"Hah!!"
Faced with the out-of-control fire truck, Shizuku stepped in front of the girl without hesitation and thrust out her right hand. The next moment, accompanied by a dull crash, the fire truck came to an instant stop.
"...Hah... hah..."
Only then did the girl begin to recover from her shock. She slowly raised her head and looked ahead of her, where she saw Shizuku standing there. Then Shizuku's head slowly turned backward—a blood-smeared, terrifying face rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees and glared fixedly at her.
"Eeeeeeeeeek-----!!!"
With that scream, the girl collapsed onto the ground.
"Whew..."
Only then did Shizuku let out a breath, shaking out her hand and twisting her neck back into place. Then she walked over to Inaba Kyoko and stared at her.
"Was that scream the same as the one you heard before?"
"Huh? Ah... um..."
In response to Shizuku's question, Inaba Kyoko looked somewhat bewildered, but she still nodded.
"Yes, probably... about the same?"
"Then there shouldn't be a problem."
Hearing that, Shizuku nodded, then stood up and looked around. The others nearby had also gotten to their feet, still shaken. Nueno Nuesuke's expression was especially grave. He came to Shizuku's side and spoke in a low voice.
"I didn't sense the presence of an evil spirit."
"Neither did I. Damn, I didn't expect this thing to be the reincarnation of a bald assassin."
Hearing Nueno Nuesuke, Shizuku gritted her teeth. If that evil spirit had appeared at the scene, then either Nueno Nuesuke or she herself would definitely have sensed it immediately. Yet throughout the entire disaster, she had not felt even a trace of Spiritual Power or Demonic Aura. It seemed as though the whole incident had simply been an accident. If she had not stopped that fire truck