"Hey, Uesugi-kun, what the hell is that?"
Seeing the man behind them treat his head like a detachable part, Ririko felt a chill run through her and tightened her grip on the Bamboo Sword.
"Rokurokubi, also known as a Flying Head Monster." Uesugi Tetsu stared at the top of the other creature's head for a moment before saying, "It isn't very strong."
No wonder he and Ririko had been discovered. A head had been floating in the sky, watching them the whole time.
"But be careful. Its head and body can stretch or separate at any time. Also, I'm not sure whether its body can move after they separate."
Ririko glanced at him in surprise, seemingly wondering why Uesugi Tetsu knew so much about the Demon that had appeared out of nowhere.
She did not say anything more, merely asking coldly, "Which side should I deal with?"
"Those two. Leave the Flying Head Monster to me."
"Okay."
Ririko and Uesugi Tetsu pressed their backs together and changed direction. Then she noticed him stuff a strange-looking cloth doll into his pocket.
"What's that?"
"Don't worry about it!"
The instant he finished speaking, the two of them sprinted toward their respective opponents as though they were of one mind.
"His!"
The Flying Head Monster opened its mouth and shrieked. The base of its enormous mouth split open grotesquely, its bright-red muscles flexing and revealing a horrifying expression more vicious than an evil spirit's.
The piercing sound waves swept across the area. Wrapped in dense ki, Uesugi Tetsu remained expressionless. He merely assumed the stance of Heisei Seigan, lowered his body, and rapidly closed in on the enemy.
This battle came at just the right time. It was the perfect chance to put the new swordsmanship techniques in his mind into practice.
On the other side, the two members of the Friendship Club... no, perhaps they should be called members of the Friendship Cult, sighed together.
"How did it come to this..."
The young employee standing beside them seemed to have been frightened stupid. He stared at the battle before him without moving a muscle.
The two cultists wore compassionate expressions as they simultaneously took out their Prayer Beads and began muttering incomprehensible words.
"Putting on an act."
Ririko snorted coldly. She only felt a few insignificant, scattered noises skim across her sword heart.
"Sound of Bewildering Dreams had no effect?!"
The two cultists' voices were filled with undisguisable shock. Seeing Ririko rapidly approach, one of them pulled out a dagger with a ruthless look, while the other violently tore his Prayer Beads apart.
The cultist holding the dagger had a sinister gaze. He raised the weapon and stabbed it toward Ririko's heart.
At the same time, noise more than ten times louder than before surged into Ririko's mind, only to be ground into scraps by her sword heart without the slightest resistance.
Ririko knitted her brows and roared, "Cultists, is that all you've got!?"
Her forefoot struck the ground, and the Ki-ai Technique erupted. The Bamboo Sword in her hand seemed to transform into falling thunder, striking the dagger-wielding cultist's hand, chest, and head in an instant.
She gave it everything she had—three strikes in one second!
In the blink of an eye, the dagger was knocked flying to the wall. The cultist himself had his nose broken by the downward swing of the Bamboo Sword, and his vision went black as he collapsed unconscious onto the ground.
"Small hand! Body! Head!"
As she roared, Ririko pushed the Ki-ai Technique to its limit. Her face was wrathful like a Vajra, yet her gaze was colder than a Siberian winter.
Before the still-dazed cultist could react, Ririko closed to point-blank range, released the Bamboo Sword, and delivered a brutal kick between his legs.
The cultist's face twisted as he cried out in pain. "Ah!"
The cry was smashed back down his throat the next moment by Ririko's flying elbow strike.
"—Sounds like things are going smoothly over there."
Facing the shrieking Flying Head Monster as it charged at him, Uesugi Tetsu abruptly halted. Maintaining the stance of Heisei Seigan, he suddenly thrust his blade between breaths.
Fang Thrust!
A pale blue light bloomed across the blade of Kaga Kiyomitsu, and the sword tip, which had already left afterimages in its wake, accelerated once more.
The Flying Head Monster had not even seen the sword's trajectory clearly when Kaga Kiyomitsu pierced straight through its crown, turning it into a skewer in midair.
Killed in an instant!
[You killed the Half-Star Demon "Flying Head Monster." Soul Ash +25]
Seeing the notification appear, Uesugi Tetsu was about to turn around and check on Ririko when sinister winds howled toward him from both sides.
There was an ambush?!
Uesugi Tetsu's pupils contracted. He almost instinctively wanted to transform into Laughing Brahma, but fortunately, while in the Heart Like Still Water state, he knew there was no need to use this trump card that would bring him so much trouble.
After awkwardly rolling forward, Uesugi Tetsu rose again with two savage bloody gashes across his back and stared at the two heads before him, their eyes gleaming viciously.
Why weren't these two Flying Head Monsters with the allies that had supported them earlier?
What Uesugi Tetsu did not know was that he had killed the first Flying Head Monster so quickly that the remaining two had not even had time to react.
