The Strongest in the Subway Station vs. the Strongest in the Parking Lot

There were no lights in the subway station.

Only the fire in Long Xi's palm illuminated a corner of the sign reading "Sendai Business Plaza Station."

Water pooled beneath the escalator, with receipts, plastic bags, and a broken shoe floating on its surface.

Wind swept through the tunnel, carrying the smell of rust and damp.

The group moved slowly.

Takayanagi controlled the pace from the middle, signaling every few steps for the civilians to stop, move, or duck.

She neither shouted nor panicked, and that kept the entire group together.

Long Xi walked at the front, keeping his flame no larger than a fist.

Too much light would attract things.

Too little, and he couldn't see the way.

Striking that balance was frustrating enough to make him want to swear.

[Now we've got subway horror movie vibes]

[That flame looks like my phone at one percent battery]

[Something's moving in the water ahead, right side, right side]

Long Xi stopped short.

Behind the ticket gates to the right, a black mass crawled toward them along the floor.

It had no complete body. It looked like fragments of several cursed spirits mashed together, dragging itself along on a floorful of arms. Thanks to the barrier's influence, the civilians could see it too, and felt a chill creep up from their ankles.

"Don't move yet."

Long Xi raised his hand, drawing a line of fire across the floor.

Forced upward by the flames, the thing sprang into the air. Its unfolded body stood half a person's height, and more than a dozen mouths opened at once.

Instead of lunging straight at Long Xi, it circled toward the group behind him.

It's got some brains.

Long Xi flicked out the Emperor Bell with a backhand motion. Its chime was soft, but it was enough to suppress the creature's movements. Takayanagi immediately led everyone two steps back, keeping the civilians behind the ticket gates.

Long Xi closed in and drove a fist into the cursed spirit's abdomen.

Cursed energy erupted before the flames, blasting it straight toward the wall.

It tried to split apart after hitting the wall, but Long Xi pressed down with a fingertip. Flames sprang from the cursed residue on the wall, pinning each section of its body in a separate blaze.

Seconds later, the black smoke dispersed.

"Not Grade 2." Long Xi shook out his hand. "Just an appetizer."

Chiharu Takayanagi had just felt as though she was about to die. She swallowed instinctively and looked at Long Xi.

"You call that an appetizer?"

"When the main course arrives, you'll realize how mild that was."

[Don't jinx it, streamer]

[Takayanagi's pretty solid, the group would've fallen apart without her]

Long Xi agreed with that.

Takayanagi was more of an on-site commander than Kawahara. He held on through sheer responsibility, while she broke fear down into steps.

Who supported whom, who walked in the middle, who carried the lights, who kept quiet-she had arranged everything clearly.

Just not having anyone suddenly turn stupid at a critical moment was already refreshing.

As they entered the platform, a dull sound came from the tracks ahead.

It wasn't an impact.

Something heavy was turning over inside the tunnel.

Long Xi raised a hand, stopping the group at the foot of the stairs.

"Takayanagi, take them behind the ticket office first. Stay off the tracks and away from the pillars."

Takayanagi sensed something was wrong and instinctively asked.

"What grade...?"

"Grade 2... possibly Grade 3..."

Her expression darkened, but she didn't question him.

"What do you need us to do?"

"Keep everyone together... and once I draw it away, find a chance to leave through the service passage on the left. It connects to another underground passage."

"You're not coming with us?"

Long Xi watched the cursed residue gradually light up deep along the tracks.

"It won't let a group of living people walk past it. First, I have to convince it I taste better than you do."

Takayanagi wanted to say more, but in the end she only nodded.

"Three minutes. We can give you three minutes at most while we get everyone organized."

"That's enough."

Long Xi flung his flame forward.

The far end of the platform lit up.

The Grade 2 Cursed Spirit crawled out of the tunnel's shadows.

It had a human upper body, except for a head that resembled a caterpillar's, while below its waist stretched an insect body shaped like a train carriage.

Rusty metal plates studded its body, black liquid dripping from their edges. Its arms were long, its fingertips dragging on the ground and gouging the tiles whenever it moved.

More troubling was the cursed residue of rails and metal clinging to it.

This thing had the home-field advantage.

Inside the subway station, both its speed and attack range would increase.

Long Xi didn't rush in.

He observed it first.

The cursed spirit's left arm was thicker, the metal plates on its right side more densely packed. A darker patch of core cursed residue lay where its waist joined its insect body.

Cursed residue was the trace of cursed energy left in spaces or on objects after a sorcerer or cursed spirit used cursed energy or a cursed technique, something like the "lingering scent of jujutsu."

Its weak point was most likely there.

As for why there were so few cursed spirits nearby, this one had probably killed them all. Being the strongest down here for so long had likely made it complacent.

But approaching head-on would put him in range of those two long arms.

The platform was narrow. A large-scale explosion of fire would hurt the people behind him and could collapse the passage.

"Tough fight, but doable."

Long Xi quietly reached his conclusion.

Now, all that's left is to kill it!

The strongest in the subway station vs. the strongest in the parking lot!!!

The cursed spirit instantly turned its head, lashing out with its left arm like an iron whip, far faster than its size suggested.

Long Xi didn't jump back. The group was behind him.

He surged diagonally forward, splashing through the pooled water and lowering himself almost to the platform's edge. The iron arm swept over his head, smashing all the outer tiles off two pillars.

Fragments flew toward the group.

Takayanagi immediately unfurled a paper talisman. A thin barrier blocked most of the fragments, while the security guard and shop employees deflected the rest with their arms.

