Amida Buddha

Jing Yang was, of course, different from Biscuit.

The biggest difference was, naturally, their strength. Just now, he had been too busy showing off in front of a girl and forgotten that he had only just finished a round of training and was somewhat tired. The instant he took hold of the kitchen knife, his heart sank. If his remaining Nen quantity was insufficient and he failed to complete "Shu," that would be rather embarrassing...

Fortunately, there had been no real danger. He had pulled off that little display with effortless composure.

Jing Yang warned himself inwardly, Girls really do get in the way!

How was he supposed to lift this girl's sweater?

In the woods of the protected area, near the central buffer zone, the two "Jing Crows" pondered this as they lowered their heads to eat some bread crumbs Shizuku had torn up and placed in her palm.

Shizuku fed them while quietly watching.

As she sat beneath a tree eating, she had looked up and seen these two birds, which appeared to be crows, staring at her. Out of simple curiosity, she had raised her bread and waved it around. To her surprise, the two crows had really flown down.

And the moment she gave them food, they lowered their heads and ate. They really were not afraid of people at all.

After mooching a little bread from Shizuku and feeding it to the two birds controlled by the Star Mark, Jing Yang continued following Shizuku at a neither-too-close-nor-too-distant distance, putting on the air of "I'm merely an ordinary passing crow extremely curious about you, beautiful human"...

He had considered directly having the two crows fly up, seize the hem of her sweater in their beaks, and tug it upward. After all, his sole purpose was to confirm whether Shizuku currently had a Spider Tattoo on her body, whether she had joined the Phantom Troupe. That was all.

But there was a small risk in doing that. It would be easy to get beaten to death.

As for using the Star Mark to restrain Shizuku, that was possible too, but there was one small problem—the crows' Nen quantity was nowhere near enough to create a Star Mark.

Shizuku had eaten her fill and fed the two birds she had happened upon. Though it did not show much on her face, she seemed to be in a fairly good mood.

When she loosened her hand, the conjured "Blobfish" immediately turned into a mass of Aura and returned to her body.

"Let's keep looking for the Fanged Moon Tiger." Shizuku muttered to herself as she continued deeper into the protected forest.

You people were hired by that balding official Ochima for something other than finding the Fanged Moon Tiger, weren't you? Jing Yang controlled the two crows as they leisurely followed her. He was not in a rush for the moment, and letting Shizuku get used to these two harmless birds was not a bad idea... Huh? She was looking for the Fanged Moon Tiger?

That would be easy.

Release Wu Er!

Dusk descended, and the surroundings grew dim.

Perhaps because Poachers had appeared recently, the protected area had stepped up management of the Fanged Moon Tigers. As a result, Shizuku had wandered around for nearly an entire day without spotting a single one.

She actually had seen one! The "Jing Crows" following nearby were a little speechless. Since the Fanged Moon Tiger's stripes did not glow during the day, it simply looked like an ordinary, solid pale-gray tiger... Shizuku had encountered one an hour earlier, but had taken it for a regular tiger and paid it little attention.

You're even more of an idiot than Wu Er.

As Jing Yang thought this, a tiger's roar suddenly rang out from the woods ahead of Shizuku, followed by the leap of a pale-gray beast.

What a huge tiger!

Stripes lit up all over its body, glowing with a soft radiance. Its bluish hide was like jade, and the character for king upon its brow shone with spirit.

"Roar..."

The Fanged Moon Tiger's gaze was fierce and wary. It prowled low to the ground, watched Shizuku for a moment, then suddenly pounced at her.

Bang!

Shizuku raised a hand and slammed the tiger that had lunged before her straight onto the ground.

Damn, what incredible strength! Jing Yang, controlling Wu Er's body, was pinned down one-handed by Shizuku. While marveling at her grip strength, he also felt the urge to compete with her.

Though this was not his own body, and both his Nen Abilities and total Aura had been greatly diminished, he was not completely unable to use fundamentals like "Ten" and "Gyo."

Shizuku said, "For a tiger, you're really dumb. The distance you leaped from just now was too short, so your killing power was actually insufficient, right?"

At that moment, the tiger, already possessed of tremendous strength, had its muscles swell all over. Bracing against the hand pinning it down, it began trying to push itself up from the ground.

Shizuku was a little surprised, but what surprised her even more were the jade-blue glowing stripes on the tiger's body—sure enough, they were beautiful!

"Roar!"

"Jing Wu Er" roared and finally broke free of Shizuku's restraint, leaping back. One of the forelegs that had been pinned moments ago was spasming nonstop, as though it had been crushed and broken alive.

"Is this some sort of survival talent possessed by wild beasts?" Shizuku summoned the "Blobfish" with a wave of her hand. "I feel like your bearing suddenly changed just now..."

Muttering to herself, she gripped the snarling "vacuum cleaner," seemingly intending to use the thing as a handy weapon to knock out the tiger before her and bring it back for a proper study.

"Roar..."

