The Woman Called a Monster / Shirou and His Eccentric Companions

"That's great!" Shirou excitedly grabbed the girl's hand, then examined her fingers and said, "Right, if we're going to get married, we should go to a jewelry store first!"

The blonde girl neither agreed nor refused, but honestly went over there, picked up the motorcycle that was placed on the ground, sat on it, and started the engine, as if she would leave as soon as Shirou got on.

Shirou looked around, then leaped forward and ran to the three thugs hired by Yagiri Pharmaceutical who were hiding in the crowd.

"Varied!"

Before the other person could react, he was punched in the abdomen.

The moment the thought, "Why is the other side..." crossed the man's mind, he collapsed to the ground.

Shirou repeated the same tactic, knocking down all the Yagiri Pharmaceutical employees and hired thugs around him. This attack would at least put them to sleep for several hours.

After Shirou finished doing all this, he turned around and ran towards the blonde girl, lightly leaping onto her car.

"Celty! I'm going with that girl now. I'll come see you and Shinra another day~! Goodbye for now~!" Shirou waved and said.

"Teito, I'm leaving this to you. I'll also leave the matters concerning Celty and Anri to you. I'll be going now!" Shirou said, giving a thumbs-up to the boy hiding among the passersby.

[Eh... Shirou? He just ran off with that woman?]

Left behind on the street, still holding her scythe, Celty watched the red motorcycle roar away, standing there stunned. What on earth had she fought so fiercely with that girl?

Ryugamine Mikado shared similar complex feelings.

'Why do you think you're qualified to entrust Anri -Anri's affairs to me? Why? Why do you look at me like I'm some kind of senior in life?! Even if you used your body to settle a fight, that's truly admirable! Even if it was love at first sight! You two are moving way too fast!'

The Teito, filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred, had a bellyful of complaints but didn't know how to vent them. However, looking at the fallen man in black, he nodded to Celty and quietly retreated.

At least now there are no more formidable enemies like Artoria to stand in his way, and things are back on track with his plans.

The battle between Artoria and Celty ended just like that, but in fact, something similar had happened during the day.

During the day, a minivan was speeding along the highway.

Meanwhile, Celty was speeding down the street on her black motorcycle, searching for the scarred girl. But halfway there, Shirou tried to contact Seiji, only to find that someone had kidnapped the girl on the way.

Celty acted decisively and spotted the suspicious van, so he gave chase. The group driving it appeared to be remnants of the Lone Wolf gang.

Blue Square was a violent gang of teenagers who had fought with another gang, the Yellow Scarves, over territorial disputes. The fight escalated into a large-scale brawl involving hundreds of people in the city, which also drew in other gangs. The gang was eventually arrested and suppressed by the police. Everything became chaotic. The Yellow Turbans, which had disappeared for some time, suddenly reappeared.

The car drove towards a secluded area, like luring a hunter into a trap, eventually stopping in an underpass simply because there were no security cameras there. Cars wouldn't pass through, and pedestrians wouldn't pass through; it was practically the perfect place to do shady things.

Celty had just stopped the car when she was surrounded. Looking at the group of people with various weapons around her, she realized that she was the one who was chasing them, but now she was the one surrounded by Blue Square.

"Hehehe!" A wicked laugh came from the surroundings. Five young men dressed like thugs were approaching Celty.

"Are you so scared you can't speak?" the thug asked with a wicked grin.

[No, how many times has this happened? To be honest, I'm almost sick of it. Can't you just open the car door and let me see it?]

"If you're not going to talk, then lie down on the ground! Let your body answer us!" One of the thugs at the front swung his stun gun.

Celty sidestepped a crackling stun gun, placed herself securely on the motorcycle seat, and then grabbed the hand that swung at her from the other side with a specially made short stick.

"Ouch! Ouch!" The thug's hand was twisted, and his grip loosened, causing the short stick to fall to the ground.

"Varied...!"

The woman opposite them looked very slender, but her strength was unbelievably great. The underground passage was particularly cold and gloomy, which intensified the unusual feeling in their hearts, and they felt their consciousness was becoming more and more detached from reality.

