Chapter 18
It was a hotel corridor, with a thick crimson carpet, dark patterned wallpaper on the walls, and soft wall lamps casting warm light every few meters. The atmosphere was eerily quiet—no sound at all, even the hum of the air conditioning had disappeared. The effect of the curtain covered everything.
Eriri was still holding the rabbit. Genji had already let go of her hand. He looked at the door at the end of the corridor—a heavy wooden door with the room number "2907."
"It's inside," Genji said. "A Grade 2 cursed spirit. A mixture of 'violence' and 'greed.' It takes pleasure in killing and destruction, but it also collects the belongings of its victims—cursed spirits sometimes retain some of their habits from when they were alive. This one may have been a robber or a murderer in life."
He walked up to the door. He didn't knock, didn't turn the handle. He simply reached out a finger and tapped it against the door panel.
The door opened silently.
Not "opened"—rather, starting from the position of the lock, the wooden structure seemed to be disintegrated from within by an invisible force, turning into fine wood chips that fell onto the carpet. The entire process was eerily quiet.
The scene inside the room came into view.
Eriri gasped.
Even if you were mentally prepared, even if you knew a murder had taken place here, seeing it with your own eyes was far beyond imagination.
The suite was large. The floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room offered a night view of Ginza, but now the glass was covered in dark brown stains.
The carpet was torn. The furniture was smashed. The walls were covered in deep scratches—not from tools, but as if a giant monster had clawed them.
The most shocking thing was the large black stain in the center of the carpet, along with unrecognizable fragments scattered around it.
And beside that stain, sat the cursed spirit.
Eriri finally saw "it" with her own eyes.
About two meters tall. Humanoid, but twisted—not like any living creature.
Its skin was gray, the color of a corpse that had been soaked in water for many days. The surface was covered in cracked lines, and through the cracks, a dark red glow seeped out.
It had four arms, each ending not in a hand but in a large, sharp claw. It was currently gripping what seemed to be the remains of a sofa, slowly tearing it apart.
Its head—if it could be called a head—was a huge sarcoma on its face, with only a slit in the front. Inside the slit were dense, constantly writhing fangs. On top of the sarcoma grew several curved horns. The tips of the horns dripped a viscous black liquid that fell onto the carpet with a corrosive hiss.
The cursed spirit seemed aware of the uninvited guests. It stopped tearing. The slit on the sarcoma turned toward the door. Although it had no eyes, Eriri felt a cold, malevolent "gaze" fixed on her.
She took a step back. The rabbit in her arms squirmed nervously.
Genji stepped forward and stood in front of her.
"Stay here," he said, his voice calm, as if he were saying, "I'm going to buy a bottle of water."
Then he raised his right hand and formed a simple one-handed seal.
"Jade Dog."
Shadows burst out from beneath his feet—not slowly seeping like before, but erupting like a geyser. White light condensed and took shape within the shadows, and then—
White light shattered the doorway of the suite.
Eriri didn't even have time to see what it was. She only felt a gust of wind carrying a certain cold, almost sacred aura. In the next moment, a Jade Dog had already appeared in front of the cursed spirit.
This was not the size of a "dog" she had imagined.
It was a giant beast, the size of a horse.
Its pure white fur emitted a soft halo in the darkness. Each strand of hair looked like a silver thread woven from moonlight. Its slender, taut body had smooth, powerful muscles. When it landed on four legs, it sank easily into the thick carpet without making a sound.
The most striking thing was its eyes—azure blue, like the purest gemstone. At that moment, they were fixed on the cursed spirit before it. There was no anger, no fury, only a nearly indifferent predatory focus.
Genji called its name softly:
"Bright Moon."
The Jade Dog—Bright Moon—moved.
Not a jump, not a bite. It simply lowered its front slightly and then lunged forward.
So fast that it left an afterimage.
The cursed spirit seemed to want to fight back. The claws of its four arms swung simultaneously, tearing through the air. A dark red glow surged beneath its gray skin, and some kind of malevolent cursed energy coalesced within it—
And then it all stopped abruptly.
Bright Moon stopped three meters behind the cursed spirit and turned around gracefully, its white tail tracing a beautiful arc through the air. It lowered its head and licked its front paw—moving as calmly as if it had just finished a walk.
The cursed spirit froze in place.
In the next second, starting from a crack on top of its sarcoma, slender white light penetrated its entire body. The white light spread rapidly, crawling across the gray skin like a spiderweb. And then—
Poof.
Not an explosion, not a destruction. The cursed spirit's body was like ice and snow exposed to the sun—silently dissolving, evaporating, turning into countless gray specks of light that flickered in the air a few times before disappearing completely.
Not a single drop of blood remained. Not a single fragment.
The whole process took less than three seconds.
Bright Moon shook its body, and its enormous size began to shrink.
The halo of its fur gradually subdued. Its body became more slender. Finally, it transformed into the size of an ordinary large dog.
It ran back to Genji, looked up at its master with its blue eyes, and wagged its tail happily.
