258 Hyakki Yagyō

"What I cannot have, none of you can have either!" With this thought in mind, Takeshi Yuta readied his heart to face death. Looking down at the Soul Summoning Pencil in his hand, his eyes glazed over with a touch of madness.

After he had obtained the Soul Summoning Pencil, Takeshi Yuta found out about the use of this pencil. It was able to bring out the animals and plants in drawings, even imaginary people and weapons could be brought to life. Previously when he did drawings of some weapons, they just appeared like toys. There was no deadly glean of ferocity, and this made him realise that the Soul Summoning Pencil was not able to bring to life just any old thing, each thing had its own innate nature.

The characters that the Soul Summoning Pencil brought to life were all glassy-eyed. They just blindly followed orders, and had no consciousness of their own. 

However, Takeshi Yuta was aware of this. It was not that the Soul Summoning Pencil could not give the characters the ability to think like a person, but in order to be able to gift a drawing with the spirituality of a human being, one would have to sacrifice the Soul Summoning Pencil itself. Thinking of this, Takeshi Yuta tightly gripped the Soul Summoning Pencil. Looking at the people from the Department of Mysteries and Kimura Kazuki standing in front of him, he was filled with unwillingness to accept the current situation and grievance, but he knew that there was no way for him to resist, so the only thing he had left to control was to ensure that these people would not benefit from this as well.

While Takeshi Yuta was deep in thought, his hands were not slow in taking action. Yet when Takeshi Yuta began to act oddly, or in other words the minute the Soul Summoning Pencil began to move, Kimura Kazuki reacted immediately. However, no matter how fast Kimura Kazuki reacted, he was still a second too late.

Takeshi Yuta absorbed the spiritual body of the Soul Summoning Pencil. Having used it for the span of a year, he and the Soul Summoning Pencil were very much attuned to each other. This was also why just now when Kimura Kazuki held the Soul Summoning Pencil in his hands, Takeshi Yuta's heart had just skipped a beat, and the Soul Summoning Pencil had returned to Takeshi Yuta's own hands. This was why even if Takeshi Yuta had no strength to resist, Kimura Kazuki was still unable to keep the Soul Summoning Pencil. After all, the other merely to think and the Soul Summoning Pencil would return to him.

Bang. While the sound of an explosion could be heard, it was not loud, yet it still sent shivers to the soul. In no time at all, the eyes of everyone from the Department of Mysteries began to lose focus, including Takeshi Yuta. Even though Kimura Kazuki was unable to stop this from happening, he was still able to protect Chiba Shiori who was by his side, using reiki to surround her body and protecting her spirit from this attack.

While Kimura Kazuki was protecting Chiba Shiori, the Soul Summoning Pencil suddenly began to melt away. As the Soul Summoning Pencil vanished, it changed into a white light, which then entered the draft on the table.

Squeak. Pfft. Wai. Chirp. Yap. A cacophony of inhuman noises began to pour out from the drawing. It was immensely loud, and was much like a clamorous din. Furthermore, these sounds each carried with them a sort of negative feeling, making people feel restless, as though they were announcing the arrival of royalty. All this made Kimura Kazuki furrow his brow.

He threw out a Sound Insulating Talisman, enveloping the whole room. Therefore, no matter how loud these sounds were, they would be unable to disturb any other residents.

Now when Kimura Kazuki was fighting he rarely used these Enchanted Talismans, but every day he would still take some time to draw these talismans. The Enchanted Talisman had many different uses, and even if he had the power, sometimes he would think that power was not the answer to any and every question. Take now for instance, even if he was currently able to use up his reiki and fully block out all the sounds from within the room, compared to this large consumption of reiki it would be much easier to use a Sound Insulating Talisman.

His eyes were glued to the draft on the table, and he made no sudden movements.

These types of objects that were able to absorb reiki and create a spiritual body after that were all known as Reimono.

Reimono had varying abilities. If this happened during the era of recuperation of reiki, then he might have had concerns, but seeing as Takeshi Yuta had used this pencil for a year, and the things that had been created were of such a level, then it meant that the Soul Summoning Pencil was a harmless Reimono.

As the noises slowly began to quieten, the drawing canvas suddenly turned into dust. The next moment, the people numbering more than 100 who had yet to appear from the canvas transformed into streaks of dark shadowy light, instantly dissipating in all directions. Seeing this, Kimura Kazuki's face slightly fell. He reacted with speed, and immediately drew out the Sun and Moon Sword, preventing these dark streaks of light from leaving.

