English
Indonesia
Chinese (Simp)
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
Portuguese
French
German
ArabicAnime Crossover: Eating Evil in a Daily World — Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Rumors of a Dangerous Person
The boy from the adjacent class clearly hadn’t anticipated such a blunt, public rejection. A flush of embarrassment crept up his neck, quickly souring into an ugly scowl.
“Look, I just wanted to make friends,” he snapped, his voice rising to draw the attention of the hallway. “If you don’t want to, fine. But what’s with the act?”
“Boring.”
Touma Kazusa’s expression remained perfectly glacial. She didn’t spare him a second glance, stepping sideways to continue down the corridor on her own.
But before she could take two steps, the boy sidestepped to block her path again, his bruised ego driving him to cross the line.
“Someone like you, sleeping openly in the middle of class—you’re just trying to act like you’ve got some edgy personality, right? Who are you putting on this cold, aloof front for?”
Kazusa pursed her lips. On the surface, she maintained her flawless, unapproachable demeanor, but a keen observer would have caught the faint, almost imperceptible tightening between her brows—a fleeting trace of panic.
“Hey there, classmate.”
Just then, the boy felt a hand clap down onto his shoulder from behind.
He whipped his head around impatiently, a curse already on his lips, only to be greeted by Yozora’s face. The black-haired teen was smiling—a bright, entirely too kind smile.
“Since she’s clearly not interested, you should probably shut your mouth,” Yozora advised, his tone light and conversational. “If you keep clinging to her like a desperate cockroach, it’s just going to get even more embarrassing for you. Don’t you agree?”
The boy bristled, catching the heavy dose of sarcasm laced into the cheerful delivery. He puffed out his chest, ready to bark back a retort, but his friend standing nearby suddenly went rigid. The friend stared at Yozora, all the color draining from his face, before frantically leaning in to whisper into the boy’s ear.
“That’s him?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
The boy’s aggressive posture vanished in an instant. His expression twisted into an ugly grimace of wariness and outright panic. He took a step back, gritting his teeth.
“Fine… fine. I’ll give you some face this time. Let’s go.”
Without another word, he and his friend spun on their heels and practically sprinted down the corridor.
Yozora watched them flee, blinking in mild confusion. What was that about?
He hadn’t even gotten to unleash the ultimate trash-talking secret technique he had honed in the toxic trenches of Zaun—the legendary Dust Release: Mother-Stripping Jutsu. Why did they run away so fast?
What an absolute pity. He had been looking forward to a good, therapeutic rant.
Kazusa narrowed her beautiful, sharp eyes. She cast a chilling glance at Yozora, offering absolutely nothing in the way of gratitude, and walked away without a single word.
Naturally, Yozora hadn’t expected a ‘thank you’ from her anyway.
Yotsuya Miko had endured the agonizing suspense all morning. The moment the lunch bell finally rang, she scrambled out of her seat, hurriedly chasing Yozora out of the classroom. She approached him in the hallway, her voice hushed and cautious.
“Can I talk to you alone? About… those things?”
Yozora gave a nonchalant nod. “Sure. Let’s go to the rooftop.”
“The rooftop?”
Miko froze. The relaxed, lazy smile that perpetually rested on Yozora’s face had suddenly vanished. In its place was a heavy, solemn frown—an expression he hadn’t even worn when facing down grotesque evil spirits. Her heart skipped a beat, and she subconsciously blurted out, “Could it be… is there some kind of terrible danger up on the rooftop?”
Yozora waved a hand dismissively, his eyes staring off into the middle distance. “No. I just remembered an old friend who passed away many years ago.”
Miko was stunned for a second, a wave of guilt washing over her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up your painful memories.”
“It’s fine,” Yozora said, stretching his arms above his head with a lazy yawn. His solemn expression evaporated instantly. “That guy totally deserved to die anyway. He didn’t have the guts to openly build a harem, yet he was two-timing behind everyone’s back. Getting his head chopped off was exactly what he deserved.”
Miko stared at him, entirely speechless.
She finally understood. No matter the situation, she could never use normal human logic to predict what would come out of Yozora’s mouth next. The man was an absolute enigma.
As they handled the busy hallways toward the stairwell, Yozora caught snippets of gossip drifting from a group of students gathered by the lockers.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“Right before homeroom this morning, some male student tried to threaten a girl. Thank god the teacher arrived in time, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable.”
“Seriously? No way, I didn’t see any police cars outside.”
“Yeah, that’s the craziest part! The guy did something like that and didn’t even get suspended. I really don’t know who his family is, but he must have connections.”
