A Boy at the Crematorium

A vast area 50 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, where Kanagawa Prefecture was located.

Outskirts, a boy finished handling the last corpse without changing expression. He pulled off his somewhat blackened gloves and tossed them aside.

"Ran-chan, don't look so much like a corpse yourself. Sure, our job is dealing with corpses, but work is work and life is life. You should smile. Come on, give me a smile."

Hijikata Shichiro set down his shovel and, with the air of an elder lecturing a youngster, smiled and chattered away at Lin Ran.

Of course, given Hijikata Shichiro's age, he really was Lin Ran's elder.

"If you had to handle these corpses every day, do you think you'd be able to smile?" Lin Ran shot Hijikata Shichiro a speechless glance.

Lin Ran was the one who carried the corpses and cremated them. Hijikata Shichiro merely used his shovel to add fuel to the furnace, making the fire burn more fiercely.

In truth, Hijikata Shichiro had a strong aversion to corpses. But there was no helping it—his grandfather was in charge of this crematorium. Though Hijikata Shichiro was a hundred times unwilling to work here, in the end, money won out.

That was right. His grandfather, Hijikata Izumi, had told him that once he was gone, Hijikata Shichiro would become the owner of this small private crematorium. He'd only need to sit in the office and sign papers to earn money; someone else would take over the hard, dirty work.

Yet several years had passed, and his grandfather was still alive, while Hijikata Shichiro was starting to reach his limit.

"Ugh..." Hijikata Shichiro covered his mouth and gagged repeatedly. "Stop talking. I'm already feeling sick."

"Tch... I wonder who was just telling me to smile." Lin Ran shook his head and headed outside. His shift was over, and that had been the last corpse scheduled for cremation today. The rest wasn't his concern.

"Clatter, clatter..."

After leaving Hijikata Crematorium, Lin Ran suddenly stopped and looked toward the hillside to his left. Once the sun had set, this road grew dim and eerie. No one usually came this way.

Lin Ran stared at the path up the hill, a smile forming at the corner of his mouth. "Another Cursed Spirit appeared after half a month?"

Sure enough, a dark figure took shape on the shadowy slope. When Lin Ran got a good look at the Cursed Spirit, his brow twitched.

"It's a Grade 1 cursed spirit?"

Its slender, pitch-black body looked as though it had been drenched in tar. Its shoulders were broad, but its arms were thin. Three eyes sat on its head, the middle one a sinister dark red.

"Leave my grandson. Leave my grandson..."

Lin Ran paused. Cursed Spirits were divided into different ranks and levels, with five in all. In terms of the weapons needed to deal with them, a wooden club could take on a Grade 4 curse, a handgun a Grade 3 curse, and a shotgun a Grade 2 curse. A tank might be able to defeat a Grade 1 curse, while even carpet-bombing one with cluster bombs might not take down a Special Grade.

A Cursed Spirit's intelligence was tied to its level. Generally speaking, Grade 4 cursed spirits had little independent awareness. They could only think in simple terms: pursue and feed.

As a Cursed Spirit's strength and level increased, so did its intelligence. Some were born that way, while others developed it later.

This Grade 1 cursed spirit clearly had intelligence. But what it had just said didn't seem to come from its own consciousness. It sounded more like...

"That's it. The reason Hijikata Izumi is still alive must be because of you." Lin Ran understood. Three months ago, Hijikata Izumi had been gravely ill, but then, at some point, he had made a miraculous recovery. His behavior afterward had been a little strange, but no one had suspected anything.

Looking back, it hadn't made much sense. Now that this Grade 1 cursed spirit had appeared, everything fell into place.

Behind the Grade 1 cursed spirit, a black ribbon flickered in and out of sight. It led straight to Hijikata Izumi's room.

"Hijikata Shichiro might be frivolous, into anime girls, and have awful farts and bad dental hygiene... but he's honest and kindhearted, at least. I don't dislike him." Lin Ran beckoned to the Grade 1 cursed spirit and gave it a greedy look. "Come on. Once I take care of you, Hijikata Shichiro can finally get what he wants."

"You aren't afraid?" The Grade 1 cursed spirit was a little surprised. What it had said just now hadn't been its own consciousness. It had been the lingering obsession of Hijikata Izumi, an animated corpse. Only now did it realize that the black-haired boy before it was far too calm.

Yet it had been watching Lin Ran since three months ago, and hadn't noticed anything unusual. If it had to name something, it was how calmly he handled corpses.

Almost painfully calm.

"Afraid?" Lin Ran looked at the Grade 1 cursed spirit, then realized that he'd dealt with the other Cursed Spirits too quickly for it to notice him.

When Lin Ran didn't answer, the Grade 1 cursed spirit seemed to let go of its reservations. What was there to fear from a boy with not a trace of Cursed Energy? It darted forward, intent on finishing Lin Ran in one blow.

That was exactly what Lin Ran had been waiting for. The moment it charged, he raised his leg and swept out a kick. It looked simple enough, but within 0.000001 seconds of his foot making contact with the Cursed Spirit, black light flashed—and a streak of azure flickered within it.

Boom!

The Grade 1 cursed spirit's left arm burst apart under the blow, and its body slammed into the path like a cannonball, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Lin Ran lowered his right foot and stamped it against the ground, then looked toward the dust cloud. "Normally, an ordinary Cursed Spirit would've been pulverized already. You're a special case."

Was it because it had absorbed too much resentment and Cursed Energy?

"Well, it doesn't matter. Either way, I have to exorcise you today." Lin Ran shook out his leg and walked toward the Grade 1 cursed spirit.

The dust hadn't settled, but the dark figure had already vanished. Lin Ran's eyes darted around. Suddenly, he turned and raised an arm to block. A numbing pain shot through him, and he went flying backward.

"This body really can't take much punishment..." Lin Ran had been training harder to better accommodate his enormous Cursed Energy. But all that training wasn't enough to withstand an attack from a Grade 1 cursed spirit. His hands were numb already.

He was in real danger now. His first encounter with a Grade 1 cursed spirit had thrilled him, but he wasn't strong enough to overwhelm it. At best, he'd only be able to trade blows until they took each other out.

But Lin Ran wasn't the least bit afraid. If anything, he was getting excited. He shook out his hands and quickly moved away.

The next instant, the spot where Lin Ran had been was smashed into a crater. Black energy poured out—the Cursed Spirit's own distinctive aura.

"Have another one!" Lin Ran appeared in midair and drove one foot down with tremendous force. Just before it touched the Grade 1 cursed spirit's head, black-and-blue light flashed again.

Thud!

"Again!"

The instant Lin Ran landed, he swept out another kick. Black-and-blue light flashed and vanished.

One kick.

Two kicks.

Three kicks.

Four kicks.

Five kicks.

Six kicks...

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud...

"Only... six? Is that my limit..." Lin Ran landed, his legs weak beneath him. At his current strength, he couldn't handle such vast amounts of Cursed Energy. After unleashing six Black Flashes, he'd reached his limit.

After all, a Grade 1 cursed spirit wasn't a Special Grade. It had taken six Black Flashes to the head and body, and under such tremendous impact, it could no longer hold together. Its body began to crumble away, and the black ribbon connecting it to Hijikata Izumi snapped at that very moment.

"Still, this isn't an ordinary Black Flash..."

Lin Ran shook out his numb hands in relief, then his eyes suddenly lit up. "A Grade 1 cursed spirit... I wonder how many Points I'll get?"