[At the Same Time, in a Bedroom Filled with a Girlish Atmosphere]
A pink-haired girl in silk pajamas looked at the "?" message sent by Kaito-kun, and couldn't help but hold her head in frustration.
'I am really not the type of girl who gets lustful upon seeing a good-looking guy.'
'Now, Kaito-kun will definitely think I am an indecent girl, right?'
Anon felt deep sorrow, but still wanted to struggle in her dying breath. She quickly typed a message to explain, trying to salvage her image as a goddess.
Anon: [Ah haha, I just accidentally slipped my hand just now, sorry sorry.]
Anon: [By the way, I heard there's a new caf that opened near Shuka, the omurice is delicious. Tomorrow is Sunday, want to go try it together? My treat!]
Although the 'slipped hand' excuse made people want to roast her, life was tough and people shouldn't make it tougher... Kaito decided to tentatively believe her explanation and replied with a message.
[Tomorrow I still have some things to take care of.]
It wasn't an excuse. After all, having just dealt with Kita's problem, he planned to go to STARRY again tomorrow.
[Oh oh, I see...]
Anon looked a little disappointed, but she was sensible and didn't pester. After all, it was an awkward time for her. Kaito's refusal instead gave her a reason to run away, [Then I won't bother Kaito-kun. Let's go together next time when there's time. Good night!]
Looking at the rapidly grayed-out avatar, Kaito didn't mind and closed the chat interface, refreshing his feed casually.
He didn't have many close friends, and most of them were girls who were enthusiastic about sharing bits and pieces of daily life.
First came a post from Kita: [Wuuu wuuu wuuu finally back to the light! Thank you, almighty god!]
It was followed by a crying sticker.
There were many comments below, mostly concerned inquiries, and over a hundred likes. As expected of a top extrovert, the version of herself in Little Bocchi's fantasies.
'Come to think of it, there seems to be quite a lot of normies around me. Kita is one, of course, and Yumiko is also popular among the girls around her.'
'Even Nijiha was a typical extrovert. After all, the gentle and outgoing personality of the Shimokitazawa Archangel naturally ensures a girl like her will never lack friends anywhere.'
Kaito casually liked Kita's post, continued scrolling down, and saw a post from half an hour ago.
[Nagasaki Soyo: Singing karaoke with friends~]
There were several pictures attached. The first one was a selfie of Soyo. The brown-haired girl smiled gently. Clearly a pure eighteen-year-old college girl, yet she gave off a strong widow-like aura, full-on housewife energy.
The rest of the photos were group shots with a few other girls, all holding microphones, probably friends from Tsukinomori?
Kaito was about to scroll past, but suddenly paused and opened one of the photos, zooming in.
It was a black-haired girl sitting in the corner, smiling. But... around her neck, there seemed to be a transparent, unclear thread.
'Is this the work of an evil spirit?'
Finding Soyo's chat window, Kaito sent a message intending to ask her where she was, but the message remained unread.
He tried calling, but it was just a busy tone, no one answering for a long time.
Kaito frowned and was just about to get up from the bathtub, when he suddenly sensed that one of the jade pendants he had sent out, 'Seems to be under attack?'
"It's okay, everyone, stay close to me."
Multicolored neon lights flickered non-stop, weaving dreamlike light and shadow on the walls and ceiling, yet they brought no sense of safety to the people. Instead, like a snarling beast, they seemed ready to devour someone.
The brown-haired girl forcibly suppressed her fear, looking at the monster not far away, a creature with eight long spider legs and the upper body of a beautiful woman. She forced herself to show a calm face, though her small hand secretly gripped the jade pendant at her chest tightly.
[One Hour Ago]
Today was Saturday, and the weather was nice. Nagasaki Soyo originally planned to invite Kaito out for dinner, but her friends got to her first, inviting her to sing karaoke.
As a normie, she seemed to have a lot of friends, but the price of being popular was that you had to spend a lot of time maintaining social relationships.
Some invite you shopping, some to the movies, some to have desserts... Refusing once or twice was fine, but if you turned them down too many times, you'd inevitably be seen as cold and difficult to get along with, and people would subconsciously isolate you.
