Chapter 72

Of course, it was more than that.

Merely hearing the samurai girl say those words—that "title"—caused the flames burning around Jingo Rin to pause, the heat waves warping the surrounding air.

"Oh?"

She slowly exhaled the single word, glaring at the samurai girl who had spoken. "Where did you hear that nickname?"

The samurai girl grinned. "Why, aren't I allowed to know? The demon-hunting families of the Northeast all say so. They even say you wander the streets every night, kidnapping men to take back home for your own pleasure."

Not just in Aomori Prefecture, but "notorious" throughout the entire Tohoku region of Japan; that was quite a large area indeed.

"Tch, just a bunch of rats who only know how to gossip behind one's back."

For a moment, even Jingo Rin couldn't help but frown and click her tongue.

Because, you see, the term "Female Tyrant" might sound somewhat cool from a Chinese perspective. However, in modern Japanese, it was actually a piece of slang.

Because the so-called "Tyrant-type woman" actually refers to the kind of woman who is "arrogant + sadistic + violent."

It's just like calling someone a "Little Fairy" in Chinese; these days, it's no longer a compliment but a very vicious insult, a form of female-targeted abuse that only Japanese people would understand.

A delinquent girl at school by day, hunting men in the city's alleys at night to use as her sex slaves—that was the terrifying reputation of the legendary Princess of Mutsu, Jingo Rin!

"I've changed my mind," perhaps that was why she said, "I'm going to break every single bone in your bodies."

The samurai girl grinned, showing no fear, and instead sheathed her katana. With her left hand on the scabbard and her right hand gripping the hilt, she lowered her center of gravity—she had assumed the stance of iaijutsu, capable of reaching maximum speed from a standstill.

Iai. The embodiment of the intent to kill in a single strike.

"—Om, Indraya (Homage to Indra)." The samurai girl began to chant the mantra of Indra from the Buddhist esoteric tradition, channeling her power. "Svaha (May He grant his blessing)."

In an instant, brilliant lightning was compressed into the samurai girl's scabbard, flickering and dancing. Wind began to swirl around her blade. It was a fierce gale, strong enough to feel as though it could blow a body away and slice through skin.

With one glance, Jingo Rin understood. The opponent was waiting for her to enter her attack range. Her sword and her stance formed a barrier of blades, a mini "Domain." Stepping into it carelessly would result in being cut in two.

If Jingo Rin approached, the samurai girl would surely unleash a supersonic, god-speed lightning draw, attempting to take her head.

As to whether she could actually do it, that was another matter entirely.

If Jingo Rin didn't approach at all, and instead drowned her from afar with infinite fireballs, fire bullets, and firestorms, could this samurai girl withstand it? Or did she also have a way to strike down long-range enemies?

Regardless, at the very least, the Guardian of the North, the Princess of Mutsu, Jingo Rin, would not choose that style of combat.

Iaijutsu, a "Domain" of blades, a sure-kill iai—that was all. She would break through this insolent assassin head-on and shatter the technique the opponent was so proud of.

She stepped toward the samurai girl.

The samurai girl remained motionless. Although she waited quietly like a statue, Jingo Rin could clearly feel the rumbling, primordial power accumulating within her opponent, eager for the moment to strike.

Fire and storm were about to collide, and no one could stop it.

Three steps, two steps. One step.

(I'll take your head!) Silently declaring this in her heart, the samurai girl prepared to unleash her full power—

"Forget it, Gion, stand down." The white-haired shrine maiden Ise spoke up at this moment, saying quietly, "Since the ambush failed, fighting head-on would be thankless work. Retreat."

Well, well. Ambushing me while I'm on my way, trying to surround and kill me, and then saying you're going to run away right in front of my face after failing—are you looking down on me, or are you looking down on me?

How could Jingo Rin let them get away! —That was why an unexpected voice cut in at this moment without hesitation.

"Azure Dragon hides in clouds, White Tiger conceals in wind, Vermilion Bird sinks in flames, Black Tortoise lies in water—Four Symbols seal the eyes, all things vanish! As commanded by the law!"

