Chapter 11: The Daylight Wraith

It was daytime, around eleven in the morning. The sun shone brightly. The appearance of a vengeful spirit at this hour was truly strange. Spirits were not monsters; at their core, they were beings of yin, and sunlight exerted a powerful suppressive effect upon them. As a result, the vast majority of spirits rarely manifested during the day, let alone caused trouble.

And yet, the vengeful spirit entwined around Mr. Tooru Suzumura ignored the sunlight, brazenly appearing in broad daylight and even stretching its tendrils toward Ariko Asano.

Ariko Asano stood motionless. Had she not noticed? No, even a novice like Qiao Qiao could see the spirit clearly, so surely Ariko Asano had noticed as well. Qiao Qiao glanced at Ariko Asano, who was calmly explaining something to Tooru Suzumura. Such composure! Qiao Qiao marveled inwardly. As expected of a trainee shrine maiden from Atsuta Shrine—she remained as steady as a mountain in the face of such a vengeful spirit. There was much to learn from her. Qiao Qiao felt he had benefited greatly.

The spirit’s tendrils reached for Ariko Asano from all directions. Qiao Qiao hesitated, uncertain whether to intervene. Just as the tendrils were about to touch the girl, she rose to her feet. Instantly, all the tendrils recoiled warily. Truly worthy of being a trainee shrine maiden of Atsuta Shrine! In that moment, Qiao Qiao understood: although Ariko Asano appeared oblivious to the spirit’s presence, she was in truth fully aware of its every move. The reason she showed no reaction was simple—she did not consider it worthy of her attention.

Would you care if an ant waved its feelers at you? No; you might not even notice the ant’s movement. In the face of this spirit, Ariko Asano was just as unconcerned—relaxed and at ease.

However, as for Mr. Tooru Suzumura... Qiao Qiao glanced at the proprietor of Happy Bakery. Outwardly, there was little sign, but in fact, the spirit’s corruption ran deep. If not for the spirit’s ulterior motives, they might not have found Tooru Suzumura at the bakery today, but at the morgue.

As Qiao Qiao pondered, Ariko Asano walked to the display case. After consulting Tooru Suzumura, she selected a loaf of bread, placed it on a plate, and examined it closely. To Qiao Qiao, it looked as though a beautiful girl was staring intently at a writhing mass of flesh and tendrils, occasionally poking it with a finger—a scene tinged with a perverse sense of madness.

In Ariko Asano’s view, there was nothing visibly wrong with the bread, save for lingering traces of yin energy. She surmised that the bread had absorbed this energy from Tooru Suzumura himself. If an ordinary person were to eat such food, the yin energy might easily invade their body. Vomiting and diarrhea would be mild consequences.

Meanwhile, seeing Ariko Asano leave its sphere of influence, the vengeful spirit extended its tendrils toward Qiao Qiao.

Smack.

“Hm? What is it, Qiao-san?” Tooru Suzumura watched as Qiao Qiao slapped at the air, bewildered.

“A mosquito,” Qiao Qiao replied with a faint smile. He glanced at the spirit—the tendril it stretched out had been utterly obliterated by his slap, not a trace remaining. The spirit seemed greatly alarmed: its form, which had nearly enveloped the entire bakery, shrank abruptly, now only circling above Tooru Suzumura’s head, trembling with fear.

Having finished her inspection of the bakery, Ariko Asano selected the bread with the heaviest concentration of yin energy and placed it before her. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her ink-black pupils glimmered with a faint light.

Shrine maidens are the chosen of the gods, and in times of crisis, they can even become vessels for divine possession, serving as the earthly voice of the gods. Thus, their greatest power lies in spiritual communion. Unlike monks, who exorcise souls, or onmyoji, who command shikigami, shrine maidens can commune directly with spirits and gods.