"Jing Wu Er" seemed to have had its ferocity awakened. It opened its bloody maw and pounced again despite limping on one leg. This suited Shizuku just fine. Just as she was about to swing the "vacuum cleaner," two cawing crows rushed into the fray, flying into the tiger's bloodthirsty face, clawing and pecking at it with every sort of harassment tactic.

The Fanged Moon Tiger was tormented beyond endurance. In the end, it limped off into the forest. From far away, it seemed to cast an unwilling glance back, as though saying, I'll be back...

In the woods, the Fanged Moon Tiger raced on all fours, crossing the protected area and heading back the way it had come.

The foreleg Shizuku had swollen with one squeeze had long since recovered under the Star Mark's healing effect. Inside the tiger's head, Jing Yang comforted Wu Er. "All right, you've worked hard. I'll have Menchi make you something tasty later!"

Caw, caw. The two crows had driven off the Fanged Moon Tiger. Flapping their wings, they turned back to look at Shizuku, and one of them even familiarly landed on her shoulder.

Though they seemed to have meddled unhelpfully, Shizuku said nothing and casually dispersed the "Blobfish" into a mass of Aura, retrieving it.

Seeing that they had become familiar enough, Jing Yang stopped wasting words and directly controlled the two crows to approach Shizuku's abdomen. Their beaks caught the hem of her black sweater, and with a flutter of their wings, they successfully lifted it.

Jing Yang frowned.

Through the eyes of the bird he controlled, he stood on a treetop in the night, watching the group on the North Coast from afar.

The moonlight was cold. At the wrecked small cruise ship, Kakin's people had already salvaged every corpse from the nearby coast and brought them ashore. Many people held flashlights as they sorted through them one by one, examining the bodies that had soaked in seawater for so long and photographing each of them.

Babimayna looked at Muser's corpse and said to the other end of the phone, "...Yes. The preliminary assessment is that he died from a single gunshot at close range to the left temple. Other than that, there are no other fatal wounds."

On the other end of the call, the First Prince said gravely, "Unless there was no other choice, Muser would never raise a gun to kill himself. With his combat ability, even if an enemy held a gun to his head, there would not be no sign at all of resistance or struggle. Then there is only one possibility: he was driven into a desperate situation! We may even assume that he had already been controlled by some Manipulator. Fearing that his existence would threaten me, he chose to end his own life.—And by doing so, conveyed to me the information that 'the enemy is a Manipulator.'"

"This subordinate agrees."

Babimayna discussed a few more matters with the First Prince, then hung up.

The girl's waist and abdomen were smooth and flat, without a trace of excess flesh or any tattoo. Clean and unmarked.

Once Shizuku's sweater hem had been lifted, Jing Yang saw it clearly at a glance, and his mind was immediately put at ease.

Since she had not yet joined the Phantom Troupe, this would be easy.

His thoughts immediately became clear.

"What is it?" Shizuku did not actually think much of it. She even tugged the sweater hem the crows had lifted a little higher and looked at herself. "Am I dirty?"

Naturally, the crows could not speak. They merely turned their heads to look at her with vacant innocence, as though what they had done had simply been habitual crow mischief.

Shizuku had not expected the two birds to answer. She raised her head and glanced at the moonlight.

She had seen the Fanged Moon Tiger too, so it was time to head back.

"Why did you suddenly start laughing?"

Elsewhere, on the streets of East Town, Menchi turned toward Jing Yang with a head full of question marks.

"I thought of something funny. Is that not allowed?" Jing Yang said.

"Why do you keep staring at me? Have you figured out your ability yet?" he lectured earnestly. "And don't just think about conjuring some kind of tool. Conjurers usually also encompass abilities like physical modification and transformation. You could develop an ability that transforms you into 'Chef Superman.' Maybe—"

"Maybe it'd be really strong?" Menchi asked curiously.

"Maybe it'd be pretty funny.—Put down the kitchen knife!!"

Menchi put away her kitchen knife. Suddenly thinking of something, she asked curiously, "You said Conjurers encompass physical-modification abilities. Then is that what the senior Biscuit you mentioned is like?"

"How would I know?" Jing Yang said. "I don't even know what type she is."

Ging, who had remained silent as he followed alongside them, thought, Senior Biscuit is a Transmuter, and Conjurer is the adjacent type. Maybe... Forget it. Better not think too hard about it. I might get beaten up...

Just then, Jing Yang abruptly stopped. He took a deep breath, and his expression seemed rather unpleasant.

"What's wrong with you again?" Menchi asked irritably, turning back with her hands on her hips.

Jing Yang took a deep breath and pointed toward the buildings at the eastern end of the street, near the shore. "What's over there?"

His face was solemn. "That smell of blood is so strong! Could there have been some kind of family massacre?"

Menchi looked speechless. "That's Slaughterhouse Dock. It's almost evening, so there should be a new batch of seafood being processed. Of course the smell of blood is strong!—Where are you going?"

"Amida Buddha! This humble monk has something to do, so I'll be taking my leave..."