Thank You, Your World

As soon as the two of them regained consciousness, they began shouting their daughter's name at the top of their lungs.

"Yakumo! Yakumo!"

"Ugh, what is going on? Where is Yakumo? Kurenai, why are you here? And why are you injured?"

Kurenai stepped forward to explain the situation to them and asked them to recall where Yakumo Kurama might appear.

"To think that this place is actually Yakumo's illusion... We understand. Follow us! Yakumo always liked to paint in one particular spot."

The group followed them, venturing deeper and deeper into the streets.

By this time, everyone had realized that the path they had used to enter was gone.

They had no choice but to keep moving forward. Yakumo's parents led the group past the Kurama clan grounds and arrived at a small hillside.

On the hillside, Yakumo Kurama was painting in front of an easel, constantly scribbling and erasing on the canvas.

Upon closer inspection, the painting depicted the very place where the group had been earlier, which was now being completely painted over and erased.

The group looked back and saw that the place they had come from was now completely empty.

The entire world had been reduced to nothing but this small hillside.

"Yakumo! Yakumo!"

Yakumo Kurama's parents shouted for her with all their might, but she remained completely unresponsive.

The group moved a little closer together, but due to previous lessons, Kimura Takuya and the others did not rush forward.

"You are all here to kill me! I will kill you all!"

"That is a monster, not Yakumo Kurama!"

Kimura Takuya pulled Yakumo's parents behind him.

He felt that the monster's aura was a bit strange; why did it feel somewhat similar to his own?

Before he could think it through, he saw the monster raise its hand and swipe across the canvas, causing everyone's legs to vanish instantly.

"My legs! I can't feel my legs anymore—what is happening?"

Yamanaka Muku cried out in alarm. Not only were their legs gone, but their soul power was also being weakened.

Meanwhile, the monster was growing stronger and stronger.

It swiped across the canvas again, and the rest of everyone's bodies disappeared as well.

The monster's aura surged once more, and the aura similar to Kimura Takuya's grew even more potent.

Kimura Takuya's eyes flickered.

How strange, he thought to himself.

He then tentatively restored his own body.

The monster erased his body again, but its aura did not increase in the slightest.

He then restored Kurenai Yuhi, who was beside him.

The monster erased Kurenai Yuhi's body once more.

And the similar aura on the monster grew even stronger.

Seeing this, Kimura Takuya let out a cold sneer.

"Heh, you certainly have a clever scheme, don't you?"

"Takuya, what are you talking about? Hurry and save us!"

"That's right, Takuya, please save us! We're about to disappear!"

Kimura Takuya remained unmoved, only cursing himself for being an idiot for not seeing it sooner.

He squeezed his eyes shut and sensed his own soul.

His soul was perfectly fine, without a single trace of being erased.

His current state, where it appeared as though he had no body, was actually just an illusion; nothing had truly changed.

It was merely invisible within this world; his soul had not actually been erased.

"Takuya, save us! Please, save us!"

"Use your Soul Healing Technique to heal us!"

"Heh, heal your mother!"

Kimura Takuya cursed loudly, instantly revealing his form, a kunai in each hand.

He began stabbing wildly at the floating heads of the people beside him who had lost their bodies!

Just like a brat popping balloons, he went after Kurenai Yuhi, Yamanaka Muku, and Yakumo's parents.

With four heads in front of him, Kimura Takuya stabbed twice with each hand.

In the blink of an eye, he had stabbed them all to death!

"Ah!"

It was a miserable shriek emitted by that monster!

"Ah! Impossible, this is my world, how could you possibly hurt me?"

"Heh, is your world really all that? It can't affect me in the slightest; you can only rely on those fakes to siphon a bit of power from me. Did you really think you were all that great?"

The monster stood up in terror, turning to look at Kimura Takuya.

"When did you figure it out?"

"You only have your own greed to blame. You absorbed the energy I used to heal the fake Kurenai Yuhi far too early."

"Then, right in front of me, you absorbed the power from those fakes and even put on a show of erasing their bodies, making me think you were absorbing the erased souls."

