Zongman I fight weirdness in everyday world

"You had something good to eat tonight, and left me here to eat this disgusting stuff. You're really something, Quantum."

Hearing the Bone Woman's sarcastic tone, Futaba Rio frowned slightly.

"What do you mean 'something good to eat'? What are you talking about? I can't devour evil spirits."

"Heh heh."

The Bone Woman chuckled again, meaningfully.

"You can't eat evil spirits, but you can eat other things. I'm so envious. I do all the work in battle, but I don't get any of the enjoyment. It's such exploitation."

Futaba Rio finally understood what the Bone Woman meant by 'eat', and her fair face flushed red. She bit her silver teeth and said,

"You… don't talk nonsense!"

After stomping her foot in anger, Futaba Rio glanced at the Bone Woman's skeletal body under her kimono and said faintly,

"Besides, you don't have that function."

"Even without a body, the mouth is still…"

"Don't say any more!"

…

Meanwhile, Yozora was sitting on the streetcar tracks, with Kyoto Prefectural Police's Criminal Investigation Bureau Director, Yagami Soichiro, beside him.

He put his arm around the other's shoulder and said intimately,

"Hey, Yagami."

Yagami Soichiro looked speechless.

"My last name is Yagami."

"Oh, hey, Kami."

Yagami Soichiro: "…"

"You can just call me Soichiro."

"That's what I was waiting for you to say."

Yozora was completely unceremonious and called him by his first name directly.

"Soichiro, after what happened today, you should know that evil spirits exist in this world."

Yagami Soichiro's expression was complicated, and he could only sigh helplessly in the end.

"Yeah… I've already seen them."

He couldn't deny what had just happened.

Even if he said it was his hallucination…

But the dead rescue workers, the police officers who sacrificed themselves, were those lives fake?

There are indeed monsters in this world that ordinary people don't know about, but they truly exist.

"So, what are you going to do?"

Hearing Yozora's question, Yagami Soichiro replied without hesitation.

"What else can I do? We must immediately report this dangerous matter to the higher-ups and take corresponding measures…"

"No."

Just as Yagami Soichiro was halfway through his sentence, Futaba Rio suddenly walked over and interrupted him.

Then, Futaba Rio looked at Yozora and said softly,

"I've almost figured out the true form of this evil spirit."

Yozora nodded slightly and praised with a smile,

"Not bad, as expected of you."

Hearing this praise, Futaba Rio didn't feel happy at all. Instead, she sighed slightly, her tone full of helplessness.

"You already knew, didn't you?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Since when?"

"Let me think… probably when I first entered the Reverse Side. I thought it was possible back then."

"Then why didn't you say anything for so long?"

Hearing Futaba Rio's somewhat resentful words, Yozora replied nonchalantly.

"Even if I said it, it wouldn't have mattered. Besides, wasn't I honing your skills?"

"Tch, you're just being lazy, aren't you?"

As Futaba Rio's words fell, Yagami Soichiro suddenly felt a blur before his eyes.

Then, he found himself sitting on a streetcar seat.

"This…?"

Looking at the puzzled Yagami Soichiro, Yozora just smiled and said,

"Soichiro, this is the real world."

Yagami Soichiro was even more confused.

"Then where were we just now…?"

Yozora looked at Futaba Rio: "Explain it to him."

"Okay."

Futaba Rio didn't ask any further questions and told Yagami Soichiro everything about the Reverse Side and the "Gate."

Although she didn't trust the Director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Kyoto Prefectural Police in front of her,

She would just do as Yozora said.

"This… this…"

After hearing Futaba Rio's words, Yagami Soichiro was completely dumbfounded, looking incredulous.

"You… you're not kidding me, are you?"

Yozora shrugged and asked rhetorically,

"What do you think?"

Yagami Soichiro pondered for a few seconds before saying thoughtfully,

"If that's the case… your actions have left no traces several times, and you seem to teleport around like a ghost, which would explain it."

"But…"

Yagami Soichiro changed the subject, his expression solemn.

"You're telling me all this, aren't you afraid I'll arrest you?"

Hearing this, Yozora almost couldn't help but laugh. He suppressed his laughter and waved his hand.

"Soichiro, you still don't understand."

"Don't understand what?"

Yozora patted Yagami Soichiro on the shoulder, his voice tinged with a smile, but the words he spoke sent chills down the other's spine.

"If the day ever comes when your police force tracks down my true identity…"

"That won't be my end."

"It will be the death of everyone in your police force."

Yagami Soichiro's expression froze.

He could tell that the other person's eyes were very serious and they weren't joking.

With "Mask's" abilities…

This wasn't just an empty threat.

The other person really had the ability to do this.

"Look at how nervous you are."

A smile suddenly appeared in Yozora's eyes again, and he patted Yagami Soichiro on the shoulder.

"I'm just kidding. I'm not very interested in killing people."

Yagami Soichiro breathed a sigh of relief.

He felt that the white shirt under his suit jacket was already soaked with sweat.

Yagami Soichiro calmed himself down and said solemnly in a deep voice.

"Then… why did you tell me these things?"

"Well… that involves the true composition of the Reverse Side that I just told you about."

Yozora asked casually.

"Soichiro, what do you think that thing was just now?"

Yagami Soichiro frowned slightly and asked in confusion.

"Isn't that thing… the evil spirit you mentioned?"

Futaba Rio, who was sitting opposite him, shook her head and said slowly.

"It's an evil spirit, but it's not just an evil spirit. If we had to use a word to describe it…"

At this point, Futaba Rio and Yozora looked at each other and said in unison.

"Streetcar."

Yagami Soichiro was stunned when he heard this.

"Streetcar? That thing is a streetcar?"

Futaba Rio explained calmly.

"Rather than calling it a streetcar, it's more accurate to say that it's an evil spirit formed by people's negative impressions of streetcars, such as oppression, crowding, and lifelessness."

Yagami Soichiro was completely confused.

"No, just negative impressions can form such a monster? That doesn't conform to science…"

Futaba Rio interrupted Yagami Soichiro.

"Science is just a temporary summary of existing laws by humans. Believing that current science can explain everything is itself a kind of superstition."

The increase in power that Futaba Rio gained through this battle was only secondary.

The most important gain was that she had finally discovered the essence of the Reverse Side.

The place where evil spirits wandered everywhere, filled with thick black mist, and a red moon hung in the sky, was not the same as Kyoto City as it appeared to be.

That place was originally a world constructed from people's thoughts.

It's just that apart from the buildings, everything else, whether it's evil spirits or ghosts, is made up of negative thoughts.

Because of this.

After the buildings in the Reverse Side are destroyed and objects are moved, they will return to a state indistinguishable from the real world the next time they are entered.

Because the Reverse Side itself is formed based on the Kyoto City in human "cognition."

"If that's the case…"

Yagami Soichiro had a thoughtful expression and said in a pondering tone.

"If a disaster that causes panic among the people occurs in the real world, the resulting negative emotions will also make the so-called Reverse Side more dangerous?"

Yozora nodded and smiled.

"You're very perceptive, Soichiro. Don't cause panic among the people and increase the difficulty of our exorcism. That's one aspect."

"Another aspect…"