Long Xi rushed to the cursed spirit's flank as it drew its arm back, compressing his flames into a short blade and slashing at the core in its waist.

The cursed spirit's insect body suddenly shifted sideways.

It wasn't the lumbering type.

Drawing on the rails' cursed residue, it slid half a meter along the platform edge. Long Xi's slash only sheared off a few metal plates. The next second, its right arm rose from below, its fingertips scraping his side.

Blood seeped out instantly.

Long Xi retreated two steps, crushing a tile underfoot.

It hurt, but the wound wasn't deep.

"Okay. You can drift, too."

[Careful, streamer, it uses the tracks to speed up]

[Stay away from the edge, fall down there and you're at its mercy on home turf]

The chat's warning came just in time.

Long Xi immediately changed tactics.

He raised his hand and fired three fireballs, aiming not at the cursed spirit but at the metal connectors on either side of the tracks.

The flames burst, heating a section of rail red-hot and disrupting the cursed residue at the same time. The Grade 2 Cursed Spirit faltered, its insect body failing to slide away smoothly.

Long Xi seized that opening, kicked off the ground, and charged up a platform pillar. Then he sprang off it and came crashing down from above.

The cursed spirit brought its left arm back to defend.

Long Xi forcibly twisted in midair, avoiding a head-on clash. The Emperor Bell rang against the left arm, its chime traveling through the metal plates into the cursed spirit's body. Its movement stopped for one brief beat.

The flame blade fell.

This time, it struck the waist.

Black liquid sprayed out. The cursed spirit let out a piercing shriek, and its insect body whipped upward, sweeping Long Xi away.

Bang!

Long Xi slammed into a ticket machine, denting its metal casing. He coughed up blood, and the wound on his shoulder split open again.

Chiharu Takayanagi leaned halfway out from behind the ticket office, her face grim and her weapon already drawn.

"Stay back!"

Long Xi braced himself against the ticket machine and stood, raising a hand to wipe the blood from his chin.

The wounded Grade 2 Cursed Spirit grew even more vicious, smashing both arms into the platform at once.

Tiles shattered and pooled water surged upward. Among the civilians, someone failed to contain their terror and let out a brief sob.

The cursed spirit immediately turned its head.

It had heard.

Chiharu Takayanagi acted without hesitation, throwing a barrier nail toward the billboard on the right. The nail burst, creating a brief pulse of cursed energy that forcibly diverted the cursed spirit's attention from the crowd.

"Fuck!"

Long Xi charged out.

He didn't slash directly with a flame blade again. Instead, he forced the flames into his legs, instantly pushing his speed to its limit.

Only the continuous dull thuds of his footsteps remained on the platform as Long Xi traced a semicircle around the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit.

Every pass left a small flame on the ground.

The cursed spirit tried to track his position, sweeping its long arms wildly and smashing pillars and ticket gates, but always missing by a fraction.

Long Xi wanted it frantic.

Once the points of fire formed a circle, he stopped abruptly directly in front of the cursed spirit.

"Look here."

The cursed spirit crossed its arms and smashed them down.

Rather than dodge sideways, Long Xi charged forward through the gap between its arms. At the same time, the ring of fire contracted, preventing its insect body from retreating.

The core in its waist lay exposed before Long Xi.

But it had held something in reserve, too.

The metal plates at its waist suddenly stood on end like a row of knives, stabbing straight at Long Xi's chest.

Long Xi had been ready for that.

He blocked them head-on with his left arm. Cursed energy coated his skin, but they still gouged several bloody cuts.

At the same time, his right fist pressed against the core.

It wasn't an explosion of fire.

It was pure cursed energy impact.

First, he shook the core loose with cursed energy, then poured the flames inside.

"Burst."

Boom!

The Grade 2 Cursed Spirit's waist exploded, severing its insect body from its upper half. It still wasn't dead. Its upper body crawled toward Long Xi on its arms, opening its mouth to bite.

Long Xi withdrew half a step, and the Emperor Bell rang one last time.

The chime suppressed the remaining core.

Flames burned out through its mouth, piercing its head.

The black smoke dissipated completely.

The platform fell silent.

Long Xi stood where he was, his left arm drenched in blood from the metal plates' cuts and red seeping from his side. He looked down at his wounds, confirmed he could still move, and only then waved to the people behind him.

"The way's clear."

Chiharu Takayanagi led everyone out from behind the ticket office.

Everyone was still visibly shaken, unable to say a word. Only the little sister of the sibling pair looked at the shattered tiles covering the floor, then at Long Xi, and asked quietly.

"Big brother, does it hurt?"

Long Xi hung the Emperor Bell back on his wrist.

"It does."

The little girl froze.

Long Xi smiled at her, and she visibly blushed.

"So run a little faster in a minute. Don't let me hurt for nothing."

The little girl nodded hard, while police cars were already flooding the chat.

Chiharu Takayanagi watched him for a few seconds too, then handed him a spare bandage. Long Xi raised his hand and switched off the chat.

"You really know how to get people to listen."

"Mostly thanks to my looks."

Takayanagi: "..."

The middle-aged security guard couldn't help laughing, and the tense group finally loosened up a little.

The system panel appeared at the same time.

[Grade 2 targets killed: 2/3]

Long Xi held one end of the bandage between his teeth and used one hand to wrap it tightly around his left arm.

"One more to go."

He looked toward the other end of the subway tunnel.

It led to the area near the parking lot.

But the cursed residue in the air was starting to feel off.