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{3rd Pov}
A few more days passed, yet the police investigation still led to no clear conclusion. Despite their efforts, they were unable to determine who the intruder was, how they had entered, or what exactly had happened during the incident involving Kurose Akari.
There was no solid evidence, no proper leads—just scattered inconsistencies that didn’t form a coherent explanation.
Keiko remained worried.
The fact that the investigation had failed to produce any concrete answers only made things worse for her. From her perspective, the possibility still existed that the person who had tried to harm or kidnap Akari could return at any time.
Of course, none of them knew the truth.
That “person” wasn’t even human to begin with. It had been a ghost, and it had already been completely gobbled up by Akari. There was no chance of it coming back.
But without that knowledge, their concern was completely justified.
In response to the uncertainty, the police did what they could within their limits. They arranged for the nearby police station to be alerted and ready to respond immediately if Akari or his parents made an emergency call. They also documented their home address carefully to ensure quicker response times if anything suspicious happened again.
It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was the best they could offer given the lack of evidence and the confusing nature of the case.
The situation itself didn’t make much sense from a normal perspective. The details didn’t align properly, and the explanations they tried to form only created more contradictions instead of resolving them.
In the end, there wasn’t much else they could do.
Takeshi and Keiko eventually decided to accept the situation as it was. With no answers and no clear direction, they chose to move forward, relying on the precautions provided by the police and trying to put the incident behind them, treating it as something they would rather not dwell on anymore.
Which brings things to today, where Kurose Keiko, the mother of Kurose Akari, had finally come to discharge her son from the hospital. The process itself was fairly normal, with paperwork being handled and final checks being completed, but for Akari, this moment marked the end of his stay and the beginning of something else entirely.
Akari didn’t ask his mother anything about the investigation.
There were two clear reasons for that.
First, he already knew they wouldn’t find any real leads. From his perspective, the truth was something they would never be able to uncover, no matter how much they investigated.
Second, it was better for him to act like a normal child who had either forgotten the incident or didn’t fully understand it. That way, his parents would gradually stop worrying so much and move on without unnecessary stress.
After all, from his point of view, there was nothing left to worry about anymore.
As Akari stepped into the parking lot below the hospital, walking alongside his mother, he suddenly paused for a brief moment.
Something caught his attention.
His eyes snapped toward a specific direction almost instinctively. From that spot, he could sense it clearly—the sweetness of death, stronger than anything he had felt before. Along with it came an overwhelming dark aura, far denser and more intense than any presence he had encountered during his short time in this world.
It stood out immediately.
Even without fully focusing, he could tell that whatever was there was on a completely different level compared to the others.
Despite that, there was no immediate reaction from that direction.
Unlike before, when he had encountered the Heartless Ghost, nothing moved toward him, and no attack was triggered. The conditions required for such a reaction clearly hadn’t been met this time.
Akari remained still for a second, observing.
He himself had already experienced the kind of overwhelming power he could wield when he was in his ghost form. Because of that, he understood that not every encounter would instantly turn into a confrontation.
He wasn’t restricted by the limitations of his human body in that state. When he took on his ghost form, he could exert his full power without anything holding him back, and his appearance even resembled something close to a wendigo—unnatural, monstrous, and far removed from anything human.
But even with that in mind, he couldn’t ignore one important fact.
He had nearly died in his last battle with that ‘Heartless Ghost.’
The memory of that fight was still fresh enough to keep him grounded.
‘Nah… better avoid it,’ he thought, making a quick and practical decision instead of acting on impulse.
Meanwhile, Keiko had already noticed him staring in one direction for a bit too long. His sudden pause hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Akari-chan, is something there?” she asked, her voice carrying a slight hint of nervousness. Her eyes followed the direction he had been looking at, expecting to see someone suspicious or out of place.
But there was nothing.
The area looked completely normal, with no visible person or movement that would explain his reaction.
“Nothing, Okaa-san,” Akari replied calmly, turning his gaze away and putting on a small, reassuring smile.
“But can you promise me that we won’t come back to this place again?” he added, keeping his tone light as if it were just a simple request.
Although it looked like a simple and cute request on the surface, for some reason Keiko suddenly felt a drop in her body temperature.