The thug, whose hand had been flung away, broke out in a cold sweat as he groaned and collapsed to the ground.

The thugs were stunned.

Chapter 961 The Woman Called a Monster

"I remember now! People in Shinjuku said never to mess with women who ride motorcycles!"

"It seems the Hotarubi Group, which runs a short-stay hotel business, was wiped out single-handedly by a woman in black."

"It's rumored that she has connections with Chinese arms dealers; she even carries an RPG."

Celty sighed again. She was indeed being confused with other people lately, not only in Ikebukuro but also in Shinjuku.

There should be a limit to how much damage one's reputation can suffer. As for the target, she could roughly guess—it was that dangerous girl she encountered at night, the one who could easily have been chased and killed. She really didn't want to experience that life-or-death escape again.

However, she obviously had no way to explain herself, so the local thugs all mistakenly believed that she was the female demon who had caused a bloodbath.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! This... this is no way anyone can withstand this! Damn it!" The bloodshot eyes of the fallen thug revealed extreme tension. When he saw clearly that the only thing coming out of his mouth was fear, he tried to crawl away from this place, but his limbs were too weak to obey him.

"Damn it, we took this job! They didn't say there would be such a tough one! Could she really be a monster?!" The surrounding thugs weren't in much better shape; they didn't even have the courage to run away.

His breathing became more and more rapid, and he finally found that his legs, back, and jaw were trembling uncontrollably.

Celty was quite satisfied with the effect; it seemed her exaggerated, intimidating performance had indeed been very effective. To be honest, she always felt somewhat powerless in situations like this. After all, the other party was just a small-time thug, and she couldn't just kill him; even if she beat him up, she had to be careful.

Otherwise, if the police are called in, she'll be the one in the wrong, since she's still someone who can't be seen in public. Normally it's fine, but if she encounters traffic police, she'll run as far away as possible.

"Don't be afraid, she's just a woman! How strong can she be? There are five of us!"

In contrast to the trembling thugs, the leader roared and cursed, having been in this business for a while and already mentally prepared. This world is all about hatred! As long as someone is human, capable of injury and pain, then he's ready to fight.

The man leading the group revealed a fierce glint in his eyes, pulled out a butterfly knife, and began to brandish it as he strode towards the shadow.

"No wonder he's the boss!" the surrounding thugs exclaimed in admiration.

The leader is a seasoned veteran, and might even be recruited into the Yakuza's ranks later, so he won't hesitate to strike when necessary. Of course, he'll be even less lenient if his subordinates don't perform their duties properly.

The thug knew this perfectly well, so he grabbed his iron pipe and followed behind the leader, ready to support him.

Celty shrugged helplessly, thinking that she wished she had Shirou's ability to make anyone fall asleep just by glaring at them. She wondered how many troublesome things she could avoid. However, Shirou had actually said that he envied her ability and that her motorcycle was cool, but it would be even cooler if it had headlights and weapons.

Celty just smiled at the time; she had disguised her vehicle as a motorcycle to fit into the big city lifestyle. To be honest, she quite liked the helmet.

There are still twelve hours until Shirou gets into another woman's car and drives away...

Celty was completely unaware of this.

Meanwhile, Shirou, still with Teito, couldn't help but sneeze.

The blonde girl had just come out of an agency that specialized in taking on fights.

The leader of the thugs stepped forward, and the distance between him and Celty was less than three meters. At this distance, Celty wouldn't be able to hit him with his bare hands, and he could stab his opponent with just two more steps.

The leader took another step forward, his hostility clearly turning into murderous intent. The thugs only stood by him because they knew he was truly capable of killing and that he would strike with the strongest killing intent.

Now he had no scruples about killing, and besides, his opponent was this otherworldly shadow; perhaps the team leader didn't even think it counted as murder.

Knowing his accomplice intended to kill, the thug saw a glimmer of hope and gripped the iron pipe with even greater force.

The shadow reached behind its back, and instantly, a part of its black body swelled up.

