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Akio had only been in this world for three days.
But no one knew what those three days had been like for him.
Every single moment, he lived in fear—terrified, panicked, constantly on edge.
He was afraid the monster that had devoured his former body might come back to check, realize he hadn't actually died, discover he was a demi-human, and then drag him off as some kind of emergency food supply.
Even when he tried to sleep, he'd jolt awake again and again, haunted by nightmares.
Now, though, he had awakened the System and vaulted straight to the status of Dimensional Demon God. Naturally, all that pent-up fear, anger, and frustration needed somewhere to go.
And what better target than the monster that had eaten his body?
Akio didn't care who that creature was or what background it had—he was going to kill it.
As he put it himself: not even Jesus could stop him.
So, if he had to come off as arrogant and overbearing to track it down, so be it.
Power like this wasn't meant for talking things out. Power like this was meant to make others talk reason to him.
With that thought, Akio stepped outside and headed toward Ukiyoe Town.
It was his first time actually leaving the house since coming here, his first real look at this world.
And what he found shocked him. This world was way messier, crazier, and stranger than he had imagined.
In broad daylight, he saw one evil spirit after another openly wandering the streets.
They weren't the least bit afraid of the sun overhead. They drifted around pedestrians, staring at them greedily, whispering over and over:
"You can see me? Can you see me?"
Good lord. That was way too much.
Don't tell me this world also mashed together with Mieruko-chan?
What kind of messed-up crap was this?
Originally, Akio had no intention of bothering with these spirits. There were simply too many of them—every single street was crawling with the things.
And honestly, they weren't that dangerous. Bound by some unseen rules, they couldn't harm normal people as long as they weren't noticed.
(Unless you happened to be an unlucky high school girl with super-strong spirit sight.)
Yotsuya Miko: just say my name already.
But what Akio hadn't expected was that even though he ignored them, the spirits didn't ignore him.
One spirit, after confirming the person it was pestering couldn't see it, lost interest and drifted away—only to float right up to Akio, black mist rolling off its body.
"You can see me? You can see me?"
Oh, for crying out loud.
Akio almost cursed out loud. He hadn't gone looking for trouble, and yet this thing had the guts to come looking for him?
Big mistake.
Clearly, it was tired of existing.
Without hesitation, Akio clenched his fist. Threads of holy light coiled around his knuckles as he swung.
With a heavy boom, the spirit was obliterated on the spot.
The black miasma melted away like snow under the noon sun, like butter dropped onto a scorching pan—gone in an instant without a trace.
But to Akio's surprise, that one punch was like kicking a hornet's nest.
Instead of scattering, the other spirits nearby surged toward him.
"You can see me? You can see me?"
Their whispers grew louder, their eyes hungry, fixated on him. A few even lunged forward, intent on devouring him.
Akio's face twisted in exasperation. Were these things brain-dead?
Did they not just see what happened to the last guy?
And they still dared attack him?
Call it courage. Or stupidity. Probably both.
With a flick of his hand, several beams of holy light shot out, morphing into translucent fists that smashed into the spirits.
Thud, thud, thud, thud…
In rapid succession, the spirits burst apart, destroyed before they could even scream.
Dead. Well and truly gone.
At the same time, Akio felt a faint, invisible force flow into his body. The Light Dimension within him absorbed it—and unbelievably, its power grew.
Just a little, but still.
To put it in perspective, if the Light Dimension's strength was around a hundred million, then killing that batch of spirits had raised it by… one.
Now it was a hundred million and one.
The growth was tiny—so tiny he could barely sense it—but it was there.
Which left him wondering: what was going on?
Could he really grow stronger by killing monsters?
If so, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
The only issue was that these spirits were pathetically weak. Wiping out over a dozen of them had barely moved the needle.
No wonder he hadn't felt anything after killing the first one.
Honestly, it wasn't even worth the effort to chase them down.
Forget it. Better to focus on finding the monster that ate his body.
As long as that thing was alive, Akio would never be at peace.
Once it was dead, only then could he relax.
Having cleared away the spirits blocking his path, Akio soon reached Ukiyoe Town.
Right away, he noticed the place was different from everywhere else.
There were barely any spirits inside—actually, he couldn't see a single one.
After turning a few corners, he finally spotted a lone spirit. But before he could act, a crow armed with a weapon swooped down from the sky.
With a swing of its blade, the crow cut the spirit down instantly.
Akio recognized it at once: a crow tengu, one of the legendary yokai.
No wonder Ukiyoe Town was so clean. Someone was actively clearing the spirits out.
And he knew exactly whose someone that was.
Ukiyoe Town was the headquarters of the Nura Clan.
Unless they'd lost their minds, no other group's yokai would be helping the Nura Clan exterminate spirits here.
Which meant this crow tengu was absolutely a Nura Clan member.
And since Akio had seen the anime, he also knew the Nura Clan really did have an entire squad of crow tengu serving under their supreme commander.
The crow tengu finished off the spirit, spread its wings, and vanished into the sky, not even sparing Akio a glance.
Why would it? In its eyes, unless it revealed itself, ordinary humans couldn't see it anyway.
But it didn't know.
Akio wasn't ordinary.
He was a Dimensional Demon God.
"..."
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