It wasn’t extreme, but it was noticeable enough to make her uncomfortable.
"Oooh… why did it suddenly get so cold?" she said out loud, instinctively rubbing her shoulders as if trying to shake off the chill that had crept up on her without warning.
At the same time, Akari’s smile slowly faded.
His expression turned more serious as he once again shifted his gaze toward the direction of that dense, dark aura. This time, the presence felt slightly different. It was subtle, but there was a clear change—as if it had finally noticed him… or more specifically, noticed Keiko.
‘Did Mom trigger its reaction?’ he thought, analyzing the situation quickly. ‘But the spiritual response I’m sensing is still very weak… that means only some kind of preliminary reaction has been activated.’
He didn’t wait to confirm anything further.
Almost immediately, a wave of spiritual energy spread out from his body, controlled but firm. It expanded outward just enough to intercept the faint presence coming from that direction, clashing with it briefly before dispersing it completely.
The pressure vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“I guess Akari-chan really doesn’t like hospitals,” Keiko said, brushing off the entire moment as nothing more than her imagination.
She relaxed as the unnatural cold disappeared, as if it had never existed in the first place.
She had no idea that, in that short moment, a small but real clash had already taken place between two powerful ghosts.
Although Akari didn’t exactly feel fear toward that ghost, there was still a clear sense of unease lingering within him.
It wasn’t something he could ignore easily.
And this was after he had already devoured the ‘Heartless Ghost,’ which had itself been quite powerful.
That alone made one thing obvious.
Whatever that presence was… it was on an entirely different level.
‘Maybe I’ll only be able to properly fight it when I’m in my true form,’ he thought, coming to a practical conclusion rather than underestimating the situation. There was no point rushing into something he wasn’t fully prepared for.
He then looked away from that direction, deliberately dropping the topic in his mind for now.
“Okaa-san! C’mon, I want to eat your pancakes!” he said, switching his tone completely and returning to that of a normal child, as if nothing had happened.
“Hai!” Keiko replied immediately, smiling as she guided him toward their car.
Fortunately, his family seemed to be doing reasonably well financially. They owned a decent car, though it was still being paid off through EMI, which meant they weren’t exactly rich but were still comfortable enough.
Once they reached the car, Keiko opened the door and helped him inside.
“Akari-chan, buckle up your seatbelt!” she said.
However, instead of just telling him, she leaned forward and strapped the seatbelt around him herself. The action caught Akari slightly off guard.
He knew how to do it on his own.
From the memories of the ‘previous Akari,’ he was aware that the child usually handled simple things like that independently.
That small difference made something in his chest tighten.
A faint sense of guilt surfaced again.
He stayed quiet for a moment, his expression neutral, but his thoughts were anything but calm.
Unlike the protagonists in some stories he had read, whose guilt often felt exaggerated or misplaced, Akari was fairly certain about one thing.
He had taken over this body completely.
And more than that…
He had likely consumed the original Akari’s soul.
After all, his own soul form didn’t resemble Akari at all, nor did it resemble his past self. Instead, it looked like something entirely different—something closer to a wendigo-like entity, which only reinforced that conclusion in his mind.
‘Well, it’s not like discarding this body would bring the boy’s soul back, and I’ll have a much higher chance of surviving if I continue living as Akari,’ he thought, forcing himself to stay rational about the situation instead of getting lost in unnecessary guilt.
There was no point in thinking about impossible outcomes.
With that in mind, he shifted his gaze toward Keiko, who had already started the engine and was preparing to leave. The familiar sound of the car coming to life filled the quiet space inside.
For a brief moment, his expression softened.
‘Okaa-san… Otou-san… even if I’m not your real son, I’ll make sure that both of you get to live your lives peacefully, with someone you can still call your son until the very end,’ he made a silent promise within his heart.
It wasn’t something he said out loud.
And whether that promise truly carried any weight or not… only time would tell.
Keiko then carefully drove the car out of the parking lot, navigating through the exit before merging onto the main road. The hospital slowly faded behind them as they continued on their way.
However, they weren’t the only ones there.
Back in the parking lot, at a distant corner where shadows lingered longer than they should, a figure slowly revealed itself.
It was a ghost.