It was as if the shadow beneath the earth was the entrance to an abyss, from which a cloud of inky smoke rose. This smoke possessed its own consciousness, darting about ethereally, writhing like a snake. The black fluid appeared exceptionally vivid in the air, like ink from a calligraphy brush falling into a basin of clear water, forming a stream of ink.

The thugs wearing blue straps were dumbfounded by the sight. Standing amidst the streetlights and the lights of the multi-story parking garage, they finally realized that their opponent was not human, truly not human.

The situation had completely veered off course from the reality they knew, and the two thugs' minds were in utter confusion. They were even powerless to escape and could only faithfully carry out the actions they had just prepared to take.

The leader, with a nightmare-like expression, pulled his hand back from the knife. After a slight pause, he thrust it into the shadow's abdomen like a spring.

But before the blade touched the shadow's body, his hand holding the knife felt a jolt, as if it had struck an iron plate. The resulting force, while preventing him from dropping the knife, caused him to lose his balance and nearly fall to the ground.

When they realized the woman's unusual behavior, several clanging sounds rang out, and all the weapons—blades, iron bars, and more—fell to the ground.

"Monster... monster..." The team leader, slumped on the ground, stared wide-eyed, his jaw agape, and remained stunned for a long time before finally uttering those words in a drawn-out voice.

Yes, monster, Celty had heard that phrase countless times.

Although it is a very tolerant country, with thrill-seeking young trendsetters everywhere in its big cities, it is ultimately just a case of loving dragons but fearing them in return. If they were to actually face a headless woman, most normal people would be scared away.

In this respect, Ryugamine Mikado is indeed a very special existence, because when I took off his helmet, he smiled and thanked me. He seems like an ordinary high school student, but deep down he has quite a bit of darkness and madness.

Of course, there's Izaya Orihara, but that guy is definitely not a normal person.

Chapter 962 Shirou and His Unique Companion

The sharp, black mist that blocked the knife appeared as a blurry shape in the darkness.

That thing was a darkness deeper than anything else, absorbing all the surrounding light and writhing like a living being. That creation born from the churning black mist, appearing in this most modern place in Japan, was undeniably bizarre.

However, as Celty grasped it, it gradually harmonized with the surrounding scenery amidst his strange disharmony. What appeared in the shadow's hand appeared even darker and deeper in the night, making all who saw it think of absolute death.

The smoke condensed into the same black color, growing thicker and thicker until it finally transformed into a scythe of death, falling into the hands of the Headless Knight. With a handle nearly three meters long and a blade almost two meters long, the Black Shadow could be drawn into its own shadow, freely extending and retracting, yet it was wielded with effortless grace, as if weightless.

Celty his scythe as if to sever the heads of these people.

She was brought home by Shinra's father. In exchange for providing her with lodging and bathing, he also dissected and studied her body. Although he didn't get any useful results, he was undoubtedly Frankenstein's monster.

As the son of such a person, Shinra has now grown into a remarkable hentai, working as a quack doctor and showing great indifference to life. He may not be considered a villain yet, but as a human being, he has largely been eliminated from the race.

Shinra confessed his feelings to her, and he truly gave her a sense of home. It was this feeling that made Celty somewhat confused; she wondered whether she should accept Shinra's feelings.

The thugs were still in dire straits, and one by one they fled in panic. Even the man who had been lying on the ground the first time was now crawling away. Although he seemed to hear a cracking sound when he was kicked, it seemed his bones weren't seriously broken. However, he was experiencing extreme pain in his neck near his shoulder, as if all the aches and pains in his body were concentrated there, sending a tingling and numb sensation through him. But he couldn't care less about that now; survival was the most important thing.

Only the leader remained, facing the extended scythe.

Nobody knows what happened to their team leader afterwards...

After all, a petty thug is just a petty thug. Although he may want to be cool and swaggering, he doesn't want to take responsibility, shed blood, or go to jail. In the end, he's not a real tough guy.

Having witnessed that bizarre and grotesque scene, he had no time to care about anything else. However, he hadn't seen the giant scythe from before. He initially wanted to tell himself that what he had just witnessed was indeed an illusion; but then he realized that no matter the conclusion, it wouldn't change his current predicament, so he immediately stopped thinking about it.