No sooner said than done! Suddenly, four beams of spiritual light exploded in the night—the Azure Dragon soared through the clouds, its phantom form spreading like mist to create a cerulean barrier; the White Tiger roared, fierce winds churning the ground to conceal all figures; the Vermilion Bird scorched the sky, flames dancing and turning the night sky red for an instant before extinguishing, leaving behind layers of illusions; the Black Tortoise hid in the currents, black water rippling as if reflecting heaven and earth, swallowing reality and illusion alike.

In the moment of interweaving light and shadow, the figures of the samurai girl and the white-haired shrine maiden suddenly blurred, as if swallowed by the night; their outlines faded rapidly, and even their presence vanished without a trace.

Jingo Rin's pupils constricted violently, her flaming wings churning as she suddenly blasted out a wave of scorching fire, sweeping the surroundings in an attempt to forcibly burn away the Four Symbols illusion.

However, there was nothing where the intense waves of fire struck, leaving only the lingering scent of scorching heat drifting in the moonlight.

—They were gone! The presence of the two enemies had disappeared into thin air right before her eyes, leaving no trace to be found.

"Tch." Looking around, Jingo Rin's gaze swept across the devastated factory.

Steel beams were snapped, walls collapsed, and charred cracks covered the ground. The air was filled with the smell of scorched metal, and even the factory fence had been twisted into strange shapes by the shockwave. The crater she had created when landing from the sky had not yet fully cooled, with magma still steaming.

She rubbed her temples, shook her head, pulled her phone from her inner pocket, and skillfully dialed her first contact. "Father… something big has happened."

—Back to Qi Xing's side. After defeating the Love Hotel monster that had risen from the ground, they certainly couldn't stay there. Taking advantage of the time before the police and more trouble arrived, Qi Xing and Elaine slipped away, sneaking back to their hotel.

As for that unlucky bystander victim, Kenichi Sato, Elaine would later contact the hospital to have him transferred to a specialized hospital under the Roman Church for treatment.

As mentioned before, this absurd world of █-colored terror never lacked victims who had been driven to mental breakdown or loss of sanity for various reasons, much like falling into long-term insanity or reaching zero SAN in Call of Cthulhu… Fortunately, the Roman Church had years of experience in this and knew how to treat them to make recovery easier.

"Sorry, Elaine." Back in the hotel room, after closing the door, Qi Xing sighed. "We said this was our first date, but apart from eating and shopping, it turned into fighting monsters in fancy ways again."

"It's okay, I'm used to it. And…" Elaine shook her head, a hint of a smile in her eyes as she said thoughtfully, "I actually think that the two of us aren't really cut out for overly romantic arrangements. This isn't bad either."

Not bad… is this really not bad? Qi Xing was stunned for a moment. But since Elaine had said so, he followed up: "Then, what are your thoughts or suggestions for improvement regarding today's date? Scoring it works too."

"How many points do you give today's date?" Elaine asked in return.

Good question. Qi Xing's mind immediately flashed back to the laughter they shared while eating and walking around, as well as the sudden combat and chaos—honestly, if his daily life were the standard, it wasn't without its fun.

"Although plans couldn't keep up with the changes, we did spend the day out, ate delicious food together, visited the places we wanted to see, and even fought a somewhat interesting monster at the end. All things considered… probably 70 points."

He said that, but he knew in his heart—he was being thick-skinned.

Elaine smiled slightly, her cheeks quietly flushing with a faint blush, and replied, "Then I'll give it 140 points."

After saying that, she turned her head away, pretending to adjust her cuffs as if nothing happened, but she still couldn't hide the slight redness on the tips of her ears.

Huh? Qi Xing was finally a bit surprised: "That's much higher than I thought."

But why? Even if Elaine counted all these sudden events and chaos as part of their "date," how could the score be double what Qi Xing gave?

Before he could ask for the reason, the doorbell rang. Qi Xing scanned through the door with his spiritual sense—hmm, it was Old Wolf. He was standing at the door with a serious expression, seemingly on official business.

Although his mind was still filled with Elaine, since there was business to attend to, Qi Xing had to let Old Wolf in first: "What's wrong, Wolf Lord? I thought you went to the Jingo Family."

"I did go to the Jingo Family," Old Wolf replied, "The Jingo Family has run into some trouble."

