Chapter 154: Nuns Exorcise Spirits Too

Tokyo.
August 18th, cloudy.

Qiao Qiao sat on a bench in a public park in Nakano Ward, watching the people playing and strolling through the park in the afternoon.

Today was Sunday, and the weather was not as scorching as the previous few days, making it ideal for an outing.

He held a book on the history of paleontology in his hand, reading it attentively.

The great yokai of Mount Hiei was something Qiao Qiao had never seen before.

According to the investigation results from the Kyoto side that he had heard over the past two days, this great yokai had likely been sealed away for over a million years.

This piqued Qiao Qiao's interest.

If there were such aberrations within Mount Hiei, did similar entities exist in other places as well?

Furthermore, according to the Exorcist Association, due to the loosening of the seal, the great yokai was capable of influencing human consciousness to a certain extent.

This set Qiao Qiao's mind racing with thoughts.

For instance, that great yokai, with its flailing tentacles, was the quintessential Cthulhu-esque archetype.

Qiao Qiao did not believe that entities like the Great Old Ones or Outer Gods truly existed in this world.

After all, great beings capable of interfering with causality and dimensions and ruling the universe would have no reason to obsess over an insignificant planet like Earth.

He felt that the Cthulhu Mythos in this world must have been purely fictionalized.

Yet Qiao Qiao couldn't help wondering: when the creators fabricated this series of myths, could they have been influenced by these great yokai whose seals were loosening?

The great yokai he had seen at Mount Hiei were not the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos.

However, could there be a possibility that these contemporaneous great yokai influenced human creators, thereby giving birth to similar imagery?

That, Qiao Qiao did not know.

After all, he was not an expert in this field.

After reading under the shade of the trees for a while, Qiao Qiao raised his head to rest his eyes.

Before long, he spotted a young girl.

She wore a long black dress with a stark white collar, a black headscarf, and carried a rather heavy and oversized case in her hand.

A cross-shaped pendant hung from her chest.

Clearly, she was a nun.

The nun narrowed her eyes, finally locating Qiao Qiao on the bench, and walked toward him.

"You must be Mr. Qiao Qiao?"

She put down the case, which indeed sounded heavy when it hit the ground, and said to him.

"Yes. Then you must be, uh, Sasa Hoshino?"

"It's Hoshino Sasa."

The nun seemed accustomed to people getting the order of her name wrong.

Under the sunlight, Qiao Qiao could see the long silver hair peeking through the gaps of Hoshino Sasa's headscarf. Her skin was very fair, and her facial features possessed an exotic quality distinct from ordinary Japanese people, though she was somewhat short in stature. Standing next to Qiao Qiao, it felt almost illicit.

The most distinctive feature was her eyes.

Her left eye was emerald green, while her right eye was azure blue.

Her heterochromatic eyes were remarkably striking.

Judging by her name, she was probably of mixed descent?

However, she spoke Japanese quite fluently.

Qiao Qiao recalled the files Miss Sakura had sent over yesterday.

Hoshino Sasa was an exorcist affiliated with the Nerima Branch of the Tokyo Exorcists Association, though she had not yet officially performed an exorcism.

She was neither a shrine maiden nor from an Onmyodo lineage, but a genuine Christian nun.

As for which denomination she belonged to, Qiao Qiao hadn't bothered to research.

Hoshino Sasa's mother was French, and her father was a university professor. The two met in France, married, returned to Japan, and gave birth to Hoshino Sasa.

At the age of six, Hoshino Sasa awakened her spiritual power, and influenced by her mother's faith, she was sent to a church in the Nerima district to study exorcism.

"Still, the Exorcists Association actually has nuns," Qiao Qiao mused internally.

He had heard Miss Sakura briefly mention before that there was an exceptionally powerful nun operating as an exorcist in the Nerima district, but he hadn't expected to actually encounter a living nun today.

"Sister Hoshino, should we discuss today's commission first, or head over there and talk on the way?" Qiao Qiao asked. After all, he was merely an overseer and assistant; all the actual exorcism work would be handled independently by Hoshino Sasa.

"Let's go straight there," Hoshino Sasa said decisively, then suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to Qiao Qiao.

"Qiao-san, there's one thing I must remind you of. When we are outside, do not call me by my real name directly. You can use my code name."

"You mean... a code name?" Qiao Qiao raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, my operational code name is [Specter]."

...

"Honestly, I told them I could handle the commission on my own, but that [Meteor] person just keeps nagging on and on, acting just like an old mother."

"[Meteor]?"

Sitting on the bus, Qiao Qiao listened to Hoshino Sasa's complaints beside him and tilted his head.

Unlike Asano Arisu, who had been elegant and polite when she first met Qiao Qiao, Hoshino Sasa was remarkably easygoing and began chatting about her church affairs after just a few casual words.

"It's an operational code name too. Everyone in our church has a code name," Hoshino Sasa said earnestly.

"I see. It's a very professional organization." Qiao Qiao nodded slightly.

"The people in our church are all individuals who harbor a deep-seated hatred toward aberrations. Some of them even had their entire families killed by vengeful spirits, leaving only themselves behind. They live under assumed names, living solely for the day they can exact their revenge," Hoshino Sasa continued.

Perhaps catching her words, an elderly gentleman in the front row turned to look at Hoshino Sasa. Seeing her nun's habit, he seemed to understand something and turned back around.

"How harsh," Qiao Qiao said with deep emotion. During times of war, there were similar elite units whose members were filled with profound hatred for the enemy. Such people possessed unyielding willpower and formidable combat capabilities.

It seemed the church's strategy kept pace with the times.

"Mm-hmm, indeed," Hoshino Sasa said, looking quite gratified to find that Qiao Qiao seemed to understand her so well.

"By the way, Specter, what's inside this case of yours?" Qiao Qiao glanced at the black case placed on the adjacent seat. For Hoshino Sasa, who stood only around a meter and a half tall, the case looked rather overwhelmingly large.

"This? It's my comrade-in-arms." Hoshino Sasa smiled quite mysteriously.

"A... comrade-in-arms?" Qiao Qiao's eyes lit up.

"That's right. It is my most trustworthy partner, sharing one mind and soul with me as we fight together," Hoshino Sasa said, puffing out her flat chest.

The bus arrived at the stop shortly after.

The two of them got off.

This was a commercial district in Nakano Ward.

Though not as grand as Ginza or Shibuya, it was still quite bustling, with clothing stores, restaurants, and shopping malls all readily available.

Above the shopping centers were various office buildings.

Qiao Qiao and Hoshino Sasa took the elevator up to the thirteenth floor of a building.

A company was located here, which was today's client.

"Huh?" Hoshino Sasa looked at the company sign with some confusion.

Because it was written entirely in English, with no trace of Japanese characters to be found.

"Ah, this client company seems to be a multinational trading corporation," Qiao Qiao replied.