These dark streaks of light were probably the living beings that had been making noises from inside the draft just now. He was still not sure what they were, so he naturally could not let these living beings get away.

However, even with the lightning speed of the Sun and Moon Sword, these dark streaks of light were escaping in all directions. In the time span of a second, he had managed to stop and kill 45 streaks of dark light… but still about 100 streaks of dark light were able to escape far away, and in no time disappeared from his eyes.

"These are…"

When the Sun and Moon Sword had killed the 45 streaks of dark light, it had also absorbed the reiki within each of these streaks. Yet Kimura Kazuki did not seem happy about this, instead his brows were furrowed.

They possess reiki?

The 100 or so ghosts gathered in the house were all glassy-eyed, and did not have an ounce of reiki in them. Of course, the main point was that these 100 ghosts were drawn to life, so unlike apparitions, they were unafraid of sunlight.

However, now the 45 streaks of dark light stopped by the Sun and Moon Sword had bodies with reiki!

Thinking of this, Kimura Kazuki's eyes darkened. He walked toward Takeshi Yuta, and when he saw that the other was still glassy-eyed, he directly kicked him before coldly saying, "Those drafts on your table, what were they about?"

Having been kicked to the ground, Takeshi Yuta suddenly regained his senses. He did not fly into anger, but laughed loudly. "Those things were 100 ghosts!"

Just now the house had been filled with around 150 demons, and these had taken Takeshi Yuta a year to draw. After he had finished drawing them, to prevent these demons from suffering any defects and to be able to instantly replace them, he had prepared a lot of backups.

Thinking of this, Takeshi Yuta's current emotional situation was very good, and since he was already prepared to die, the corners of his mouth looked as though they were upturne. Even if he were to die, he wished to die with dignity. During this year, the things he could enjoy he had already enjoyed, and so he said with a laugh, "After the Soul Summoning Pencil melted away, the power of the inner parts could be used to summon souls. Then, all the living creatures created by the sacrifice of the Soul Summoning Pencil will have the potential to develop their own consciousness."

At this moment, Director Mitano had also come to his senses. Even though he was still groggy and blur, he was able to listen to what Takeshi Yuta had said. His face turned ghastly pale as he asked, "A hundred ghosts?"

"That's right, these demons will follow the setting of the legends of old, and if that comes to pass, then the whole nation will see many people harmed all over the place." Takeshi Yuta saw that Kimura Kazuki's face was expressionless. He himself was quite disappointed, he really wanted to see the other's angry and stressed appearance. He continued to say, "Also, all these demons possess powers of their own, their strength is far greater than those demons in my home earlier.

This person had gone mad. At this moment, this thought had appeared in everyone's minds.

Kimura Kazuki himself had not expected this, that Takeshi Yuta's mind would be so made up. Upon noticing that he could no longer resist, this fellow had swiftly sacrificed the Soul Summoning Pencil and did not even think to leave himself a way of escape.

If just now Takeshi Yuta was still able to live, then… Looking at Director Mitani's countenance, it was probable that the members of the Department of Mysteries are now unable to leave.

"Director Mitani, I'll hand over the rest of this investigation to you. I have to go back home first." With his thoughts and feelings in a spiral, Kimura Kazuki knew that finally a stage in this issue had ended. Now, the matter at hand would be the business of the Department of Mysteries.

"Alright, thank you very much Kimura-sama," Director Mitani greeted them. When he saw the leaving figures of Kimura Kazuki and Chiba Shiori, he gritted his teeth and looked at Takeshi Yuta who was seated on the floor. With a terrifying look, he said, "Hey brat, did you think that if you did such a thing, the Department of Mysteries would just kill you so easily? That really was too naive of you. This world has a saying, and that saying is that living is harder than death, so I will let you experience this for yourself."

With so many demons suddenly appearing in Japan, it was a threat to the stability and calmness of the society. Moreover, to the Department of Mysteries, it was also an intense load of work to do.

Perhaps it meant that he was nearing the end of his position as Director as well.

Looking at the change in facial expression on Takeshi Yuta's face, Director Mitani smiled widely. If he was not able to peel off the skin of this fellow and take out his bones, then his surname would no longer be Mitani.