"...Did you know? I could have simply taken away your consciousness and made you answer all my questions like a puppet."
Chen Xiao turned his back on Gao Chen and deliberately waved the remote in his hand.
"But I didn't. I let you keep your sense of self."
"Just to torture me?"
The corners of Gao Chen's eyes twitched now and then. He looked as if he were on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"No. So you'd understand why you were going to 'die.'"
"You're going to kill me?!"
Gao Chen's face instantly turned deathly pale, and he screamed in a panic.
"Who do you think you are, daring to kill someone here in Magic City?! And if you kill me, the Gao family won't let you get away with it!"
"Ooh! Now that's more like it!"
Chen Xiao clapped excitedly, then sighed.
"Nothing beats a classic villain who brings up his family as a shield when he's about to die..."
"You lunatic!"
Seeing that Chen Xiao was completely unmoved and even looked excited, Gao Chen's fear reached its peak.
The Gao family might not have been a prestigious clan, but they certainly wouldn't allow some petty nobody to walk all over them, much less kill their third young master.
Judging by the fearless attitude of the man before him, either he had nothing to lose, or his background was so powerful that even the Gao family couldn't afford to offend him.
If it's the former...
Could I buy him off?
"Oh? You'd give up your entire fortune just to stay alive?"
Sensing Gao Chen's thoughts, Chen Xiao's smile widened.
"Unfortunately, I don't like your money. Besides..."
He raised his left hand, extended his index finger, and aimed it at Gao Chen's shoulder.
Six Powers-Finger Pistol!
"Urgh...!"
Gao Chen clutched the bleeding hole in his shoulder and tried to howl, only to discover that, for some reason, he couldn't make a sound.
Then he saw Chen Xiao lift his right finger off a button on the remote, and everything became clear.
He had "stripped" him of his right to scream.
"Psychological punishment isn't enough! If you dare hurt my girls, you'd better be ready for me to beat you half to death!"
Another Finger Pistol plunged deep into Gao Chen's other shoulder!
"Eek...!"
Now he couldn't even cover his bleeding wounds.
"This is for Nijika!"
A punch struck his stomach.
"This is for Ryo!"
A slap landed on his face.
"And these are for Bocchi and Kita!"
Two more heavy punches slammed into Gao Chen.
Fuck! You lunatic! My rats didn't even bite those four girls! How did I hurt them?!
In too much pain to speak at all, Gao Chen couldn't help cursing inwardly.
"You still dare talk back?!"
Chen Xiao's eyes widened, and he kicked him straight in the crotch!
Demon Core Smash!
"Oh...!"
Gao Chen doubled over like a shrimp, his eyes bulging as if they were about to pop out. His mouth hung so wide open that he couldn't even hold in his drool, which dripped onto the ground.
"Tch. Can't even take a kick."
Chen Xiao curled his lip.
He'd thought this guy might be able to withstand eleven Demon Core Smashes from Agent Flower, like Bor in "Country Folks."
Although this was cruel and not something he would normally do, the thought of this guy targeting Nijika Ijichi and the others made the fury inside Chen Xiao threaten to erupt.
In particular, the scenes he'd witnessed when his superpower first awakened kept surfacing uncontrollably in his mind.
"Ohh... my... my... they're... they're gone..."
Curled up on the ground, Gao Chen made broken, raspy noises.
The white flute in his hand fell beside him.
"Hmm?"
Chen Xiao turned to look at the flute on the ground.
"Something sounded off when that flute hit the ground... Is it made of bone?!"
Still, it made sense. This was black magic, after all. How could the materials used to make it be ordinary? And it might not even be animal bone.
Yet no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't spot anything unusual.
"Come to think of it, this guy mentioned ghosts earlier. Do I need some special method to see what's wrong?"
At that thought, Chen Xiao closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he had gained Spirit Seeing Eyes.
This ability belonged to Miko Yotsuya, the heroine of "Mieruko-chan."
Unfortunately, in the original story, the girl had Spirit Seeing Eyes but no power to go with them, so she had to pretend not to notice the ghosts she encountered. The way she looked so frightened she could almost cry was simply delicious...
Ahem! Wrong word. I meant pitiful!
"Holy crap!"
He hadn't known until he looked, and what he saw gave him quite a fright!
The entire flute was coated in an indescribable black sludge, with all sorts of things writhing over it. On closer inspection, they were tiny skulls!
They crawled densely over the whole flute.
"Vengeful spirits? Or some kind of curse..."
Chen Xiao frowned deeply.
I can't leave this thing around. It has to be destroyed immediately!
Buzzz-!
Just as Chen Xiao was about to borrow more power, the flute on the ground seemed to sense his "killing intent" and floated into the air.
A chain could also be seen extending from the bottom of the flute and wrapping around the unconscious Gao Chen.
The next moment, countless evil spirits of black mist, invisible to the naked eye, poured out of the flute's opening and lunged at Chen Xiao.
Six Powers-Shave!
Chen Xiao vanished from where he stood.
Six Powers-Tempest Kick!
A streak of azure "sword energy" swept through the spirits' bodies, leaving a long slash in the ground.
"So physical attacks can't hurt them?"
Standing in midair with Sky Walk, Chen Xiao felt somewhat troubled.
He closed his eyes and opened them again, and the evil spirits disappeared from his sight.
"Without Miko's Spirit Seeing Eyes, I can't even see these spirits. What a nasty trick."
After that remark, Chen Xiao borrowed Spirit Seeing Eyes again and stared intently at the spirits below, which were watching him hungrily.
"Whose power can I borrow with the mana I have left? If I borrow too much, I won't be able to keep things going on Nijika's end."
At that thought, the figures of two shrine maidens surfaced in Chen Xiao's mind.
"Here we go!"
Chen Xiao rubbed his hands together a few times. Delight had just appeared on his face when he discovered that all he'd gotten were a few white paper talismans marked in red.
"These few are all I can borrow?"
Whatever. A few it is.
With the Shrine Maiden of Paradise's power, they should be enough.
Meanwhile, seeing that Chen Xiao had remained motionless in the sky for so long, the evil spirits below lunged at him again.
"Demon-Sealing Needles!"
Chen Xiao flung out the paper talismans.
The next moment, the talismans turned into attacks resembling needles of energy. Not only did they destroy the evil spirits, they also pierced the bone flute floating in midair and effortlessly shattered it.
"Done!"
His work finished, Chen Xiao landed on the ground.
Then he looked at Gao Chen, who lay on the ground, breathing out but barely breathing in.
Letting this guy die outright would be too easy on him.
"Sōten Kisshun-I reject."
Chen Xiao aimed one hand at the fallen Gao Chen. Two firefly-like points of light appeared, spreading an oval energy shield over his upper body.
However, it covered only his upper body. The area hit by Demon Core Smash wasn't repaired.
"Be a good boy and turn yourself in. Tell them everything you know..."
Once Gao Chen was no longer in mortal danger, Chen Xiao picked up the remote, aimed it at his head, and hammered away at the buttons!
Cognitive modification, personality distortion, emotional deprivation-he piled them all on.
As for whether his own existence would be exposed...
Meet Jack the Ripper from Fate/Grand Order: [Information Erasure].
Before you continue