"But it's fine..." Stimulated by the adrenaline, Uesugi Tetsu felt his blood surge. "They're just two weaklings."
The aura emanating from these two Flying Head Monsters was nowhere near as strong as that of the first one.
The "Zero-Star" titles above their heads made that clear as well.
The Flying Head Monsters danced through the air, their fangs flashing coldly within their cavernous mouths.
Uesugi Tetsu simply advanced in silence.
Two clean flashes of sword light vanished in an instant, cutting off the Flying Head Monsters' hoarse roars.
[You killed the Zero-Star Demon "Flying Head Monster." Soul Ash +12] [You killed the Zero-Star Demon "Flying Head Monster." Soul Ash +13]
Four halves of heads splattered onto the ground with a wet clatter, filling the air with a foul stench. If left unattended, people would discover them and report the matter within a few hours at most.
But Uesugi Tetsu had already notified Nanjō Emi while waiting outside the barbecue restaurant. Judging by the time, the Special Affairs Division should arrive in less than two minutes.
[Your skill, Incomplete Ki-ai Technique, proficiency +21!] [Your skill, Tennen Rishin-ryū, proficiency +28!]
Perhaps because this was the first real battle after Tennen Rishin-ryū had reached the introductory level, its proficiency had increased far more than it usually did from combat.
And counting the training he had done in his spare moments, the Ki-ai Technique's proficiency had become [Incomplete Ki-ai Technique (151/300)], clearly surpassing the halfway mark.
Sheathing his sword, Uesugi Tetsu walked toward the opposite side of the alley. "How's that guy doing..."
"You're injured?!"
Ririko interrupted him, yanked Uesugi Tetsu over, and turned him around. After carefully examining the wounds on his back for a while, she sighed in relief.
"Just a minor injury."
As he spoke, Uesugi Tetsu unceremoniously took the doll back from Ririko's pocket, turned around again, and said, "Compared to me, you should worry about that guy first."
Only after both cultists had been knocked unconscious did the young man finally seem to snap out of his daze. He unexpectedly spoke in Chinese. "Thank you... were you the ones who just saved me?"
Ririko scratched her head. She had not understood a word he said.
Uesugi Tetsu, however, raised an eyebrow and asked in the poor Henan-accented Chinese he had learned online, "Fellow countryman? International student?"
The young man froze for a moment, then became so delighted that he could barely speak. "Holy crap, brother! Your girlfriend was fucking awesome just now!"
Girlfriend?
Oh, he means Ririko.
Without bothering to correct such minor details, Uesugi Tetsu warmly put an arm around the other man's shoulders and said in Chinese, "Brother, can you tell me how you ran into these two?"
The young man burst out laughing. Although he was smiling, Uesugi Tetsu sensed a trace of bitterness in it.
"It was just a chance encounter. I was about to get off work when they walked in and started talking to me about love, redemption, and things like that. Then I somehow followed them here... Does that sound stupid?"
Somehow?
Uesugi Tetsu glanced at the scattered Prayer Beads on the ground. It was probably some kind of Onmyōjutsu that induced hypnosis or affected the mind.
The laughter gradually faded. The young man put a cigarette between his lips and tiredly closed his eyes. "Sometimes I wonder whether deciding to come to Japan to study was really the right choice."
"When I first started working part-time, I could barely speak properly, and I couldn't understand my classes. Just when things had started getting a little better, everyone put on masks. I'm graduating next year, but my family says their business has run into trouble. I still have two semesters of tuition to figure out on my own."
"Today I was even almost abducted by a cult... I'm tired. I'm really tired."
He looked enviously at Uesugi Tetsu and Ririko standing beside him, then offered Uesugi Tetsu a cigarette. "Brother, you should cherish your girlfriend."
Uesugi Tetsu accepted the cigarette and asked, "What are you planning to do next?"
"Go home." The young man exhaled smoke and let out a long sigh. "Go back to my hometown, then farm in the countryside and raise some livestock or something. I may have lost face, but adding another pair of chopsticks to the table shouldn't be difficult."
Uesugi Tetsu thought about what had happened in Tokyo recently and felt that returning home now might be a good choice for the young man.
So he said nothing more. They could simply question the two cultists about what happened next.
The young man raised his head and quietly gazed at the modern city filled with towering buildings, as though recalling every little moment since he had come to study abroad.
After a long while, he seemed to have made some kind of decision and left without looking back.
After the young man's back had completely disappeared, Ririko, who had not understood a single word, asked in confusion, "What did he just say to you?"
Uesugi Tetsu stared at the unlit cigarette in his hand. After thinking for a moment, he said:
"He said he misses home."
Ririko did not understand, but she could clearly feel the heavy atmosphere filling the air. So she looked toward the two cultists on the ground, who were beginning to show signs of regaining consciousness.
Ririko decided to use the Great Memory Restoration Technique on them.
Before you continue