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ArabicAnime Crossover: Eating Evil in a Daily World — Chapter 9
Chapter 9: The Resurgence of the Eerie
Miko pressed her lips into a thin, bloodless line, her wide eyes locked onto the distant Gate. The ambient temperature in the alleyway seemed to plummet, and the blood flowing through her veins turned sluggish, freezing over in an instant.
“No, no, no, no…”
She muttered the denial under her breath like a broken record. Fine beads of cold sweat broke out across her forehead, matting her fringe to her skin. Her shoulders trembled uncontrollably, and a deep, primal terror flooded her golden pupils.
“How can something like this… exist in this world…”
Miko finally understood exactly why Yozora remained so utterly unfazed when confronting everyday evil spirits. If you took every twisted, grotesque apparition she had ever witnessed and mashed them together, their combined malice wouldn’t even hold a candle to the suffocating aura bleeding out from the Gate standing before her.
It was an anomaly. A glitch in reality that simply should not exist.
Even observing it from a safe distance, Miko felt a terrifying pull, as if her very soul was being dragged out through her eyes and swallowed whole.
Yozora did not rush to break the silence. He leaned against the brick wall, casually observing her reaction. He waited until the violent trembling in her shoulders subsided slightly before offering a relaxed smile.
“Based on my field research lately, Kyoto has more than one of these Gates lying around.”
“The function of a Gate is pretty straightforward. It acts as a massive buffing zone. It strengthens the power of any evil spirits and ghosts within its vicinity, dialing up their aggression and massively increasing their desire to attack humans.”
“As for the area of effect, the smallest one I have mapped out covers a few hundred meters. The largest one I have seen spans nearly three kilometers in diameter.”
Miko drew in a sharp, ragged breath. The gravity of the situation settled heavily over her chest.
“You mean… wherever a Gate exists, the nearby evil spirits will just keep getting stronger? And even ordinary ghosts that were completely harmless to humans will be corrupted, gradually mutating into monsters that actively hunt people?”
“Spot on. But it gets worse.”
Yozora gave a slight nod, his tone remaining conversational.
“You should have noticed by now that for normal people who lack the sight, the actual physical damage an evil spirit can inflict is incredibly limited. At their absolute worst, they latch onto a host, tanking their luck, clouding their judgment, or chipping away at their emotional stability.”
His casual demeanor shifted, the temperature of his voice dropping a fraction.
“However, under the direct influence of a Gate, the power ceiling of an evil spirit shatters.”
“Aside from the neat little trick you witnessed earlier—wearing human skin to bait out special individuals like yourself—they gain the ability to force a person into an immediate, unexplained coma. And a few exceptionally high-tier ones…”
Yozora locked his gaze directly onto Miko’s eyes. The lazy smile vanished from his face entirely, leaving behind a cold, clinical seriousness.
“Can fully possess a living human and hijack their every physical action.”
Miko’s pupils contracted sharply. The sheer horror of the concept robbed her of her breath.
“This is… simply terrifying.”
She instantly grasped the catastrophic collateral damage these Gates could inflict on the city. Forget full bodily possession; the mere ability to induce sudden comas was a nightmare scenario.
If a mutated evil spirit decided to target a bus driver handling a crowded intersection, or a pilot mid-flight…
Miko forced herself to stop thinking. The mental imagery was too gruesome to entertain.
Her heart felt like a lead weight in her chest. She looked up at him, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Is there any way to make these Gates disappear?”
“There is a way, of course…”
Before Yozora could finish his sentence, a spark of sudden realization lit up Miko’s face.
“Oh right! You can just eat the Gate, can’t you?”
The silence that followed was deafening. Yozora stared at her. His expression was completely deadpan, looking at her as if she had just suggested drinking bleach to cure a cold. Miko shrank back, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
“Um… did I say something stupid?”
“I am starting to think you actually have brain damage.”
Yozora rolled his eyes dramatically and pointed a finger at the towering structure in the distance.