It wasn't that Soyo hadn't tried to decline, but for some reason, her friends were very insistent this time, saying whatever it took to make her come along.
Seeing no way out, she could only agree.
At karaoke, everything was normal at first.
But after a few songs, someone quickly suggested that just singing was boring, how about playing a spirit-summoning game?
Having personally experienced supernatural events, Nagasaki Soyo of course refused.
It was fine in the past, but ever since she learned that gods and ghosts actually existed in this world, she had been avoiding anything paranormal like the plague. How could she possibly join in?
But the others were very interested in the idea and all enthusiastically agreed.
Seeing that the tide couldn't be turned, she couldn't be the wet blanket, so she forced a smile and agreed.
She comforted herself inside, 'Spirit-summoning games are probably just silly rumors made up by bored people. Surely... I won't be that unlucky, right?'
But Murphy's Law says: when you fear something, no matter how unlikely it is, it will always happen.
Looking at the terrifying figure ahead, the monster with the upper half of a woman and lower half of a spider, just like the Jorgumo of folklore, Soyo felt like crying but had no tears.
The opponent's eight spider legs were like blades. With a gentle stab, they could leave bowl-sized holes in the hard floor.
Even the saliva it drooled onto the ground made a sizzling sound, as if it were strong sulfuric acid, clearly not something that flesh and blood could resist.
Fortunately... the koi jade pendant Kaito gave her earlier activated at that moment.
The spider monster, let's temporarily call it Jorgumo.
As soon as it appeared, it let out a screech and pounced at them impatiently. But when it swung its claws, it struck a faint golden barrier and couldn't break through no matter how hard it tried.
Its eight blade-like spider legs gleamed with cold light, capable of piercing a heavy tank, but such fierce attacks only caused faint ripples when they hit the golden barrier.
The barrier wasn't large, but just enough to cover Soyo and her friends.
Thanks to the barrier, the several delicate and weak girls who couldn't even truss a chicken were able to survive in front of the terrifying spider monster, instead of being wiped out instantly.
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Chapter 136: Soyo, I Dont Want to Die...
Although there was the protection of the golden barrier, just passively taking a beating like this was not a solution.
Soyo thought about calling Kaito for help, but her phone had no signal. Sending messages on social media only resulted in a big red exclamation mark, informing her that the network was disconnected.
She also tried to leave the private room, but the Jorogumo was blocking the door, eyeing her like a tiger. Clearly, if she wanted to leave, she'd have to get rid of it first.
Even though the golden barrier's defense was excellent, no one knew how long it would last, or whether it might eventually run out of energy.
Soyo was still able to stay calm. She unconditionally trusted Kaito and trusted even more the jade pendant he gave her, believing that it couldn't be easily broken by a spider monster like this.
But the others didn't have that kind of courage.
"Are we going to die here?"
A petite, fragile girl spoke with a sobbing tone, looking at the brown-haired girl beside her. Choked with emotion, she could barely speak, "Soyo, I don't want to die"
"We won't. None of us will die," Soyo was burning with anxiety. Even though she trusted Kaito's jade pendant, being stuck here was not a solution either. Sharing a room with such a terrifying monster, the psychological pressure alone was enough to make ordinary people collapse.
Seeing her friend crying so miserably, she could only suppress her inner anxiety and cheer her up with a gentle voice.
But such empty comfort clearly didn't have much effect.
Someone turned their gaze toward a black-haired girl who had kept her head down the whole time, speaking with resentment, "It's all Sayaka's fault! It's all because you suggested playing that spirit-summoning game that this monster came!"
The girl named "Sayaka" was also the one who invited Soyo to come sing karaoke.
It was just earlier that she thought regular singing was boring and insisted on playing a spirit-summoning game, which sparked everyone's interest.
This sentence was like opening a floodgate. The frightened girls immediately found a target to vent on, and all sorts of accusations flooded in from all directions, all aimed at Sayaka.
"Everyone please calm down!", Soyo was extremely anxious. Now that the situation had reached this point, no amount of mutual blaming would help. The monster wouldn't go away because of that. What they needed most now was unity, internal conflict would only lead to their own destruction.
