Zongman I fight weirdness in everyday world

“This isn't a hallucination, it's just the first step in awakening your spiritual ability. However, this topic isn't important right now. I'll explain it to you when we reach the final timeline, otherwise, I'll have to explain it again after the time rewind, which is too troublesome.”

“Okay.”

Minakata Higure first nodded, then finally snapped out of the shock of the appearance of the demon hand. Recalling the scene just now, she looked at Yoshingen with a complex expression and said softly.

“The way you kill shadows... is truly extremely cruel and ruthless…”

“My attitude towards creatures who want to harm humans has always been like this.”

Yoshingen casually replied, then looked towards the stairs leading to the second floor and walked straight towards them.

Although Minakata Higure had roughly guessed the situation on the second floor from the smell in the air, she still endured the discomfort in her heart and followed up to the second floor to confirm the scene.

The scene that met her eyes was unbearable to look at.

The ceiling, floor, and walls on both sides of the second-floor corridor were covered in dark red blood.

On the ground were fragmented limbs that were still bleeding.

Two adults and one child.

The Kōsaka family was confirmed dead.

“Asako…”

“There's no need to be sad.”

Unlike Minakata Higure's reaction, Yoshingen simply crouched down, observed the wounds, even took a photo and sent it to L and Yagami Light, before saying indifferently.

“This timeline will be reset. Although they seem dead now, as long as they are alive on the final timeline, it's fine. Your current sadness and grief are completely unnecessary, and even after the reset, these emotions cannot be retained.”

Hearing Yoshingen's words, Minakata Higure found it difficult to accept, but also knew that from a rational point of view, his viewpoint was not a problem.

But…

“Seeing their deaths with your own eyes, bearing their lives… entering the next rewind, don't you feel any pressure?”

“Pressure?”

Hearing this word, Yoshingen simply shook his head and replied with a chuckle.

“Without me, without the people around me, this world would have already declared GG. Let me think… right, if it weren't for me, a New World God who would use any means to clear all obstacles in his path, and whom no one could stop, should have been born in this world by now.”

“Or, Kyoto City would have been turned into a ghost domain in ruins, causing a chain reaction from which the entire world would begin to revive strangely, and humans would survive in the cracks… no, ninety-nine point nine percent of humans would die, and only a small number of spiritual ability users would have the qualifications to abandon all dignity and live like rats.”

“There is also the possibility that the world would be completely destroyed under the control of a madman.”

“And I have so far prevented all these worldline changes.”

“Acting while bearing the lives of innocent people is already commonplace for me, I just won't let this become a mental shackle for me. After all, I'm not a hero, just a free person who acts according to my heart.”

After saying this, Yoshingen looked at the text messages replied to by Yagami Light and L, as if to deeply imprint the Kōsaka family's death into his memory, and murmured to himself.

“Time of death, about half an hour ago… then it's… February 6th, around 9:00 AM, the Kōsaka family, confirmed dead.”

… …

At the same time, in the underground cave, Hōtō sensed the disappearance of the shadow, and his expression changed again as he looked at Shishou beside him.

“Another shadow… disappeared… no, it was destroyed.”

Shishou, who was standing aside, frowned slightly and said.

“Hmm? Did this happen in the previous timeline?”

“No… but…”

“I see.”

Without needing Hōtō to say more, Shishou had already recalled the changed plan himself.

That was to let the shadow replace the Kōsaka family's time.

Clearly, at the beginning, he only copied the little girl, Saori, intending to kill her while she was swimming in the sea, and perhaps even complete the replication of those who tried to rescue her in the seawater, eventually allowing two shadows to replace them at the same time.

“In the process of replacing the Kōsaka family… were they attacked…?”

Shishou muttered to himself, looked at Hōtō, and issued an order.

“Split out more shadows and wait for the arrival of three days later.”

Hearing this, Hōtō hesitated, and said hesitantly.

“But if there are too many shadows… if they can't replace the original, not only will many shadows die, but… the residents of Nitō Island will probably notice something unusual…”

Shadows are parasitic creatures that rely on the information carried by humans as food to survive.

If something happened on Nitō Island, causing the residents of the island to leave one after another, Hōtō, as a shadow, and those shadows split from her, would only have a dead end. After all, if they were to move to a big city, it wouldn't be so easy to kill the original and replace it.

“I don't care.”

Shishou's black armor on his head faded away, and he stared at Hōtō, who was sitting there with an IV tube inserted in her hand, his disgust undisguised.

“You can't even give birth now. My life may end in this generation. Who would care about the life and death of the shadows? Listen carefully, no matter what deformed monsters you create, you must have the power to resist the enemy in three days, understand?”

“I… I understand…”

… …

At the same time, Sakurakawa Rikka, who was in Nitō Shrine and was being monitored by several shadows, raised an imperceptible smile at the corner of her lips.

She had probably guessed Shishou's, that is, Karikiri Masago's, desires.

The problem now is…

Should she bet all her hopes on this timeline, or wait for Hōtō to use the ability of time rewind more times, making her body weaker, but risk losing the memory before the rewind, and not being able to find Karikiri Masago's identity and the desires he is pursuing?

