It is widely believed that a rumor dies out after 75 days, yet the rumors about the Super Water-Ball Incident remained a hot topic for quite a while. However, even this rumor that made headlines globally started to lose steam once a year had passed. It was only when a feature TV program called “One year after the Super Water-Ball Incident” started airing, people started recalling that incident.
But none of this matters. Why? Because regardless of the enormity of an incident, people still feel hungry. They still have to do their job. They still have to clean up, go to toilet, and pay taxes. Their daily life continues to be the same. Those eccentric foreigners overflowing in Tokyo in search of the paranormal have become a common site as well. The Police have also gotten used to dealing with the shenanigans of these wannabe ghostbusters[1]. Now the Tokyoites won’t even stop and gawk at foreigners with some gaudy tattoo on their necks.
The populace was rapidly adapting to the strangeness that the Super Water-Ball Incident had brought about.
Now, acclimatization eventually dulls our senses. Like how a tear-jerking song cease to evoke any emotion after listening to it for an extended period of time. The familiarity and oblivion that this incident brought about, gradually erased the fear of the Super Water-Ball from everyone’s mind.
What happens then? The World’s Darkness starts to flourish. In place of fear, desires appear, and even though people don’t speak out loud, they still have the desire of “I too want to blow away a super-strong enemy” roaring in their hearts. However, if they hit a stranger, police would arrest them. That’s why they start to suppress their desires, and this suppression ultimately fuels the World’s Darkness.
…..
…..
Welp. At least that’s the setting we are going for.
Amaterasu is the secret organization that fights the World’s Darkness. Even today, one of its members, the buddhist bishoujo,[2] Hasumi Touka, was fighting the World’s Darkness as usual.
Under the moonlit night, Touka-chan was fighting within a forest on the grounds of a small shrine surrounded by towering skyscrapers. Because she came here in a hurry in the middle of the night, she was wearing a simple outfit with only a jersey over her pajamas.
Earlier, she had deployed a prototype triangular psychokinetic PSI Drive which formed a semispherical barrier over the area and prevented any light or sound from leaking out. The pitch-black semi-spherical dome would stand out if used during the day, but it blends in perfectly in the middle of night. It was a battle field made solely for the ESP’ers and the World’s Darkness.
The World’s Darkness that Touka-chan was fighting this time was somewhat tall, and had a pitch-black body. It wiggled like a jelly every time it took a step.
*yura yura*. [3]
It dodged every swing from Touka-chan’s flame sword. The sword was getting hotter with every swing.
4000° C.
Every single swing released a heat wave which distorted the air, charred the leaves and scorched the grounds.
“TAKE THIS!”
Clearly irritated, Touka-chan produced even more flames from her sword and slashed at the World’s Darkness. However, the World’s Darkness nimbly ducked and evaded the attack. Immediately afterwards it gained it’s balance and took a shadow boxing stance on the spot. This time the World’s Darkness was a boxer type that specialized in evasive maneuvering. It was probably the manifestation of the subconscious violent desire of the people inspired by last nights Boxing World Championship. That was a damn good fight!
The World’s Darkness loosened its shoulders, lowered its stance and raised its fist as it charged in.
“Hell’s Inferno”. [4]
Touka-chan yelled. She dispelled her fire sword and immediately flames shot out from her whole body.
A tornado of thick flames rose up with Touka-chan at the center. The World’s Darkness that jumped into it burned. It’s black membrane vaporised in an instant, and after a short while it died pitifully.
Once the battle was over, Touka-chan extinguished the flames, crushed the burnt and fragile core made of stone. Then, she looked around to confirm there were no hidden enemies, and finally released her guard.
Umu~~. The battle ended. Touka-chan, being influenced by Shouta-kun, recently started shouting her technique’s name.
So frikin cute!
Touka-chan smoothed the rough gravel which was heated to the extent that sweet potatoes could be baked. She then took out a fold-able staff-shaped PSI drive from the pocket of her jersey trousers and activated it. Cold air blasted from the PSI Drive and cooled the whole area preventing any chances of fire.
When she finished the clean-up, and was about to go home after disabling the psychokinetic barrier and retrieving the PSI drive, I gave a call to the part-time actor I hired for this moment and cut the call after one ring. This was the GO sign.
In front of Touka-chan, who was about to ride her bicycle parked a few yards away, a delinquent in gaudy clothes with golden hair, and ear piercings appeared from behind a telephone pole. His lips were blue and he looked pale as he has been waiting in this weather since thirty minutes.
Shit! I should have told him to put on some more layers.
However luckily, Touka-chan didn’t notice the subtle unnaturalness of this encounter and braced herself warily.