“Please use those special eyes of yours and take a good look. Yes, it acts as a Wi-Fi router for evil spirits, but physically, it is made of solid wood. You want me to unhinge my jaw and gnaw on a giant log of raw timber? I am an exorcist, not a termite. If you want to watch someone deep-throat a tree, go find a desperate streamer doing a dare.”
Miko let out a hollow, awkward laugh, her golden eyes radiating a pure, unadulterated stupidity.
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“Burn it to the ground.”
Yozora replied without missing a beat, giving a nonchalant shrug.
“But I didn’t bring my arson kit today. I just brought you out here to show you the sights. We will deal with the firewood later.”
“Okay, let’s deal with it later then.”
They finally turned their backs on the oppressive alleyway and stepped out onto the bustling main street. Standing beneath the warm, golden rays of the early spring sun, the ice in Miko’s veins finally began to thaw. The mundane sounds of traffic and chattering pedestrians grounded her.
She stole a cautious glance at Yozora’s profile, keeping her voice low.
“By the way… why exactly are you telling me all this?”
Before he could even open his mouth, Miko began waving her hands frantically in front of her chest, desperate to prevent any misunderstandings.
“I mean, it is not that I am unwilling to help you! If everything you just said is true, those Gates are a massive threat to everyone.”
“But you saw me today. Aside from having the absolute worst luck in the world and being able to see those things, I do not have a single special ability.”
“To be completely honest, I do not think I can help you with anything. If a fight breaks out, I would just be dead weight.”
Yozora listened to her frantic rambling, his expression entirely placid. He gave a simple, confirming nod.
“You are absolutely right. Right now, you are completely useless.”
Miko choked on her next breath. She curled her lip in annoyance.
‘I know I just called myself dead weight, but seriously?’she thought bitterly.’Normal social convention dictates that you offer at least a tiny bit of comfort in a situation like this! Why do you have to be so brutally honest? It is humiliating.’
“However.”
Catching the dark, brooding cloud settling over Miko’s eyes, Yozora let out a dry chuckle.
“If you actually want the ability to fight back against evil spirits, I have a method.”
“Eh? Are you serious!?”
Miko jumped in surprise, though her tone dripped with heavy skepticism.
Ever since her cursed vision had awakened, she had desperately tried every method under the sun to protect herself. She had visited countless supposedly famous psychics, drained her meager allowance on protective charms, blessed bracelets, prayer beads, and holy water.
The only tangible result of her efforts was that she was now broke, and the trinkets had proven to be entirely useless against the horrors she faced daily.
Now, this unhinged guy was casually claiming he could hand her the power to fight back?
It sounded like a cheap scam.
Reading the blatant doubt written all over her face, Yozora let out a lazy yawn.
“First, let me ask you a basic question. Ignoring the special area-of-effect buffs from the Gate, under what specific circumstances can a standard evil spirit directly inflict physical harm on a human?”
Miko thought back to her daily survival tactics, answering cautiously.
“Is it… when they realize that the human can actually see them?”
“Exactly.”
Yozora nodded approvingly, stepping smoothly into his next point.
“You also watched me fight that evil spirit this morning.”
‘Could that even be classified as a fight?’Miko complained internally.’Wouldn’t one-sided, brutal bullying be a much more accurate description?’
Naturally, she kept her sarcastic thoughts to herself and simply gave an obedient nod.
“Then, following that exact logic, when both sides establish eye contact and acknowledge each other…” Yozora paused, his dark eyes glinting with amusement. “…is it an absolute rule that only the evil spirit gets to unilaterally harm the human?”
Miko froze in her tracks. Her mind raced as the implication hit her.
“Could it be…?”
Yozora shoved his hands into his pockets, his voice entirely nonchalant.
“Put simply.”
“Do you honestly believe the thing that shredded that evil spirit this morning was the Peach Wood Dagger and the Silver Nails…” He tilted his head, a dangerous, confident smirk playing on his lips. “…or was it simply the fact that I was the one holding them?”