Naoko's Resolve

Wu Heng looked at the girl's mangled right leg. A pervert hunting down a disabled person?

What a truly insane place!

"Are you sure it's a perverted man, a human, and not some strange creature?"

"Yes, yes, it's a man named Toyoda Masao. I live in room 204 of the Moriya Inn, and he lives in 202. He even greeted me two days ago, and we chatted a bit when we went downstairs yesterday."

Hearing this, Wu Heng realized it was the same young man from 202 he had seen adjusting the landlord's collar that evening.

"I went out to take out the trash tonight and ran into him on my way back. He looked at me with such disgust."

"Then, just after midnight, he came to my door with a knife and tried to pry the lock. I was terrified, so I climbed out the back window and hid in the dumpster."

Just now?

That must have been before the white shadow ran into Wu Heng's room. It seems this girl's flight from the man in 202, the two of them chasing each other downstairs, is what actually saved her life!

"This man has been circling the area for a while now. He might come back around again. Please, take me to the police headquarters, sir."

Police headquarters?

Wu Heng felt a stir of interest at the mention. He had planned to go tomorrow anyway.

Since he wasn't sleepy anymore and had nowhere better to be, checking the archives at the Kuro-matsu Police Headquarters wouldn't hurt—as long as whatever this girl was dealing with wasn't supernatural.

"Which way is the headquarters? Let's go!"

Wu Heng watched the girl struggle to climb out, failing repeatedly. He couldn't even fathom how she had managed to crawl in there in the first place.

He stepped forward and extended his right hand, coated in spiritual touch.

The girl placed her pale, slender hand in his. With a gentle tug, he hoisted the girl, who stood less than 160 centimeters tall, out of the bin.

"Thank you, sir. My name is Katayama Naoko. You can just call me Naoko," the girl said politely.

"Hmm."

Her hand was quite cold, but it was likely just from the chill, not from any supernatural influence.

So, she couldn't climb out because she was too frozen to move.

Under the shroud of night, the streetlights flickered, casting long, thin shadows of the two figures.

They hadn't even walked thirty meters when a young man with disheveled hair lunged out from the bushes, blocking their path.

The young man's facial muscles twitched, his breathing was ragged, and he let out faint, wheezing gasps. His eyes, filled with madness and agony, were locked intently on the girl's leg.

He raised his knife to charge, but upon seeing Wu Heng nearby, he hurriedly bowed deeply.

"Sir from room 203, I apologize for the disturbance. This is a matter between me and this girl. I hope you will not interfere. My sincerest apologies!"

After bowing, Toyoda Masao reverted to his manic expression, his eyes filled with distress as he stared fixedly at Naoko's mangled right leg.

He muttered to himself:

"Symmetry, it must be symmetrical. I cannot bear it, I cannot bear this imperfection!"

"I cannot bear it—!" Toyoda Masao let out a roar, hunched over, and lunged toward Naoko's intact left leg with the knife raised.

Bang!

Wu Heng kicked the dagger out of Toyoda Masao's hand, shattering two of his fingers in the process as the blade clattered to the ground.

With a follow-up kick, Toyoda Masao was sent rolling backward three times before collapsing onto the ground, limp and powerless.

Blood streaming from the corner of his mouth, he shrieked, "Why? Why would you stop me?"

"Sir, can you truly tolerate such asymmetrical flaws?"

Wu Heng ignored Toyoda Masao and turned to ask Naoko, "You said you spoke with him a few days ago. Why didn't he bother you then?"

Naoko finally understood why Toyoda Masao wanted to kill her. She bit her lip, looking both fearful and self-conscious as she said:

"Because I was wearing a prosthetic leg a few days ago. Today, the prosthetic rubbed my knee raw, so I took it off to let it heal for a couple of days. I never expected Mr. Toyoda to..."

"Well, he's got his sights on you now. Have you thought about how to solve this?" Wu Heng asked, lost in thought.