Its appearance was unnatural even by ghostly standards—it had two female heads attached to a single body, and six arms extending outward in different directions. The entire form looked unstable, yet disturbingly intact.
It remained still, its multiple eyes fixed on the direction where the car had just disappeared.
There was no confusion in its gaze.
Only anger.
The prey it had noticed earlier… had slipped away from its reach.
And it didn’t seem pleased about that at all.
…
Akari quietly looked out of the car window as they drove past rows of Japanese houses. The scenery had clearly changed—they had long since left the more crowded and dense urban parts of the city and had now entered a quieter residential area.
The shift was noticeable.
The buildings were smaller, more spaced out, and everything felt calmer compared to the earlier parts of the city.
The city of Hanamugi itself wasn’t particularly large, especially when compared to places like Tokyo or Osaka.
Located in Saitama Prefecture, it gave off the feeling of a typical, almost generic Japanese town—something that could easily pass as the background setting of a slice-of-life anime.
There was nothing flashy about it, but it had a certain familiarity to it.
From the lighting outside, he could tell it was already evening. The sky had begun to dim, and as they got closer to his house, the roads became even quieter, with fewer cars passing by and barely any pedestrians in sight.
Akari kept observing everything carefully.
This type of view was still new to him.
Even though he understood that, given enough time, this would eventually become normal—something he would stop noticing entirely. In fact, he might even grow comfortable enough to prefer staying within his own familiar space, just like most people around him.
‘Asians really have it tough, man…’ he thought, already shifting his attention to something else entirely.
School.
The thought alone was enough to make him mentally sigh.
He knew he would have to go through it all over again—classes, studies, expectations, everything.
Still, he wasn’t completely unprepared.
Having already gone through a strict academic environment in another Asian country—ahem, more like being pushed and forced to study relentlessly—he was confident that he could manage somehow.
At the very least, he wasn’t starting from zero.
‘Thankfully, I’m not in China,’ he added in his thoughts, a bit more casually.
‘Over there, even my ghost form would probably need glucose just to survive the exams.’
‘Well, that’s something to worry about in the future. Right now, I’m a ghost, so hopefully, along with these supernatural abilities, I at least get better memory and comprehension,’ he thought, half-serious and half-curious. The idea of suddenly becoming one of those hidden geniuses from anime—quietly excelling at everything while acting normal—didn’t sound bad to him at all, even if it was a bit cliché.
He was still imagining it when his focus abruptly shifted.
Something felt off.
His attention snapped toward the side of the road. As they approached a street pole, he sensed a faint but distinct dark aura lingering around it. It wasn’t strong, not even close to what he had felt earlier, but it was definitely there.
More importantly—
He could feel it moving.
A thin, almost invisible tendril of that presence stretched out slowly toward their car, as if trying to latch onto it.
‘Seriously? Are these ghosts literally everywhere?’ he thought, genuinely baffled at this point. Not even a full day had passed, and he had already encountered yet another one trying to mess with him.
The ridiculous part was the difference in strength.
The Heartless Ghost had been nearly as strong as him before he devoured it, and the one in the parking lot earlier had felt even stronger than that.
But this one?
This one was weak.
Pathetically weak.
It didn’t even feel like a threat.
For a brief moment, he almost felt like shouting something dramatic, like those arrogant young masters from cultivation stories—‘Courting death!’
Then he paused internally.
‘…Wait, they’re already dead,’ he corrected himself dryly.
‘But since they’ve come across someone like me… I’ll just make them even more dead.’
Without wasting another second, he focused his spiritual energy and spread it outward, forming a thin but effective layer around the car, covering it completely.
The car passed by the pole without slowing down, everything appearing completely normal from the outside. However, the moment they came close, the ghost extended one of its tendrils toward the vehicle, aiming directly for the steering wheel as if trying to interfere.
But the moment that tendril made contact—
Something went wrong.
Instead of attaching itself, it was met with a pulling force.
A strong, unnatural suction instantly grabbed onto it. The ghost tried to retract its tendril, but it was too late. It couldn’t sever the connection in time. Before it could react properly, its entire form was dragged forward, pulled straight into the car as if it had been caught in a trap.
In the next instant, it appeared inside.
