Starting With The Sefirah Castle In The Anime World

After sitting down on a nearby chair and resting for a long time, Ran and Sonoko finally felt their emotions settle a bit.

"Evil spirits… they're far beyond what I imagined…"

Sonoko now truly understood that the real supernatural world wasn't just fascinating, it was terrifying.

Though each evil spirit had a different appearance, they all shared similar traits.

Their jagged teeth seemed designed for tearing flesh apart.

The eerie red glow within their pitch-black eyes felt like the very core of their resentment.

And their forms… always reflected the moment of their death.

The instant you laid eyes on them, you could feel the sheer horror of human malice.

You could immediately understand why they had become evil spirits.

"Evil spirits are born from human malice."

"That's why they symbolize despair and cruelty."

Ren returned from a nearby convenience store with two bottles of Coke and handed them to the two girls.

Without thinking too much, Sonoko took a bottle, twisted off the cap, and took a few steady gulps.

The fizzy carbonation made her throat itch, but it also helped suppress her lingering discomfort.

"Haah…"

"So, Amamiya, you've been dealing with things like that all this time?"

"?"

Ren noticed the complicated look in Sonoko's eyes and felt the need to clarify before she misunderstood.

"No, you're overthinking it."

"I've seen evil spirits before, but only three, and all of them were in the house I rented."

"…Doesn't that mean your situation is just like ours, Amamiya?"

Sonoko suddenly looked at him in disbelief.

"Then why is your reaction so different from ours?"

"Well… I think the reason is pretty simple."

Ren casually raised his hand and caught an evil spirit floating above them.

A thick mist instantly stretched out like tendrils, wrapping around the spirit and pulling it toward him.

Then, he squeezed.

Bang!

Like a silent explosion in a muted video, the evil spirit burst apart just like a watermelon being crushed.

"…"

Seeing the spirit shatter in an instant, both Ran and Sonoko fell into stunned silence.

Now they understood why Amamiya wasn't afraid of evil spirits.

To him, they were no more threatening than balloons easily popped with a squeeze.

How could he possibly fear something like that?

Wasn't that just a joke?

"So… this is your trump card?"

"Yeah."

"…That's terrifying."

Even though she had no idea what kind of trump card Amamiya was hiding, Sonoko now fully understood why he needed to keep it a secret.

Because this level of power was simply too overwhelming.

"Power doesn't come for free."

"Most of my abilities require a price."

"It's just that I've been lucky enough not to pay an unbearable one."

Equivalent exchange.

Sonoko had heard Amamiya mention that concept before.

A trump card like this was something that had to be kept hidden.

Sonoko sighed.

"If it's such a dangerous secret, why did you show it to us?"

"I trust that you and Ran will keep it for me."

His confident tone made the two girls glance at each other before smiling.

"…Alright."

Sonoko quickly suppressed her grin and grew serious again.

"Ran and I will keep your secret. But you should also be careful, you can't just show your cards every time you give us proof of something."

"That's right."

"A trump card is called a trump card because it needs to stay hidden."

Ran agreed, following up on Sonoko's words.

Even if they promised to keep quiet, there was always a risk that someone else might witness something they weren't supposed to.

That was why a trump card had to be kept deeply hidden, only to be revealed when there was no other choice.

Seeing the two of them slip into "lecture mode," their pale complexions finally returning to normal, Ren smiled.

"Feeling better now?"

The two girls blinked, then realized they actually did feel better.

"Yeah."

"That awful feeling is mostly gone now."

Sonoko could tell her discomfort had faded significantly.

"Yeah."

Ran, too, no longer felt the overwhelming nausea from earlier.

But neither of them knew why.

So, in silent agreement, they both turned to Amamiya.

"…Amamiya, what exactly happened to us just now?"

"Your fear of evil spirits was induced."

"Induced?"

They understood the word, but they didn't quite grasp how it had happened.

Ren explained.

"Evil spirits are born from obsession. So, when they encounter someone who's afraid of them, they instinctively amplify that fear."

"The stronger the evil spirit, the easier it is for them to manipulate fear, paralyzing their target."

He pointed at the evil spirits still floating above.

"Their current range of activity is too broad."

"If they were confined to a smaller area, they could become even more dangerous."

"If they fully control you and fuel your fear, they can even pull you into a nightmare and torment you to death, bit by bit."

"And while you're suffering, they continuously absorb the negative energy you generate, growing stronger in the process."

"That's why most evil spirits are extremely dangerous."

Even the weakest evil spirits were beyond what an ordinary human could handle.

Their supernatural abilities were more than enough to kill any regular person in an instant.

Only someone like Saginomiya, a shrine maiden with exorcism abilities, could stand against them.

"And evil spirits don't just have those abilities, some particularly troublesome ones can unleash a scream that directly affects the mind and soul."

"If you get hit head-on by that scream, there's almost no chance of survival."

If you were lucky, you'd die instantly.

If you were unlucky, and the scream didn't kill you outright, then the real horror would begin, the prolonged torment that followed.

That was why the threat of evil spirits was so high.

Ren wanted to make sure that Ran and Sonoko understood this clearly.

Though, to be fair, after what they had experienced, they probably already had a pretty firm grasp of it.

"…Then did you deliberately let us experience it just now?"

Sonoko narrowed her eyes at him.

Ran also turned to look at him.

"No."

Ren shook his head.

"I originally planned to let you gradually observe the evil spirits, allowing your fear to rise slowly so I could help you regulate your emotions and control it."

"But…"

He sighed.

"…Your dad interrupted that process."

And considering she had been one of the people affected, Ran suddenly found herself at a loss for words.