Taka didn't alert anyone else. He simply stood up silently and walked unobtrusively towards the back door of the bookstore.
He gently slid open the door, feeling the bustling wind of Sendai City, and further expanded his Reiatsu, probing into those dark corners.
'Gloomy cold and sticky... it was the same feeling as that night...'
'Shadows again. It's the same demon...'
'However, had it noticed me? It seemed exceptionally alert, lingering here only briefly before disappearing...'
Taka touched the sword at his waist, sketching a portrait of this demon in his mind.
'Sneaky, only using insidious means to hunt.... Its targets weren't healthy humans, but poor souls struggling at the bottom.... Could it really be hired by someone? Do demons cooperate with humans?'
He wasn't sure. Tetsushin hadn't taught him about these things.
And just then, an unusual commotion came from the direction of the front door.
"Harada-san!"
"Good heavens! What happened to you?"
"Quick! Yuka-san, bring some clean cloth and water!"
Hearing the noise, Taka's gaze sharpened and he immediately turned back.
Standing in the crowded midst was a middle-aged man covered in mud and filth, his knees bruised and torn.
The man was about forty years old, with a square face and a wide mouth. He was now leaning against the doorframe, breathing heavily. His hair was wet, his lips purple from cold, his whole body shivering uncontrollably.
"It's nothing, I'm not dead yet!"
He clenched his fists angrily and spoke loudly to the workers:
"Those black-hearted capitalists either try to run me down with coal carts or push me into the river to drown! Too bad! I'm tenacious! They want Harada Chuichi's life, but this isn't enough!"
Chuichi's voice trembled, but flames burned in his eyes, his aura growing stronger. "The more they do this, the more it shows they fear our strength! Brothers, we cannot give up!"
"Right! These people are truly lawless!"
"Let's go to the police, or report them to the municipal office!"
"What use is that! Those people are all in cahoots! Let's fight them!"
"That's right, fight!"
The workers, already burdened with the pressures of life, saw their pillar, Harada Chuichi targeted, and their emotions finally ignited!
They waved their arms, angry shouts nearly lifting the roof off the bookstore.
"Everyone calm down! Calm down!" Yuka's anxious voice was drowned out in the tide of anger. "Don't fall into their trap! If we truly resort to violence, they'll have more reason to bring in the military police, and then things will be out of control!"
A student who looked thin but had a determined gaze shook his head at Yuka and firmly countered:
"Yuka-nee, you're wrong! The weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons! Only by uniting and confronting these black-hearted bastards head-on will they be afraid! Will they concede!"
"Right! Let's go!"
The crowd's emotions were spiraling out of control, but Taka's gaze remained coldly locked on Chuichi's feet.
Although the space inside was small, the shadows cast by the dim lamplight overlapped and interwove, layer upon layer, he still noticed something wrong with Chuichi.
His shadow was beginning to fade.
'Were those accidents man-made, or the demon's doing?' Taka wasn't sure. He simply walked silently through the crowd, using his powerful hands to push aside one shouting worker after another.
"Harada Chuichi? Come outside with me for a moment."
Under everyone's watchful eyes, he walked straight up to Harada, ignoring the heated atmosphere, and spoke indifferently to him.
Chuichi, already angry, was suddenly addressed by Taka. Looking at his cold eyes and strange attire, a surge of unexplained anger flared up.
"Who the hell are you, kid?!"
"What do you want? You one of those people's men? Trying to start something here?!"
He nervously looked around, as if searching for something to defend himself with. Several workers beside him immediately tensed up and surrounded him, looking at Taka with unfriendly expressions.
Sakae, seeing this from within the crowd, hurriedly pushed through, spreading his arms to stand between them:
"Misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding! Harada-san, it's me! I'm Asano Sakae!"
"....You're from the Asano Family. What are you doing here?"
"Taka-san... he's not a bad person! We just came from Marumori Village! We're here to tell you about my older brother and Fujikichi!"
"Fujikichi..." Chuichi recalled, remembering there was indeed a fellow worker in need by that name. He looked at the two with a strange expression.
He looked at Sakae. He knew of this person, a younger brother of a fellow worker, an unpopular military school student.
As for Taka's overly young, expressionless face, and the concealed long sword at his waist... Chuichi had no recollection at all.
"You... what do you want to tell me?"
Sakae looked at Taka. Taka stepped forward and said directly:
"Your trouble is not that simple. Come outside with me, and I'll show you."
"I don't have time for your riddles right now!"
"No time? Drag it out a little longer, and you really won't have any time left."
Having said that, without waiting for Chuichi to say anything more, he walked straight out of the bookstore himself.
Seeing his confident manner, Harada found it strange, but seeing Sakae's sincere expression, he could only angrily follow him out, closing the bookstore door behind him.
He crossed his arms and stared at Taka doubtfully:
"What is it? Can you tell me now?"
Shing!!
Taka didn't answer. His movement was lightning fast.
Without the slightest warning, his left thumb suddenly pushed up on the tsuba, and with a clang, the Nichirin Sword sprang from its scabbard! His right hand gripped the sword and swung it down with a howl!
"What are you doing?!"
Chuichi was horrified, thinking the other was about to attack him. He instinctively tried to dodge and call for help.
The colorless Nichirin Sword traced a chilling gleam through the air, but its target was not Chuichi.
Thud! Crack!
A sharp sound came from the paved ground. Taka's blade viciously stabbed into the shadow beneath Chuichi's feet!
"Skreee—!!!"
A painful shriek, definitely not human, suddenly erupted from the depths of the shadow underground!
Right before Chuichi's horrified eyes, the patch of ground shadow pierced by the Nichirin Sword twisted and boiled violently like a living thing!
A blurred humanoid outline, formed entirely of flowing shadow, was being tightly pinned down by the Nichirin Sword's blade, forcibly dragged out from Chuichi's shadow!
It had no facial features, its face only a stretch of deep void. It twisted and struggled madly, trying to break free from the long sword that was as burning hot as a branding iron to it.
Chuichi stood frozen like a chilled fish, his eyes nearly popping out.
He only felt a bone-chilling cold shoot straight up from his tailbone to the top of his head, freezing his thoughts.
"What's wrong! Harada-san!"
"You kid! What did you do to Harada-san!!"
The people inside the bookstore were naturally drawn by the commotion and rushed out, just in time to see Chuichi standing dumbfounded, and Taka with his blade firmly pinned in front of him.
Taka's wrist didn't move a muscle, steadily suppressing the wildly struggling shadow creature under his blade.
"See clearly now? It wasn't a human trying to kill you." Taka paused, his gaze fixed on the writhing shadow figure, his left hand resting on the still-sheathed Asauchi.
"It was a demon..."