Qiao Qiao had read that after the Metropolitan Police Department began collaborating closely with the Bureau of Onmyodo, the clearance rate for non-supernatural criminal cases in Japan was one hundred percent. It was easy to understand why—when a murder occurred, the police simply brought a shrine maiden to the corpse. A single spiritual communion, and the murderer was revealed. Case closed. Perhaps for this reason, detective stories were a rarity in Japan in this world. Even “Detective Conan” did not exist. Instead, there had once been an anime called “Kana the Shrine Maiden Detective,” but it ended after just a dozen episodes. The reasoning was clear: with such cheat-like investigative methods, there was no suspense at all.

But back to the present—Ariko Asano was now performing a spiritual communion, using a loaf of bread as her medium. Why not commune directly with Tooru Suzumura? Because although he was entangled by the vengeful spirit, he possessed his own soul. To commune rashly might reveal only Tooru Suzumura’s past and present lives and even weaken his soul, leaving him more vulnerable to the spirit’s corruption.

Thus, Ariko Asano chose the bread with the densest yin energy as her medium. Qiao Qiao watched intently, though he knew little of the art of spiritual communion.

After a moment, the light in Ariko Asano’s eyes faded, returning to normal.

“Shrine Maiden Asano, what did you learn from the communion?” Qiao Qiao asked curiously, making Tooru Suzumura swallow nervously. This way of building suspense was something Ariko Asano quite enjoyed.

With a long sigh, she replied, “This vengeful spirit doesn’t seem to know you, Mr. Suzumura.” In the vision she had just witnessed, the yin energy bore little attachment to Tooru Suzumura himself. To the spirit, he was merely a tool. The vengeful spirit sought to use the bread he baked to spread misfortune to others. That was its sole purpose.

Yes, this spirit simply wished to make others suffer. It was not about vengeance, hatred, or obsession—just pure evil. Therefore, this was no longer a vengeful spirit, but a malevolent one.

If a vengeful spirit still possessed some lingering attachment, it might be pacified and sent on peacefully. But a malevolent spirit could only be destroyed.

“Sorry, Mr. Suzumura, I need to confer with my colleague,” Ariko Asano said, asking Tooru Suzumura to remain seated while she and Qiao Qiao stepped outside the bakery.

“This is a malevolent spirit, driven only by malice. We’ll have to take forceful measures,” she said. If it were an ordinary vengeful spirit with attachments, a shrine maiden would seek out the root of its obsession and resolve it, thus weakening the spirit and making exorcism easier. But with a malevolent spirit—one that hates all things and wishes only harm—the more you try to appease it, the more enraged it becomes, and you may even suffer backlash yourself.

“A malevolent spirit?” Qiao Qiao was even more intrigued. Ariko Asano had discerned the true nature of the spirit with a simple spiritual communion. If it had been Qiao Qiao, he might not have realized what it was even after exorcising it. The art of spiritual communion was truly formidable. Qiao Qiao took a deep breath.

Seeing Qiao Qiao’s uncertain expression, Ariko Asano frowned slightly. With such powerful spiritual force, how could he seem so much like a novice? No—he must be here to test me. Earlier, he showed no reaction to bread tainted with yin; no ordinary exorcist could remain so calm. He was surely sent by my father to evaluate my skills.

With that thought, Ariko Asano explained, “Spiritual communion is a technique for linking the practitioner’s spiritual force with that of another, allowing one to glimpse the past and present of the spirit involved.”

“Linking one’s spiritual force with another…” Qiao Qiao mused, casting a glance at the bread through the glass door. He extended his spiritual energy, connecting with the loaf now writhing with tendrils.

Buzz—

A torrent of images flooded Qiao Qiao’s mind. Spiritual communion didn’t seem so difficult after all. As he focused on the images, he saw exhausted workers collapsing from overwork, ruthless killers who slaughtered without remorse, women who conspired with lovers to murder their husbands, and beasts that wandered in a daze, oblivious to day or night. Finally, the vision settled on a primitive, unidentified sea creature from ancient times.

It seemed he had gone too far. Qiao Qiao withdrew his gaze.