"Yet, your own aura didn't change in the slightest."

"On you, only my aura was growing stronger! You underestimated my sensitivity to soul energy."

"Although you suddenly blocked my sensory abilities, you couldn't block my perception of my own soul energy."

"You kicked Kurenai Yuhi and Yamanaka Muku out of the illusion right when I had just come out of the fire after saving people, didn't you?"

"So what if you guessed it? This is my world! I am invincible!"

The monster's expression suddenly froze, as if it were suffering from a decade of constipation; it held its breath for a long time without speaking, turning its own face bright red.

Kimura Takuya walked up to the monster and couldn't help but laugh out loud at its panicked appearance.

"Hahaha, do you feel like you can't run away anymore?"

"Your world?"

"You're invincible?"

"Why do you run the moment you see me?"

"Can't run anymore, can you?"

"You've gorged yourself, haven't you!"

"Is my energy really that easy to take?"

Kimura Takuya stabbed the monster once with every sentence, stabbing it seven or eight times in succession, literally stabbing the monster to death.

Looking at the monster's unwilling gaze, Kimura Takuya gave a disdainful smile.

"Heh, is it strange? Wondering why you died? How could a soul entity like you be stabbed to death by me? Things that can save lives can sometimes kill. I told you, you were just too greedy!"

One slash to decapitate!

The monster's body instantly atomized into a mass of energy. Kimura Takuya took a deep breath and actually absorbed the entire energy mass left behind by the monster's death into his own body.

The moment he absorbed it, Kimura Takuya felt his soul become even more powerful.

And everything in this world seemed to fall under his control as well.

He could feel that his ability to control this world was far stronger than that monster's!

Kimura Takuya raised his hand and waved; the dark clouds in the sky dispersed, revealing the morning sun focusing on the earth beneath his feet.

He pushed his hands out to the sides, and the focused sunlight spread out following his movements.

Accompanying this, the earth expanded infinitely, and mountains, rivers, and streams appeared within it.

The previously empty and desolate surroundings suddenly opened up.

Sunlight bathed the earth, and flowers, birds, insects, and fish played together.

It was full of vitality, brimming with the essence of spring.

Kimura Takuya spread his arms toward the sky, feeling the warmth of the morning sun.

He took a deep breath, savoring the fragrance of flowers and grass in the air.

"This, goddammit, is a world!"

In the real world.

Lying on the bed, Yakumo Kurama's lips curled up slightly, and her nose twitched.

It was as if she could smell something too, and then, tears of emotion streamed down her face.

On the bed beside her, Yakumo's parents, Kurenai Yuhi, and Yamanaka Muku had long since regained consciousness.

But because their five senses had been severed, they were unable to truly wake up.

In reality, Kimura Takuya opened his eyes; he understood everything now.

The illusion world was Yakumo Kurama's true self; she had been so frightened by the immense pressure that she had hidden in the deepest part of the illusion.

It was just like a child hiding under the covers on a stormy day.

As for that monster, it was merely a trace of destructive inclination born from her fear—nothing more than a single thought.

That is why, in the original story, when Yakumo faced her fears head-on, this monster was nothing more than something she could extinguish with a wave of her hand.

All Kimura Takuya had done just now was open the curtains, letting the sunlight stream in.

He was telling her that the storm outside had passed and the skies had cleared.

Sure enough, Yakumo's true form finally manifested beside him, and her parents had been with her the entire time.

No wonder that in the original story, she had absolutely no memory of what happened today.

Kimura Takuya brought them back to reality.

He stood up and restored the five senses for everyone present.

He then explained everything clearly.

Watching Yakumo's parents communicate with her and swear that they would never put such immense pressure on her again, Yakumo smiled and embraced them.

Afterward, she walked over and gave him a tight hug.

"Takuya-kun. Thank you, for your world!"

Seeing that the matter had been perfectly resolved, everyone was overjoyed.

Only Kurama Unkai quietly slipped out of the crowd, intending to leave unnoticed.