The Supernatural Phenomenon Kingdom of Hokkaido, Completely Cleansed! Mask of Jealous Brahma Complete, the Day of Meeting the Sword Saint!

Uesugi Tetsu pressed his ear close to the phone's speaker and heard more and more of those strange "pshht" sounds, growing closer by the second.

They were so close, it was practically like standing right beside a high-pressure faucet spraying water.

But the source of the "pshht" sounds was clearly not singular, nor did they come from the same place. They came in waves, large and small, one after another.

Could a basic sword swing make that kind of sound?

Did he think he could fool me like a child?

Uesugi Tetsu said no more and simply called her.

The call connected with a click before the prompt page could even appear. Nanjō Emi had picked up.

This time, there were even more "pshht" sounds in the background. Uesugi Tetsu could also hear several "hiss, hiss, hiss" noises, like water draining from a pipe.

Uesugi Tetsu said bluntly, "Don't try to fool me. Seriously, Sister Nanjō, what exactly are you doing in Hokkaido right now?"

Nanjō Emi's voice came through, cold and devoid of even the slightest emotion.

"Chopping off heads."

A snow-covered plaza somewhere in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

The biting, forty-below-zero wind whipped the bloodstained white suit draped over the short-haired woman's shoulders.

Even in weather harsh enough to freeze someone to death in the literal sense, the woman still wore leather shoes and high-waisted trousers, with only a thin striped undershirt beneath.

The only thing that could be called warm was probably the dark-red leather gloves covering her hands.

Amid the ice and snow, Nanjō Emi held a black phone to her ear with her left hand. In her right, an extremely rare double-edged dress sword slowly drooped toward the ground.

The mottled blood on the blade had long since congealed into black clumps. New hot blood washed