"Half an hour ago, Jingo Rin sensed evil energy coming from the city center and flew over from home, but she was ambushed by unidentified individuals halfway there. Although she wasn't injured, the battle destroyed an entire factory in the industrial zone."

A simple sentence made Qi Xing and Elaine look at each other in dismay.

Half an hour ago, the evil energy that had emanated from the city center and could be felt from a hundred miles away was, of course, the Love Hotel monster that Qi Xing and the others had run into.

"She sensed the evil energy, flew out from home immediately, but was ambushed halfway there?" Qi Xing frowned, switching from the tipsy romantic atmosphere back to his serious work mode. "At Jingo Rin's speed, it would take her at most three or four minutes to fly from Shingo Village; it's impossible for the ambush to have been set up only after she left home. Especially considering they were ambushing someone flying in the air."

Unless you knew in advance that she would definitely fly in a straight line through here at that time. Otherwise, how could you possibly ambush someone capable of high-speed flight? If you wanted to know in advance where and when a Love Hotel would suddenly turn into a giant monster, attracting Jingo Rin to fly over in a straight line from home, then unless you could predict the future, it could only be a staged performance.

"Who were the people who attacked her?" Qi Xing asked.

Old Wolf immediately detailed the scene. Ever since he had decided that Jingo Rin was the divine descendant of the Saint, he had gone to Shingo Village to stay at a hot spring inn, pondering how to swear his allegiance to the divine descendant. Seeing Jingo Rin suddenly fly out from home, he had immediately followed behind.

Although Old Wolf couldn't fly, he transformed into a giant wolf and sprinted on the ground, his speed comparable to a top-tier race car. From afar, he had seen how Jingo Rin was sniped down from the night sky by Moonlight Arrows and how she had driven back the three attackers.

Although Jingo Rin had fought quite beautifully, remaining unscathed despite being ambushed by multiple people, making Old Wolf want to applaud in praise, the three attackers had ultimately escaped successfully, and their identities remained a mystery.

The factory had been smashed to pieces, and there was no need for Old Wolf to get involved in the cleanup. He simply ran back to Master Leipu to deliver the news.

Hearing this, Elaine was somewhat puzzled: "Grand Mentor, did Miss Jingo ask you to come and notify us?"

"Ha! Of course not." Old Wolf grinned. "She clearly isn't the type of personality who likes to trouble others. But at least I know that you, Rep-Man, would definitely be interested in such bad guys. So, one thing is one thing."

His words were true. Qi Xing couldn't help but laugh just hearing him say that. Master Leipu was indeed interested in finding this group of criminal suspects who turned a Love Hotel into a giant monster. His fists were very interested!

"However, the Jingo Family should be the local power in Aomori." But Qi Xing continued to ask, "This isn't a mission arranged by the 'Association.' We don't know where to go or who to kill; we have to investigate it ourselves."

"If the local power itself doesn't know who the enemy is or where they came from, where do we start investigating? I guess neither of you is very good at divination, let alone me, a Martial Immortal."

"I actually do know a little bit of rune divination." The Wolf Lord of Fenian smiled slightly, "However, performing Ogham rune divination in this foreign land probably won't have very good results."

Elaine had been silently listening to the two of them talk, and when she heard this, she finally couldn't help but sigh: "Wolf Lord is one thing, but Qi Xing, are you actually a modern person or not?"

After saying that, she opened her laptop in the room, quickly connected to the Vatican's internal network, started the artificial intelligence dedicated to Vatican personnel, and said into the microphone: "Help me pull up the directory of magical crime records in Northern Japan, as well as the directory of irregular magical societies."

Wait, wait a second. At this point, Qi Xing really had to ask: "The Vatican has its own AI?"

"Of course it does. It was officially put into use last July." Elaine had already started carefully reviewing the dense file directories and answered calmly, "Except for those forbidden books that shouldn't even have records kept, the Roman Church's archives have long been digitized. If it weren't for the special situation last time involving the 'Silver Coin Messenger,' we wouldn't even need to go through old files."

"Give me five minutes. I'll look through all the potentially relevant files first." Qi Xing was speechless.