If there were a way to retain the memories of time regression…

Just as Rikka Sakurakawa thought of this, she suddenly saw Masago Karikiri walking out from inside the shrine.

Her eyes flickered, but her face remained expressionless as she pondered inwardly.

If Masago Karikiri has finished talking with Hotaru, then her soul-form Izanami, who can penetrate the cave walls and return directly to the surface, should be faster than him.

But Izanami hasn't returned.

Childbirth… mother…

I see.

Rikka Sakurakawa instantly guessed the truth. Combining what she had overheard with Izanami, she realized that when the "Mask" attacked, he didn't want to directly kill Hotaru, but rather to extract information about one of her eyes. A plan began to form in her mind.

…

Three days later, early in the morning.

"It's almost time."

Hearing Yozora's words, Hizuru Minamikata, Ginjiro Nezu, and the sisters Ushio and Mio Kobune couldn't help but show complex expressions.

Ushio Kobune pursed her lips, looking somewhat sorrowful.

"Then… see you next time."

Noticing Ushio Kobune's expression, Yozora couldn't help but retort.

"No, it's that time is about to regress, it's not like I'm going to die. What's with these expressions on your faces?"

"I just feel like this is too hard on you."

Hearing Ushio Kobune's sorrowful words, Yozora simply smiled nonchalantly.

"You still don't understand me."

"Time regression? Killing enemies dozens of times?"

"This isn't torture for me, it's an ultimate pleasure."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yozora was covered in a layer of jet-black flames. The black mask on his face and the familiar black coat instantly materialized. As his figure flashed away, the jet-black flames left a long trail in the air.

…

One minute later, inside that underground cave.

Compared to the last time, the number of shadows gathered in the cave was significantly larger. Rikka Sakurakawa was also there, alongside a man in a police uniform with a somewhat frivolous demeanor, who had been transformed into a spirit user by Izanami.

"He's here."

As a spirit user, Rikka Sakurakawa's perception of spirit energy was more acute than Hotaru and Yotsute.

Just as she said this, she saw a pair of black pupils, like burning flames, locking onto her face from the depths of the cave.

At this moment…

Rikka Sakurakawa and "Mask" finally had their first true meeting.

"I've found you, Rikka Sakurakawa."

Chapter 334: The Seventeenth Endgame, the Entire Overload Company Appears

"‘Mask’…"

Rikka Sakurakawa looked at Yozora standing at the entrance of the cave and said softly.

"Why do you keep stopping me time and time again? We are inherently superior to humans and should be above them…"

"I can't be bothered to talk to you."

Yozora waved the Onimaru Kunitsuna in his hand, directly interrupting Rikka Sakurakawa's words.

"You're not worthy to listen."

Yotsute, enveloped in shadow armor, raised his hand and pointed at Yozora, his tone ferocious and twisted.

"Go, kill this guy!"

The shadows, originally hiding in various dark corners, immediately twisted and writhed upon hearing Yotsute's order, launching an attack on Yozora who was standing there.

Because they didn't dare to go out and copy, fearing a repeat of the Saori Kobayakawa family incident, where three shadows were lost in vain, most of the shadows in the cave were still in their original, pitch-black state.

Hotaru's gaze, however, remained fixed on Yozora, not even daring to blink.

She was afraid that if she blinked, the other party would approach her like last time, and have an eyeball forcibly gouged out before she could use time regression.

However, Hotaru noticed that this time, the mysterious person wearing the black mask did not charge straight at her like a sharp spear, piercing through everything in his path. Instead, he stood in place, and each time the black blade in his hand was swung, it would take the life of a shadow.

"The fourteenth one."

Yozora extended his left hand, which had already fused with the pale demon hand, and plunged it into the body of a shadow. Listening to the inhuman screams, he mercilessly tore its body into pieces.

"No… don't…"

Watching him kill the shadows she had created one by one, Hotaru's body trembled, and a look of horror appeared in her red eyes.

"Don't kill them anymore…"

As the "mother" of all shadows, Hotaru had some kind of bloodline and instinctive connection with most of them.

As long as this connection was maintained, no shadow would disobey her orders.

Correspondingly, every time a shadow was destroyed, Hotaru would feel an unspeakable, heart-wrenching pain. After all, these shadows could be considered her children.

Watching Yozora kill her children one by one without any emotion, Hotaru's mind was on the verge of collapse.

"Hmph… it seems I still have to take action…"

Seeing that the ordinary shadows had no power to fight back in front of Yozora, and couldn't even delay him, Yotsute snorted coldly and looked at Rikka Sakurakawa beside him.

"Your spirit users should also take action, right?"

"Understood."

Rikka Sakurakawa nodded slightly and whispered.

"Control Desire, Izanami."

As she finished speaking, the phantom of Izanami, which only spirit users could "observe," reappeared behind her.

In the next second, the man in the police uniform and several seemingly ordinary people, who looked like puppets with blank faces, rushed out from the corners of the cave.

"Fusion, Kamaitachi."

"Fusion, Tomb Fire."

"Fusion, Jorogumo."