But the anxious crowd wouldn't stop attacking just because of a word from her, just like how her desperate efforts back then couldn't stop Mutsumi from quitting or prevent CRYCHIC from disbanding.
The Jorogumo watched everything with cold eyes. It just looked at the golden barrier not far away with some wariness, its eight spider legs restlessly scraping the ground.
It had poked at it for quite a while but still hadn't broken through the barrier, instead, its legs got hurt.
The humans before it were clearly just blood food waiting to be slaughtered, but now they were like turtles hiding in their shells, leaving it with no way to strike.
But
The spider-bodied, seductive woman curled her lips slightly, a sinister smile forming. Under the colorful neon lights, it was bone-chilling.
The girl named "Sayaka" had no reaction to the accusations from those around her.
She just silently kept her head lowered, like a robot that had run out of power. The eyes hidden beneath her black long hair were dull.
Seeing some people getting more agitated, already starting to push and shove Sayaka, Soyo had no choice but to step forward and stop their excessive actions.
Even if they wanted to argue, shouldn't they at least wait until they were safe?
Besides, while the barrier's power was strong, its range just barely covered a few people. If a fight broke out and someone accidentally stepped outside the protective range, how was that any different from seeking death?
Just as she stepped in front of Sayaka, Soyo suddenly froze.
She didn't know when it started, but the girls who had been angrily blaming Sayaka now wore expressions of terror, staring dumbly behind her, as if they had seen something terrifying.
Soyo instinctively turned around, only to find that Sayaka, who had been keeping her head down, was now lifting her head.
Those lifeless pupils stared blankly at them, chillingly hollow.
"S-Sayaka-chan?", Soyo called out tentatively, but got no response.
Anyone with eyes could tell that Sayaka was not in a normal state, like a puppet controlled on stage, completely stripped of autonomy.
Thinking back on how Sayaka had been especially determined today to bring her to karaoke, and was the first to bring up playing the spirit-summoning game, Soyo instinctively tightened her grip on the koi pendant in her hand.
'Could it be everything that is happening is a trap laid by the Jorogumo?'
It had long since controlled Sayaka's actions, and she herself was just prey that had been targeted.
Just when the brown-haired girl didn't know what to do, she suddenly heard shouts from behind: "Watch out!" "Don't come over!"
Sayaka lunged forward. Not at her, but past her, toward the few girls behind her, clearly trying to push them outside the range of the golden shield.
The Jorogumo, though lacking in high intelligence, had a predator's instincts and had long noticed something off about Soyo.
This golden shield seemed to originate from her.
The puppet was its last hidden move. It didn't dare rashly attack the shield's master, it might cause an unexpected event.
But targeting the other blood food didn't require such caution.
Once it devoured the rest of the blood food, the remaining Soyo would still be a turtle in a jar, unable to escape.
Soyo tried to stop it, but with her speed, she clearly wasn't a match for the puppetized Sayaka. On top of that, her nervousness caused her to trip, and she fell heavily to the ground.
The sudden incident frightened the remaining girls out of their wits. They wanted to run, but the private room was only so big, there was nowhere to run or hide.
As they left the protection of the shield, the Jorogumo couldn't wait any longer. Its eight sharp spider legs, gleaming with a cold light, rose high, ready to strike.
'Please anyone is fine'
'Just stop this now!:
Surrounded by endless despair, Soyo instinctively closed her eyes, unable to bear witnessing the bloody scene.
A "BANG" shattered the stillness of the room.
The tightly shut door was kicked open at this moment.
A familiar figure strode in against the corridor's light, like a dazzling sun, scanning the room with sharp eyes.
Soyo stared at him in a daze.
As if she hadn't come back to her senses yet, her mind still unresponsive, her cherry-colored lips slightly parted.
"K-K aito-kun?"
"Sorry, I'm a little late," Kaito smiled gently at her, like a reliable older brother from next door, "Let's leave the long catching-up talk for later. As for now"
He turned his gaze to the Jorogumo before him, snapped his fingers lightly, and a thread of flame burst from his fingertips, "It's pest control time."
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