"We... we could turn him over to the police headquarters!"

Naoko hesitated, her voice trembling.

In truth, she had no idea what to do.

"Perhaps there are other ways. For instance, like this."

Wu Heng pulled a pistol from his pocket and handed it to Naoko.

"Even if you turn him over to the police, he'll be out again before long. Can you guarantee he won't come looking for you again?"

"I..."

Seeing the pistol Wu Heng offered, Naoko recoiled half a step, leaning heavily on her crutch, before quickly freezing in place.

She looked at Wu Heng with an apologetic expression; this man had saved her, and she shouldn't have reacted that way.

Naoko bit her lip, her expression fraught with conflict.

She knew her body made her different from others. She feared the ridicule and discrimination of strangers, and she feared becoming a burden to her family.

Yet, she also possessed a resilient side, never abandoning her love for life and her pursuit of it.

Toyoda Masao collapsed onto the ground, straining to prop himself up with his hands but unable to rise, until he caught sight of the missing fingers on his right hand.

"My fingers, this mutilation—no, it must be symmetrical, it has to be symmetrical!"

He shrieked in terror, staring at his hand.

Abandoning any thought of struggling to his feet, he used his final reserves of strength to shove the corresponding two fingers of his left hand into his mouth, gnawing on them frantically until they were a bloody, mangled mess; he was determined to bite them off.

Naoko watched Toyoda Masao's demonic behavior in horror.

Slowly, a look of resolve emerged in her clear eyes; she reached out, took the pistol, and aimed it at Toyoda Masao.

"Ah—!" Bang! Bang! Bang!

Naoko's scream was accompanied by three gunshots, and Toyoda Masao finally lay still on the ground.

An expression of relief washed over Naoko's face, revealing a unique sense of confidence and tenacity.

It wasn't that Wu Heng wanted to drive this girl insane, but this world was inherently mad—not just because of the various ghosts and monsters, but because of people, paranoid and deranged people.

If she had remained weak and timid, she would never survive when Tomie erupted. If he was going to save her, he might as well save her thoroughly.

"Sir, your gun. M-may I ask what your name is?"

Naoko handed the pistol back to Wu Heng.

"Keep it, it's yours. My name is Echizen Genichiro."

Wu Heng waved his hand dismissively; he had plenty of these pistols, and he had no use for such low-caliber weapons anymore.

"Thank you, Echizen-kun!"

Naoko solemnly tucked the pistol away.

Wu Heng nodded, walked over to Toyoda Masao's corpse, and placed his hand upon it. The body vanished, and the blood on the road dried up instantly.

Naoko stared at the scene in disbelief. Could Echizen Genichiro be a deity? Had a god descended to save her?

Wu Heng turned back and saw that the girl felt no fear at all; instead, her gaze was filled with even greater adoration.

What was wrong with the people here!

How could a perfectly normal girl suddenly turn into this? Had he overstimulated her?

"Are you still going to the police station, or should we head back to the inn?"

Wu Heng asked, though his body was already moving toward the inn.

Toyoda Masao's interruption had killed his interest in traveling through the night to the police headquarters; who knew what other freakish things he might encounter on the way.

This was the third time already. As the saying goes, "three times is enough," and he didn't want a fourth. He wasn't afraid, but it was deeply off-putting.

Seeing Wu Heng head toward the inn, Naoko hurriedly leaned on her crutches to follow. When she had slipped out of the window, she had only grabbed her crutches, and she was still wearing her pajamas; Kurosawa Street was quite cold at night.

Upon reaching the inn, Wu Heng began with the landlord's room, collecting every corpse into his Life Box; there was no need to let them go to waste.

It had to be said that this inn did quite a booming business; aside from rooms 202, 203, and 204, every other room contained one or two corpses.

Naoko followed behind and witnessed the entire process. Seeing the ruined state of the room through the open door of 203, she began to piece together what had happened.