Listening to the hushed murmurs, Yozora shook his head in deep disappointment. He turned to Miko, his expression one of earnest sorrow. “The morals of this generation are truly in decline. People’s hearts just aren’t what they used to be. To think someone would commit such a brazen act in broad daylight, right under the clear blue sky. Sobu High School has really fallen from grace…”
Before he could finish his philosophical lament, the gossiping students continued.
“I heard the guy was carrying a bunch of weird weapons. A dagger, iron nails, and these creepy yellow paper talismans.”
“That’s nothing. The version I heard said he was packing actual firearms!”
“Whatever the truth is, just stay far away from him. Apparently, he’s a freshman in Class 1-A. Black hair, black eyes, about 1.8 meters tall, and supposedly pretty handsome.”
“Ugh, the handsome perverts are always the most dangerous ones. From now on, let’s take the long way around Class A so we don’t run into him.”
“What a terrifyingly dangerous person.”
Silence is the Cambridge of tonight.
The hallway suddenly felt very, very quiet.
After a long, agonizing moment, Miko peeked up at the utterly silent Yozora. She shrank into her collar, apologizing in a tiny, strained whisper. “Um… Yozora, I’m so sorry that everyone has such a terrible misunderstanding about you.”
Yozora didn’t say a word. He just kept walking straight toward the heavy metal door leading to the roof.
Seeing his dark, brooding silence, Miko’s heart leapt straight into her throat. Sure, Yozora didn’t look like a bad guy, but appearances could be deceiving, right? At the very least, a guy who casually ate horrifying evil spirits for breakfast was fundamentally disconnected from normal human morality.
Was he bringing her up to the deserted rooftop to silence her for good?!
Just as Miko’s imagination began spiraling into a gruesome true-crime documentary, Yozora suddenly muttered to himself, his voice deadpan.
“You know, they make a fair point. I really should go get a gun.”
Miko blinked.
“As the old saying goes: outside of seven paces, a gun is fast. Within seven paces, a gun is fast and accurate,” Yozora nodded sagely, entirely lost in his own world. “If I’m going to deal with evil spirits efficiently, I should really adopt the American-style quick-draw method. It’s decided. I’ll find a chance to get a gun.”
Miko let out a long, exhausted sigh.
You actually want to buy a gun?!
Good grief. The ‘dangerous person’ label the rest of the school slapped on him wasn’t a misunderstanding at all. It was a perfectly accurate assessment.
“Alright. If you want to ask something, you can ask now.”
After stepping out onto the deserted rooftop, Yozora let the heavy metal door click shut behind them and leaned casually against the railing.
“Um…”
With a thousand frantic questions fighting for priority on the tip of her tongue, Miko suddenly didn’t know where to begin. She fidgeted with the hem of her skirt, thinking for a moment before lowering her voice.
“When did you… start being able to see those things?”
Yozora shrugged, his posture completely relaxed. “About half a month ago.”
Miko’s golden eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
Only half a month?! In just two weeks, he had completely eradicated his natural human instinct to fear ghosts and grotesque monsters? When she had first awakened her own psychic sight, she had been so paralyzed by terror that she hadn’t dared to step outside at night for nearly a month.
Was she just pathetically timid? Or was Yozora simply missing a crucial piece of his brain?
Swallowing hard, Miko steadied her trembling nerves and asked the question that had been burning in her mind. “Then… how many of those things have you eliminated up to today?”
Yozora tilted his head, a dark, amused smile curving his lips. He looked at her and delivered a line that made every single hair on Miko’s body stand on end.
“Do you remember how many slices of bread you’ve eaten in your life?”
[Inorin’s Note:
1. Zaun / Dust Release: Mother-Stripping Jutsu: Zaun is a region in League of Legends, infamous in the Chinese community as a shorthand for incredibly toxic, insult-heavy chat behavior. “Mother-Stripping Jutsu” is internet slang for aggressively insulting someone’s family tree.
2. Old friend on the rooftop: A reference to Makoto Itou from School Days, infamous for his two-timing harem antics that eventually led to his gruesome death (often associated with the school rooftop).
3. Silence is the Cambridge of tonight: A popular Chinese internet meme derived from Xu Zhimo’s famous poem “Farewell to Cambridge” (“Silence is the farewell music tonight”). It is used to express deep, awkward speechlessness.
4. Outside of seven paces…: A popular Chinese internet meme mocking traditional martial arts. “Outside of seven paces, a gun is faster than kung fu. Within seven paces, a gun is faster and more accurate.”
5. How many slices of bread…: An iconic quote by Dio Brando from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, used to imply that the number of victims is so massive and routine that he stopped counting long ago.]