Shiro Sakamaki gently placed Haruno Yukinoshita on Hiratsuka's bed, covering her with a quilt before returning to the living room with Hiratsuka Shizuka.
"It's strange," Hiratsuka sighed heavily, taking another sip of her beer. "I talked to her this afternoon, and she was fine. How did it turn into this so suddenly?"
Shiro listened as she continued, clearly shaken. "Just now, it appeared again, right in front of her. I saw it with my own eyes. Everyone twisted into grotesque forms. Their internal organs, brains—everything collapsing into a horrific mess. It was enough to make anyone sick."
Shiro raised an eyebrow. "But your people were there too. Couldn't they do anything?"
Hiratsuka slammed her beer bottle onto the table, the force so great that it left a dent in the wood. "I couldn't handle it. I was frozen just by looking at it. Two of the members who went with me are dead. It's not something we can fight."
She handed her phone to Shiro, showing him a photo of the scene. He was immediately struck by the horrific sight. The twisted, mutilated bodies of the two fallen agents were barely recognizable. One of them had contorted into impossible angles, bones protruding at odd angles. The other had been violently torn apart—internal organs ripped out, blood and other fluids mixed into a pool around the body.
Shiro's breath caught in his throat. This was no ordinary enemy.
"Do you know what kind of creature it is?" he asked, his voice tense.
Hiratsuka shook her head. "It looks like a deformed person—pale, with a bone-chilling appearance. It moves like it has no bones. At that moment, my team and I froze. We couldn't even react. It just passed through the bodies of my teammates, and... well, you saw what happened."
She paused, looking down at her beer. "If reinforcements hadn't come in time, using Buddhist scriptures to drive it away, I don't think I'd be here to talk about it."
Shiro processed her words, his mind racing. Hiratsuka was tough, strong enough to deal with most spirits, yet she hadn't been able to resist whatever that thing was. That meant it was a level of threat he wasn't familiar with. It was likely at the Tier 7 level—dangerous and unpredictable.
Not one to rely on external aids, Shiro was already making plans in his mind. "I'll take care of Yukinoshita Haruno's safety tomorrow. But you said something about a spellcaster joining us?"
Hiratsuka nodded. "The sorcerers will be with us. They're a joint force from the spell families and our country. Though there aren't many of them, they're elite. This operation required some heavy backing, after all. It was a big expenditure for the bureau."
At the mention of the "sorcerers," Shiro's mind immediately wandered to a more fantastical world. Good fellow, even that world is mixed in? he thought. There'll definitely be those two—the four-armed monster, Ryomen Sukuna, and that blue-eyed guy, Gojo Satoru.
Shiro quickly shook his head, trying to push aside the absurdity of the thought.
"Are they reliable?" he asked, snapping back to reality.
Hiratsuka shrugged. "I believe so. But we'll see tomorrow."
Shiro took a long drink from his beer, trying to push his thoughts forward. He had a sense that things were going to get much worse before they got better. There were people in this world who had power beyond his comprehension, and some of them could turn even the strongest warriors into prey.
The conversation drifted to other matters. Hiratsuka, clearly affected by the alcohol, became more relaxed and loose-lipped. She leaned into Shiro's side, complaining about her inability to find a decent boyfriend, before slipping into a drunken stupor.
Shiro sighed, mentally cursing himself. How had he gotten into this situation? He'd only meant to have a casual drink, but now he was stuck with a drunken Hiratsuka clinging to him like a child. The warm scent of her alcohol-laced breath made him uneasy, and he quickly decided to put an end to this.
He summoned a sleep charm, casting it gently over Hiratsuka to send her into a deeper slumber. After ensuring she was settled in her bedroom, he used alchemy to dispose of the empty bottles and leftover trash. His skill made quick work of cleaning, and he made sure the house was tidy before heading back to the living room.
The two girls—Haruno and Hiratsuka—were both asleep, and Shiro felt a sense of relief. But the horrific images from the day lingered in his mind. The twisted bodies of those agents, the unholy creature they had encountered—it was all too much. His role in this conflict was far from over, and he knew he would need to act swiftly tomorrow.
As he lay on the couch, exhausted but restless, one thought ran through his mind: What have I gotten myself into?
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