Chapter 21: The Great Detective Arisu

Two o'clock in the morning.

Ariko Asano was gasping for breath.

The excessive use of spiritual power made it difficult for her to concentrate.

She remembered that, in the past, she had once depleted her spiritual energy entirely in order to strengthen herself.

At the very moment it was exhausted, Ariko Asano had immediately fainted.

She slept for a full day and night.

Afterward, she ate ravenously.

Only then did she recover a bit of spirit.

Her weight had also increased by half a kilogram.

Since then, Ariko Asano had learned to use her spiritual power cautiously, always avoiding complete depletion.

Yet the reality was—

Even if she used up all her spiritual energy, she could barely drive out the vengeful spirits haunting this villa.

It wasn't that any single spirit was too strong.

There were simply too many.

Three? Five? Seven?

Ariko Asano no longer cared to count.

Since the appearance of the first vengeful spirit, more and more followed in its wake.

All of them were women, their resentment having corrupted them into grotesque forms.

Given a bit more time, they would undoubtedly transform into evil spirits.

It was unfortunate that the sword bell, her divine vessel, was currently needed for rituals and could not be brought out.

Otherwise, dealing with these vengeful spirits would not be so difficult.

Her vision blurred.

She saw Qiao Qiao standing nearby, observing her exorcism.

That was Ariko Asano’s command.

If she couldn't handle even an incident of this magnitude, how could she ever become an independent priestess?

Of course, thinking from another perspective, perhaps it was precisely because Qiao Qiao was here that Ariko Asano pushed herself so much.

In the worst case, she could simply ask Qiao Qiao for help.

After the ninth vengeful spirit was purified, screaming as it faded, Ariko Asano finally had a rare moment to catch her breath.

"There are far too many of these vengeful spirits," she whispered, her voice almost frighteningly soft.

Normally, even a mass grave wouldn't yield so many.

Although these spirits were weak, barely able to persist against the passage of time, their sheer number was alarming.

"It’s almost as if this place was the scene of some serial murder," she murmured.

Qiao Qiao nodded in agreement.

The quantity was indeed excessive.

By his standards, the strength of these vengeful spirits ranged from minor to moderate—nothing formidable.

But their gathering in such numbers was troubling.

He recalled the half-demon cherry tree in Wadahori Park, which sustained itself by attracting spiritual entities and converting them into vengeful spirits for nourishment.

Could something similar be present in this villa?

Qiao Qiao glanced at Ariko Asano.

The priestess hadn't used much spiritual power just now, but perhaps due to her inexperience, she seemed tired.

Still, since she hadn't asked for his assistance, Qiao Qiao resolved to fulfill his role as an attendant.

He stood by, hands off.

Yet Qiao Qiao was not entirely idle.

As he observed, he reviewed the knowledge from the library book he'd read earlier, digesting and reinforcing it.

He also studied Ariko Asano’s exorcism technique.

Unlike last time at the Happy Bakery, this time she relied more on her spiritual energy to purify the spirits.

Explained in terms familiar to Qiao Qiao, she diluted the spirits’ dark energy, accelerating their natural dissolution.

The dark energy of a vengeful spirit had dense and weak points.

Ariko Asano’s spiritual energy targeted the weaknesses, causing the dark energy to dissipate.

With a minimal amount of spiritual power, she weakened a significant amount of malice.

Her efficiency with spiritual energy was impressive.

Her method was much gentler than Qiao Qiao’s own, which was rather crude.

Perhaps only such a method could truly allow these vengeful spirits to find peace.

What Qiao Qiao did was merely eradication.

He hadn’t expected such mastery from the young priestess.

As the ceremonial wand swept, and the sacred bells rang, the spirits’ obsessions faded, passing on in peace.

It was the scene Qiao Qiao most admired.

She truly deserved to be an apprentice priestess from Atsuta Shrine.

Moved, Qiao Qiao pondered.

Why were there so many female vengeful spirits here?

Had many died in this place?

But if it were only deaths, the spirits would be like unattached mist, quickly fading.

Unless—

Their bodies were still here.

Or at least, parts of them.

Suddenly Qiao Qiao recalled something the manager had mentioned.

Recently, several disappearances had occurred in Shinjuku.

No, speaking of disappearances, Tokyo had many such cases.

Qiao Qiao remembered news reports: in the country, nearly a hundred thousand people went missing annually.

On average, two hundred vanished daily; for Shinjuku, a few recent cases seemed almost normal.

Not all the missing died.

Some took their own lives in remote mountains, others became homeless.

Each had their own hardship.

Normally, this wouldn’t have caught Qiao Qiao’s attention.

But the manager had said it.

And who was the manager?

One of the top exorcists in Tokyo—a figure Qiao Qiao could only look up to.

Someone like that never spoke without reason.

Could it be...

The missing were all murdered?

They were brought here, killed, abused, and their bodies never found.

Such circumstances would easily accumulate dark energy, transforming into vengeful spirits.

And because the bodies, or parts thereof, remained here, the spirits could not dissipate, only multiply.

Qiao Qiao felt he was brushing against the truth.

Taking advantage of the lull as most spirits seemed to have been eliminated, he shared his theory with Ariko Asano.

"It's possible," she replied, her lips pale. She drained the bottle of mineral water from her bag in one gulp and nodded.

"If that's the case, perhaps Kenji Ikeguchi kidnapped those girls, murdered them, and hid their bodies in this villa, but his father discovered it."

Though exhausted, the priestess perked up at Qiao Qiao’s words.

"Maybe Mr. Tetsu Ikeguchi found out earlier, but couldn't bear to turn in his son, fell into depression, and finally committed suicide, hoping to awaken his son's conscience. Or perhaps Kenji Ikeguchi, in desperation, killed his father when his secret was discovered, and manipulated the spiritual outcome to distort the truth."

She speculated.

The reason for suspecting Kenji Ikeguchi was that Tetsu Ikeguchi was already dead.

Serial killers rarely end up committing suicide themselves.

"These vengeful spirits must have suffered considerable torment before death, and not ordinary torment, to bear such deep resentment."

"My father once told me that some insiders, when committing crimes, use special methods—not for amusement, but to deliberately turn the victims' spirits into vengeful entities, so that the killer can't be traced through spiritual means."

"Ordinary people wouldn't know such techniques. Only professionals could manage it."

She explained further.

"I see... I never knew such things existed," Qiao Qiao admitted, hearing of this for the first time.

He had never dealt with supernatural events directly causing death before.

Perhaps, to avoid copycat crimes, such knowledge was kept secret.

"So the question is—where are the bodies hidden?"

Ariko Asano surveyed the villa.

Whether from the perspective of occult study or police investigation, they needed to find the bodies.

Otherwise, the corpses could still be used as soil to nurture other evil spirits.

And without bodies, the criminal couldn’t be convicted.

After Tetsu Ikeguchi’s suicide, surely the police had searched the villa thoroughly.

No bodies were found.

That was problematic.

Upon hearing Ariko Asano’s words, Qiao Qiao suddenly remembered something.

He recalled the architectural library book he had read today, which described residential design standards.

He hadn’t noticed before.

Looking closely now, the villa felt oppressive not only due to the accumulated malice, but because its interior space was far smaller than its exterior suggested.

Qiao Qiao walked over to the television.

There, it was clear that wallpaper had been newly applied.

He reached out and knocked on the wall.

Before the sound could confirm his suspicion, Qiao Qiao and Ariko Asano simultaneously heard a cat’s meow.

It came from within the wall.