After spending the past few days together, the two girls had become very good friends. Or rather, the cheerful, lively, innocent, and slightly airheaded Yui Yuigahama had successfully become friends with almost everyone in the entire class.
Except for three specific people.
First, located in the far back corner of the classroom, occupying the absolute throne position and causing everyone to change color at the mere mention of his name, was the abstract master himself, Yozora.
Second, sitting directly beside him was the Sleeping Arhat, Touma Kazusa. She had face-planted onto her desk and started sleeping the exact second she arrived at school in the morning, and she would undoubtedly continue to sleep until the final dismissal bell rang.
And finally, the most heavyweight figure of them all. Although her seat was right in the center of the classroom, she was an absolute ice beauty who spent all day holding a book and never initiated a conversation with anyone. Yukinoshita Yukino.
These three could easily be called the three heavyweight giants of Class 1-A. At the same time, they were also the three high, treacherous mountains that Yui Yuigahama desperately wanted to conquer.
“Hey, Miko, how do you think I should go about becoming friends with those people?”
Hearing Yui’s question, Miko paused. She picked up a tissue, carefully wiped a smudge of cream from the corner of her mouth, and then replied in a slow, leisurely tone.
“Why on earth do you have to be friends with them?”
“Of course I have to make friends with them.” Yui looked back at her as if this were a fundamental law of the universe. “Not having any friends in class and being all alone must feel really bad, right?”
Miko let out a long, helpless sigh. She reached out, placed her hand heavily on Yui’s shoulder, looked directly into her bright eyes, and spoke with absolute deadpan sincerity.
“How about this. I will use a line that Yozora would say to answer your question.”
“Eh? What line?”
“I think you might have a severe mental illness. Please go see a doctor as soon as possible, and do not delay your treatment.”