But for the thug leader lying on the ground, the pain was nothing more than a minor matter.

"Please... please, please have mercy, don't... don't kill me..." He trembled, not daring to look at the scythe, his mouth uttering only the pathetic pleas of a stray dog.

Initially, his anger and desire to save face for his subordinates led him to act rashly, but he now finally understood his situation. Although he still vaguely felt like he was dreaming and somewhat uneasy, an instinctive sense of fear was forcing him to wake up.

However, he still didn't understand. He had no idea who this shadow was, nor did he know why he had run into this trouble.

Of course, the most likely explanation is that it's related to work. Previously, several of their teams had received a mission to bring a girl with a scar on her neck to a pharmaceutical company. Because it was an urgent mission, the reward was also high, so everyone put in a lot of effort to find her.

The work is dangerous and can easily make enemies. But even so, the enemies you make should be the police, violent elements, or the targets of your work, such as illegal immigrants and runaway kids.

He had mentally prepared himself when he accepted the job, and he was careful not to cause trouble during the work. However, he never expected such a monster to appear, and he had no idea what to do.

The commonly accepted strategy of fleeing is no longer viable, and this petty thug has finally found himself in a desperate situation with nowhere to turn.

Now, the thug was left with only two options: mutual destruction or surrender. But without knowing the other party's intentions, he had no choice. Finally, the thug thought of a desperate measure: to try and probe the enemy with the most humble attitude possible. Besides, if he didn't say something soon, he felt that fear would completely overwhelm him.

"You... you've got the wrong person. I won't resist, please forgive me, I apologize, I'm sorry."

It was as if a gangster had suddenly pointed a gun at him, scaring the thug so much he got goosebumps and he kept kowtowing and apologizing. The seemingly fierce thug lowered his head humbly, while Shadow remained silent, standing still, looking around as if searching for something.

Celty completely ignored the thug leader and walked straight to the car. She pushed open the back door and looked inside.

It was completely empty inside!

[What's going on! Where's my head?!] Celty grabbed the thug leader by the collar and lifted him up. Although he didn't say anything, his meaning was clear enough.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! The person isn't here with me, but I know the license plate number!" the thug leader said, wincing in pain.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a small truck carrying goods was driving on the road.

These trains are frequently seen in front of Ikebukuro Station. The rear windows of the carriages are made of one-way glass, so even if you get close, you can't see inside from the outside. They are perfect for hiding things.

Behind the truck, a van appeared. Sitting in the front seat was Wataru, a rich second-generation idol otaku driver. Next to him was Kadota, a former delinquent, who was known as the only conscience of Ikebukuro and the backbone of Dollars.

Sitting among them was a red-haired youth named Shirou.

In the back seat were a man and a woman, both otaku: Yuma, a mixed-race man with squinty eyes, and Karizawa Erika, a beautiful young woman who loved cosplay.

They accepted a request from the Teito Network to help Shirou find the runaway scarred girl. Because they were being watched, Seiji alone was no match for them, and the girl was captured.

Celty followed the wrong target, but at least he got the license plate number, so now it's his turn to take the lead.

"Shirou-kun, you're the leader's messenger, aren't you? Tell us what's going on!"

"That's right, that's right."

"Ryugamine Mikado) couple!" Erika, a fujoshi (female fan of BL), exclaimed excitedly.

"No, no! In a light novel, she'd be a harem character," the squinty-eyed man corrected.

"Yes, Teito is really cool! Especially when he's typing away on the computer, it's like he's glowing." Shirou nodded and said.

"Really?! Tell us more!"

Shirou was being intimately embraced, completely unaware of how bad it would look if the girl he liked saw them.

There are still 8 hours until Shirou meets Artoria.

Chapter 963 The Leaping Young Shirou

"Huh? Huh!?" The driver of the small truck, being experienced, quickly noticed the unusual situation behind him and realized he was being followed.

The people inside the car immediately tensed up.