Baito-kun[5] gave a vulgar grin as he looked at Touka-chan from head to toe as if to lick every inch of her body.
“Oooh~, What a cutie. What are you doing here in the middle of night like this? It’s dangerous here. Come, this Onii-chan will drop you at your home?”
“I can go on my own.”
Touka-chan coldly refused, but Baito-kun was unfazed and instead started walking closer.
“Ah~? Why are you rejecting Onii-chan’s kindness? Come on. Don’t do that~”
“Don’t come close.”
Touka-chan activated the PSI drive that was still in her hands and warned him.
Baito-kun took a step back and put his hands inside his pockets with an irritated look.
Oooh, good, he’s just like a textbook delinquent. As expected of a member of drama club at college!
“Don’t resist girl. Throw away that stick….no..eh..what the hell is that?”
However, when he saw the staff shaped PSI he was slightly bewildered. He was about to drop his facade.
Before his eyes was a lone bishoujo shopping at a convenience store in the middle of the night. In her hand is a weird silver staff and she is giving off a dangerous aura. It would make anyone uncomfortable.
I understand how you feel, but please endure for a little while!
“It’s not a stick. It’s a staff.”
“Ah, is that so? Staff, huh? I’ve seen things like this in mang…. I don’t frickin care. I’ll just say this once. Be obedient if you don’t want to be in pain.”
Baito-kun somehow managed to calm down and pulled out a knife-shaped PSI drive from his breast pocket, activated it, and covered it in flames. Touka-chan’s eyes opened wide.
That’s right. PSI drives are stored and closely guarded in Amaterasu’s secret base. Only members of Amaterasu and researchers of Kaneyama Tech are aware of it’s existence. How could a delinquent possibly be wandering around with a PSI drive in the middle of the night!?
Baito-kun gave a sly grin.
“How about this! Oi, did you see a ghost or something? Throw that staff away and come over here.”
“You. Where did you get that from?”
Touka-chan didn’t even flinch at the threat and asked him a question instead. Even though he was pointing a burning knife at her, she stayed calm as if to say that he was the one in trouble.
It was strange. A normal bishoujo would scream, tremble, and not be able to move, but Touka-chan was calmly standing there. But, the pressure she was giving off overwhelmed Baito-kun.
“Sh..Shut up! Do what I say or I kill you!”
“Answer me. It’s important.”
“Shut up, brat! Hurry up and get over here!?”
Hearing this Touka-chan closed the distance and shoved her staff into his solar plexus without hesitation. Baito-kun groaned and Touka-chan took the knife from the his hand while he was crumbling to his knees, and carefully observed the knife in the light of the streetlamps. It wasn’t a modified gas lighter, it was an unmistakable PSI drive.
“You. From where did you get this?”
Touka-chan asked once more, as if to chide a child who did something wrong.
“I-I do..don’t know!”
“You do know, right? Don’t lie, otherwise your virtue will drop, you know?“[6]
“Huh? Virtue…What…?”
“Answer me. Or do you want to die?”
Baito-kun didn’t seem to understand what she meant, but apparently he understood that he was being threatened in an amazing way by a high school bishoujo. Whether it was an act or not, Baito-kun was trembling.
“Ha—, A weird guy gave it to me. He told me to attack you with this. He said he will pay me a lot of money.”
“What kind of weird guy was he…?”
“That— "
Just as he was about to say something, Baito-kun’s cell phone rang. On the second ring, Baito-kun hurriedly stood up and ran away. When Touka-chan was about to give him chase, she sensed a surprise attack and jumped sideways to evade it.
“..!? Why at a time like this…!”
World’s darkness-kun crawled out from the ditch at the end of the road and started to jiggle. Touka-chan couldn’t decide whether to chase Baito-kun or to fight World’s Darkness, but in the end, she turned to face the World’s Darkness. It was her second match tonight.
Thank you all for reading yesterday’s chapter. I really appreciate the feedback.
Couple of readers pointed out the strange formatting of apostrophe. It was mostly an issue with Windows 10. It’s fixed now.
On a side note, this website itself is also one of my side projects that I made to teach myself web programming. So, if you come across any weird issue or have an idea, do let me know.
That is all.
[1]: Hollywood movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostbusters ↩︎
[2]: Bishoujo = Beautiful Gal. ↩︎
[3]: *yura-yura* = Sound effect for jiggling. ↩︎
[4]: Transliteration of アヴィーチ = Avici. It’s referred to in Buddhism. Avici is the Sanskrit word for “lowest level of hell”. ↩︎
[5]: バイト = Baito = Part time job. Therefore, Baito-kun = Part-timer ↩︎
[6]: “Virtue” is one of the traits in Buddhism. ↩︎