Frozen, stupefied, baffled, confused, horrified, or whatever can explain it's current stupid face, sitting right beside Akari.
If Keiko had happened to glance at the rearview mirror at that exact moment, she would have seen a horrifying figure sitting next to her son—something completely unnatural occupying the same space. The shock alone might have been enough to make her panic dangerously, possibly going out of her own way to send her own son and herself to heaven early.
But none of that happened.
Before anything could escalate, Akari acted.
He didn’t hesitate and with a quiet motion, he opened his mouth slightly and pulled.
The ghost struggled immediately, trying to use whatever power it had to escape, its form distorting as it attempted to break free. But the difference in strength was far too large.
It didn’t stand a chance.
Its body began to melt the moment it was pulled toward Akari, breaking apart as if it had no solid structure to hold itself together. The more it resisted, the faster it was consumed.
Within seconds, it was gone.
Completely absorbed, as if it had never existed in the first place.
Akari exhaled lightly.
The sensation that followed was familiar but noticeably weaker than before. He didn’t gain any significant strength from consuming this particular ghost—it was simply too weak to make a real difference.
However, there was still an effect.
He felt full.
His body, or rather his spiritual form, felt like it was brimming with excess energy, almost overflowing even though it wasn’t a major increase in power.
Some time later,
“We are back!” Keiko announced as they finally arrived home.
She stepped out of the car first, making sure everything was in order before opening the door for Akari and helping him out as well. After that, the two of them walked inside together, the familiar atmosphere of their home immediately replacing the outside world.
Akari quietly followed her to his room.
“Ah… Okaa-san?” he called out, slightly confused as he noticed she didn’t leave right away like usual.
He turned to look at her.
Keiko simply smiled.
“Don’t worry. Just focus on whatever you want to do. Mama will stay here and watch over you,” she said gently, her tone soft but firm, clearly not planning to leave him alone anytime soon.
“… ”
Akari didn’t say anything in response.
But internally, he already understood what this meant.
Because of the recent incident, she was being extra cautious.
Which also meant—
He couldn’t freely test his abilities right now.
Left with no real options, he picked up some paper and a pencil, pretending to act like a normal child and started drawing. However, the moment he actually tried, he quickly realized something.
His drawing skills were terrible.
Not just average—genuinely bad.
‘I don’t even need to try to make it look bad… it already looks bad,’ he thought dryly, staring at what he had just drawn. His skill level was comparable to that of a toddler, which made the situation oddly frustrating.
He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or feel disappointed.
‘I hope I at least got some of those Japanese genes for drawing… maybe I can make manga in the future,’ he continued thinking, though the idea wasn’t entirely serious.
Then another thought followed immediately.
‘Though… I really hope I don’t fall low enough to actually become an artist in Japan,’ he added, remembering what he knew about the industry.
Japan’s company culture had a reputation for squeezing everything out of people, and even in modern times—and likely in the future as well—the lives of artists, especially those in manga and animation, weren’t exactly easy or well-rewarded.
They would have to deal with doujin artists who make money off their work, often without giving anything back to the original creators. On top of that, there were the low wages enforced by profit-driven companies that squeezed as much as they could out of artists while giving very little in return. Then there were pirated websites, spreading their work for free, cutting into whatever little income they could have made.
And the audience wasn’t entirely innocent either.
Many people preferred to pirate everything without thinking about the consequences. They didn’t realize that if creators weren’t paid properly, their official rankings would drop, and with that, their chances of getting bigger opportunities would disappear. In the end, it was a cycle that made things harder for anyone trying to make a proper career out of it.
After finishing his third drawing—which looked no better than the previous two—the doorbell rang.
“It seems your father is home. Akari-chan, let’s have dinner. And remember, you need to sleep early—you have school tomorrow after all!” Keiko reminded him, her tone gentle but firm.
That one sentence was enough to kill whatever little enthusiasm he had left.
‘School? More like hell!’ he cried internally, almost wanting to protest out loud. Even as someone who had become an evil ghost, the idea of being sent back to school felt like too much.
There were limits to what he could endure.
Still, he didn’t argue.
Causing a scene right now would only create unnecessary problems, and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. So in the end, he simply nodded and agreed with his Okaa-san, choosing to go along with it for now.
To be continued...