395 Combine Forces ?

Tokyo, Japan.

One week after Matsuo's supernatural encounter.

Matsuo shuffled to his bedroom door at five in the morning. He opened it to reveal the legion of spirits that saturated his living room.

Some of them, like his first ever visitor, were doing warm-up exercises. Some were watching TV. A few were playing video games. There was even one rummaging through the refrigerator for something to eat.

Matsuo gulped.

This was the first weekend after the incident.

In the past week, spirits of the gamblers he met at work have begun taking residence in his home.

Matsuo was not taking this particularly well.

His eyes were bloodshot. There were dark purple circles underneath them. They stood out against his sickly pale skin.

His new housemates had made it impossible for him to sleep well.

Matsuo stared at the spirits that were moving around his living room, acting as if they owned the place.

"What do you want from me?!" he shouted, "I've given you incense offerings! I've sent money to your families! What more do you want? Yes, I won your money, but it's not like I forced you to gamble! It was your darn choice!"

He punctuated his exclamation with a roar of frustration. However, loud as it was, none of the spirits turned their heads or showed any indication that they heard him.

Matsuo fell to his knees. He started crying.

"What does all this mean?"

"What must I do for you to leave me alone?"

Meow.

Before he could sink even deeper in despair, an orange tabby had appeared before him. It rubbed the top of its head against the hem of Matsuo's trousers.

"Mo?"

A small smile spread across Matsuo's lips as he petted the cat.

"Are you hungry? I'll fix you up with some nice cat food."

*

A tsunami of spirits crashed into them.

Individually, the spirits were not much of a threat. They could be shattered fairly easily.

Collectively, however, they were a force to be reckoned with. Xiao Yu, Zhao Xue, and Black Panther worked together to fight them back, but they found themselves drowning in the endless waves of spirits.

Zhao Xue and Black Panther were beginning to find it difficult to breathe.

Xiao Yu and Nekomata kept hurling surges of specter energy at the spirits. It would burn holes in their congregation, but those cavities were filled up quickly with new spirits.

It felt as if the souls of the undead were bent on dragging them to hell.

The spirits were drawing unbearably closer.

One of them reached out and wrapped his hand around Zhao Xue's wrist. She turned and punched him, instantly breaking him into pieces.

Soon, however, a second spirit held onto her, followed by a third. They held onto her shoulder, her calf, and anything they could get their waxen hands on.

Noodle barked. He bit one of the spirits that was clinging to Zhao Xue's leg and that turned him into a target as well. Within seconds, dozens of other spirits surrounded him and he disappeared from view.

Fish Ball continued to shine like a lighthouse in the misty waters. However, the light was useless at repelling the spirits. It was only a matter of time before he too was swallowed.

The spirits kept coming. They clutched onto every part of Zhao Xue's body and covered her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. They weighed her down, like rocks in the pockets of a drowning woman.

Her movements became sluggish. Each action took an extraordinary amount of effort to do. She could even feel her body grow colder.

"Am I...Am I dying?"

Just as the spirits were about to completely overwhelm them, a powerful blast of energy erupted from Xiao Yu. It spread out across the room at an alarming rate, wiping out every spirit that it came in contact with.

Even Nekomata, Noodle, Zhao Xue, and Black Panther collapsed onto the ground when it reached them.

They were out cold.

Xiao Yu let out a sob.

That was one of the most terrifying experiences she had ever had in her life. She reached into her shirt pocket for the choker and stared at it.

"Thank God this thing works."

This was, of course, the illusory choker that Zhao Yao had given her. Elizabeth's delusive power to rob the five senses was sealed into it.

This power worked on all forms of life, spirits included. Zhao Yao had conned the troublemaking one from the Xiao Mansion into the extradimensional belly with this same method. At that time, he had not even mastered control of all five senses.

Now, his power had evolved into something a lot more powerful. The choker contained that very power, which was why the spirits had all but dissipated and her teammates were still unconscious.

Xiao Yu made no move to rouse them. Her top priority was to find the apostle whom had been controlling that army of spirits.

She used her specter powers to levitate every chair and table in the office, but there was no one in sight.

"The spirits are wiped out, which means that the apostle must have been hit too. But where is he..?"

Xiao Yu furrowed her brows. She had no choice but to retract the power of the illusory choker and shake her teammates awake. They had to get the hell out of here before their mysterious enemy came back.

She had just witnessed first-hand the immense amount of power this apostle held. Even with Nekomata's skill, she could never conjure real spirits, much less the thousands that the enemy had controlled.

The enemy was impossible to beat.

This thought reminded Xiao Yu of the opponent they had won. She turned her head and her gaze landed on the now empty space that Ishida had occupied.

He was gone.

"Rescued? That must have happened before I used the choker. This spells trouble…"

*

"How did she relinquish my control of the spirits? What sort of power is that?"

The apparition of a teenage girl was standing on a balcony, musing about what had just happened. She looked down at Ishida, who was lying by her feet.

"At least I got this idiot out."

She kicked him a few times and only stopped when he began to stir.

The moment he regained consciousness, he activated his power and dived straight into the nearest shadow.

The spirit gave him a look.

"Calm down. I'm not the enemy," she said, "I'm here to help. If you want to complete Matsuo's mission and see your two adorable assistants, we're going to have to work together."

"What have you done to Onitsuka and Sato?" Ishida asked quietly.

She gave him a full-bodied shrug. "Nothing. At least for now. I need you to do a little experiment for me. I need you to test if that pesky little girl's powers affect you."

"And why would I do that?"

The teenager sighed. "Why won't any of you listen to me? Must I turn you into ghosts before you cooperate?"

Ishida's mouth fell open as three figures materialized in the air. At first, they were just faceless outlines. However, they soon took on the appearance of Sato, Onitsuka, and Ishida.

"Speaking of, I've got to thank you for accepting my money."

The tremor in Ishida's voice could not be concealed. "What the hell do you want?"

"I don't want anything at all, really. You were the one who left me with no choice. Your people brought a spy into the picture. We've got no other way out."

*

Xiao Yu and the gang were racing down the endless flights of stairs in the building.

More accurately, Xiao Yu and Nekomata we're flying down the stairs. Their feet never touched the ground. They were dragging Fish Ball and Noodle closely behind them with their powers.

Zhao Xue was carrying Black Panther on her back. She was sprinting like a contestant in a 100m race.

"Why are we running?" she shouted.

"I have a very bad feeling about what's coming for us," Xiao Yu replied, "If the shadow apostle and spirit apostle combined forces, I'm afraid…"

Xiao Yu had knocked out everyone at the scene by robbing their five senses. However, the spirit apostle had not been one of them. It meant that he was not physically in the office, but controlling the spirit army from a distance.

This meant that they could not hurt him or her.

Also, Xiao Yu has no clue if the choker worked on Ishida when he was hidden in a shadow. If it did not and the two apostles attacked them at the same time, they would be done for.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, countless shadow spikes appeared before them.

Her worst fear had come true.