Genji crouched down and scratched Bright Moon's head.
"Good boy," he said, with a tenderness Eriri had never heard before. "Long time no see, Bright Moon."
Bright Moon let out a contented whine, rubbed its head against Genji's palm, then turned its head toward Eriri, tilting it slightly, as if showing a little curiosity.
Eriri was still holding the rabbit, standing there, her mind blank.
She had seen it.
She had seen the cursed spirit's grotesque form.
She had seen Bright Moon's overwhelming power.
She had seen Genji calmly commanding his shikigami, like flicking away a beetle, to eliminate the monster that had made her father anxious and the police helpless.
"Is it over?" She heard her own voice trembling.
"It's over," Genji stood up. Bright Moon followed at his feet, its white tail wagging softly. "It was just a Grade 2 cursed spirit. It wasn't even a warm-up for Bright Moon."
He looked around the disordered room and frowned. "But this scene needs to be dealt with. After all, your father is coming to investigate tomorrow. We can't let him see anything unusual."
He formed hand seals again—this time, both hands moved simultaneously, ten fingers flying, the seals so complex that Eriri was dazzled.
"Reverse Cursed Technique. Repair and restore materials."
A pale blue light emanated from Genji's palm and spread through the room like a flowing stream. Wherever it passed, miracles happened.
The scratches on the walls healed quickly. The wallpaper was restored as if new.
The fragments of broken furniture floated up and assembled back into their complete forms. The stains and tears on the carpet squirmed and healed, returning to a soft, clean crimson.
Even the part of the doorframe that had been shattered by Bright Moon was reassembled in the blue light. The wood chips flew back and reattached, returning to an intact doorframe.
Thirty seconds later, the suite looked brand new.
Except for the stains on the floor-to-ceiling windows—that was real blood, and Reverse Cursed Technique couldn't create something from nothing—everything else had been repaired. The room was as clean as if it had just been cleaned, waiting for the next guest.
Genji lowered his hand, and the blue light dissipated. He looked a little tired, but his expression was relaxed.
"I left the bloodstains. After all, a murder did happen here. It would be suspicious if everything was fixed," he said. "When your father comes tomorrow, at least he won't be facing a 'haunted house.' He'll just need to explain the origin of the bloodstains—which is much easier than explaining a 'wild animal attack.'"
Eriri opened her mouth to say thank you, to say "you're so strong," but in the end, she didn't say anything. She just hugged the rabbit, looked at Genji and Bright Moon sitting at his feet, looking at her with those blue eyes, and suddenly felt a slight warmth in her own eyes.
Genji seemed to see through her emotions. He smiled, walked to the window, raised his hand, and removed the curtain.
The sound of traffic in the distance, the faint sound of music, the howl of the night wind—all rushed back into her ears. The world had returned to "normal."
"Time to go home," he said. "You have school tomorrow."
Eriri nodded. She put down the rabbit in her arms, and the little white rabbit hopped back into Genji's shadow. Bright Moon also turned into white light and dissolved into the shadows.
Genji reached out his hand. "Hold on."
This time, Eriri didn't hesitate. She took his hand and felt the shadow engulf them again.
Through the darkness and back to the roof.
Shadow Crane was already waiting. The huge shikigami lowered its head and looked at them softly with its molten gold vertical pupils.
Genji helped Eriri up and jumped onto its back. Shadow Crane spread its wings, took off smoothly, and flew toward home.
The return flight was quiet. Eriri sat on Shadow Crane's back, hugging her knees, watching the familiar street scene gradually approach below. Suddenly, she said quietly:
"Bright Moon… it remembered you."
"Shikigami don't have the concept of 'memory,'" Genji said. "But I added that function to them."
He paused, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "But the way it looked at you just now reminded me of how it used to act around my brother, Sei. Bright Moon seems to especially like pure-hearted people."
Eriri turned her head. In the moonlight, Genji's profile looked a little blurry.
"You… you haven't summoned them in a thousand years, have you?"
"No," Genji nodded. "After I became a shikigami, I fell asleep. I didn't wake up until I met you."
"Then… were they lonely?"
This question stunned Genji for a moment. He was silent for a few seconds before slowly answering:
"Maybe."
He looked at the night sky in the distance, his eyes a little distant. "A thousand years… that's a really long time."
Shadow Crane began to descend. Familiar apartment buildings appeared below. The helipad was empty.
After landing, Shadow Crane turned into specks of light and dissipated. Genji helped Eriri down, and the two of them quietly returned to the apartment door.
Eriri took out her key and opened the door. The entrance was dark. The door to her parents' bedroom was still closed.
She changed into her indoor shoes and turned to Genji. The indigo figure stood in the moonlight, preparing to disappear.
"Wait," Eriri whispered.
Genji stopped.
Eriri took a deep breath and said, very seriously, very earnestly:
"Thank you."
Genji smiled. That smile looked especially gentle in the moonlight.
"You're welcome," he said. "Good night, Eriri."
"Good night."