Seeing that, my body immediately trembled; I struggled to keep my eyes from rolling backwards.
The mysterious girl approached, her black hair fluttering gently in the cold wind which made my heart freeze, terrified because of this supernatural phenomenon.
For a second, I was rendered speechless, my black eyes fixed on her lips that were cut from ear to ear.
As a Japanese person, of course I would know the story of the female ghost ‘Kuchisake-Onna,’ but I considered that was just a fairy tale to scare little kids from going out past curfew.
Yet, this horrifying experience was presented right before my eyes.
At that moment, I snapped awake from my daze, thinking of my own two lives.
‘Ah, that's right, my existence itself is a mystery of its own. So ghosts are nothing, haha.’
I shook my head, then racked my brain to try and find a way out of this situation.
Several options popped into my head. First, as I had heard through the fairy tale, this vengeful wraith was easily distracted if I had sweets or candles.
Unfortunately, I didn't bring either of those items.
Second, I swallowed hard, forcing my stiff body to stand straight, staring right at the creature's face in front of me.
My mouth gaped open, trying to squeeze out some words to tame the woman.
“Y-Yeah, you're pretty.”
The creature's eyes widened, making me furrow my eyebrows because I never expected a ghost to have emotions.
Not long after, the woman looked down, then looked up while smirking and opened her mouth once again.
“Really?”
Suddenly, a cold air enveloped my body, causing me to shudder and nod furiously, hoping this would all end quickly.
‘Come on, I just want to rest.’
The woman's face was indeed smiling, but her cold gaze was flat, piercing through to my soul and kept staring at my pale face.
I saw her tilt her head; a second passed in tense silence before her raised long black hair fell down, the atmosphere around her turned calm.
“I see, I was pretty...”
If I didn't mishear, just now, she let out a long sigh, seeming relieved that there was someone who still considered her pretty.
However, my thought turned out to be just imagination, because next, the wraith looked up, her eyes turned pitch black with fresh blood flowing down from her torn mouth.
“You're lying.”
‘What the fuck, woman!’
I cursed in my heart, witnessing all of the woman's hair stand up, showing her true side as an evil spirit.
Her hands that had been hanging limply earlier twitched, from her pale delicate fingers grew long black nails, so sharp they looked like they could slice concrete.
She thrust those nails at my face, my trembling body responded; a jolt of adrenaline caused all my muscles to tense and step back to avoid it, those nails barely scratched my face.
I jumped to get out of the ghost's reach, then exhaled; for a moment I looked under her feet and nodded.
‘Just as I thought, she’s floating.’
I clenched both my hands tight, letting the courage that had disappeared slowly return, swirling in my pounding chest.
When my attention slipped for a moment, in the blink of an eye, the woman was already in front of me swinging her claws at my face.
I ducked, feeling the ends of my hair cut a little, then hurriedly ran away from the place.
‘Damn, damn, damn!’
Both my feet kept pounding the asphalt, taking me far away from the evil spirit.
First of all, I planned to just return to my apartment room, but was afraid that the woman would know my house and would haunt me every day.
That choice was very bad, so I took another path that would take me to an open area that would lead me to a city, which I hoped was still crowded.
However, I underestimated my opponent.
“You're lying!”
The woman had suddenly already caught up beside me, flying and swinging her claws at my face.
‘Fast!’
Knowing it was already too late, I raised my hands to block the woman's attack. I felt her nails slice my skin, making me grit my teeth due to the searing pain burning my nerves.
“Ouch! You sick bastard!”
“Aaah!”
The ghost replied by howling; her shrill voice pierced my eardrums.
However, this time, when the woman was about to attack my face again, I reached out and gripped her wrist.
The woman's black pupils glanced at her hand, then at me, showing anxiety and also surprise because some human she was haunting had enough strength to hold her back.
[Physical contact established. Sucking can be used.]
Seeing the purple panel appear in front of me caused my lips to part into a smirk. I squeezed her cold and pulseless wrist, then opened my mouth.
“You’re out of luck woman.”
‘Do it!’ I added in my head.
The warm sensation below my stomach jolted awake, sending that mysterious power to both my hands that touched the ghost.
[Gained +1BP]
[Gained +1BP]
...
The barrage of messages appeared quickly, different from when I used it on the two salarymen earlier. Two messages per second, giving me an abundant harvest of points.
“You crazy woman, I already praised you earlier...”.
I stopped for a moment, whispering in my heart, ‘Even if it's forced.’
“But, you chose this bloody path instead. Let's see who will come out as the winner in this fight!”
“Aaaark!”
The ghost started screaming; her shrill tone made my vision dim for a moment, before my consciousness was blown away, I bit my lip until it tore, the stinging pain and the warm liquid flowing on my chin kept me awake.
“Shut up!”
My sucking power responded to my overflowing emotions, and I could see a purple aura seeping out of my body, giving me extra strength to survive in this life-and-death situation.
Not long after, the woman's voice weakened, I could even see her manifested body now turning faint like smoke that could disappear anytime with one blow.
[Your enemy’s life force had been depleted.]
Suddenly when that notification appeared, my hand gripping her hand started to lose its grip, and could only catch the wind.
The woman screamed, but even that was only in the form of a gust of cold wind that fluttered my hair, making me tremble from the cold.
‘Did she transform, or what?’
I didn't know what was happening right now, but I stood still, never taking my eyes off the ghost still hovering around.
When the spirit circled me, I put up my fighting stance which I copied from watching anime in the hospital back then.
‘I hope this can chase her away.’
Unfortunately the bluff I made meant nothing to the woman, as a few seconds later, the woman lunged, her mouth was opened wide.
“Give it back!”
“Purify!”
Suddenly, a feminine, but firm voice echoed in that quiet residential area.
I saw a shadow jump far, then stood dozens of meters beside me holding a piece of paper burning with white fire.
A flash of white burst out of the ground; I looked down and saw a diagram formation with ancient Japanese writing symbols.
Realizing this, the ghost attempted to flee, but the circle formed an invisible wall, trapping the creature inside.
I loosened the tension in my body, standing while witnessing the final sight of the persistent ghost that was about to prey on me.
The creature's transparent body started burning, it then howled for the last time until it reduced into ash and disappeared by the night wind.
At the same time, the diagram that appeared on the ground disappeared, making me glance at its source where there was a mysterious woman holding a burning talisman, it then vanished.
“Are you alright?”
Her soft voice made me swallow hard. She was a woman of my age wearing formal tight black suit clothes, showing off her body curves.
On her lower part, she was wearing black trousers that gave her an elegant and mature impression.
As she got closer, her beautiful face with her sharp black eyes looked at me carefully and opened her moist red lips.
“How is your condition?”
Her long black hair was tied in a bun on her head, showing her white, smooth nape, which made me nod while my gaze was fixed on her.
“Y-Yeah, I’m alright.”
Without saying anything, the woman took another talisman pinched between her index and middle fingers. Her mouth started mumbling something and threw the paper at my body.
A green light appeared, wrapping my body with a warm sensation. The pain clinging to my hands and lips faded, leaving only a tear on my sweater and a red line on my chin.
I wiped the blood on my chin, then bowed to the shaman girl.
“Thank you for your help.”
However, the girl in front of me stayed silent instead, her sharp gaze looked at me for a while before she said.
“What are you?”
Hearing that, cold sweat suddenly appeared on my back, unsure of the woman’s intentions.
‘Did she sense something in me?’