A map appeared on the screen, with a red dot flashing at one of the locations.
Tsukiyomi Ruri identified the spot and immediately rushed out of the house.
‘How could Leona call for help? As a ghost, she should normally be very safe, unless… she ran into a Reincarnator!’
Even a Reincarnator wouldn’t normally see Leona unless they focused energy into their eyes. They would only detect her if Leona harbored malice toward them.
And if Leona didn’t harbor malice toward someone, they generally wouldn’t sense anything and thus wouldn’t channel energy to their eyes. They’d never discover her.
But regardless, since Leona had called for help, the situation was clearly not simple.
There weren’t many pedestrians on the streets at night. Tsukiyomi Ruri moved with explosive speed, slipping past without anyone noticing, and quickly arrived at the target location.
It was a dimly lit alley, completely untouched by the streetlights’ glow, giving off an eerie, sinister feeling.
“Little ghost, where are you hiding? Come on out. What are you hiding for?” A sinister voice, carried by a cold wind, drifted out from the depths of the alley.
It was a man’s voice, laced with coldness.
“Found you! Right here!” The man’s voice rang out again, followed immediately by a purple blade light bursting forth, slashing toward a wall inside the alley.
But the blade never landed.
Tsukiyomi Ruri’s figure had appeared there at some unknown point. She extended her right hand, lightly pinching the descending blade between her thumb and forefinger. The gust from the attack whipped through the alley, blowing up her twin pink ponytails.
“Who are you?!” The man’s expression changed drastically. He immediately tried to pull the blade back and retreat, but found it wouldn’t budge. He abandoned the weapon and leapt backward. Upon being discarded, the blade instantly vanished and transformed into a card in his hand, then rematerialized as a blade for him to grasp again.
“And who are you?” Tsukiyomi Ruri sized up her opponent.
He was a young man wearing ordinary athletic clothes, utterly unremarkable in appearance.
As Tsukiyomi Ruri asked, Leona slowly emerged from the wall behind her.
“Ruri, you finally came. I thought I was going to die.” Leona looked somewhat weak, her figure noticeably more transparent than before.
For a ghost, this was a sign of having suffered heavy damage.
Seeing Leona in this state, Tsukiyomi Ruri couldn’t help but frown.
“Is this ghost your pet? Oh, I remember now! You’re Tsukiyomi Ruri!” The young man’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“You know me? Who exactly are you?” Tsukiyomi Ruri stared at him.
“My name is Akai Jun. You probably haven’t heard it. But you’re certainly no stranger to Chiba Rumi, are you?” A look of indignation appeared on Akai Jun’s face. “And you are the murderer who killed Chiba-san!”
Chiba Rumi?
Tsukiyomi Ruri naturally still remembered her—the actress who had accidentally drowned during filming.
“Chiba Rumi drowned by her own carelessness. We didn’t kill her at all,” Leona retorted in dissatisfaction.
“Nonsense! Chiba-san was extremely good at swimming. How could she possibly have drowned in such shallow water near the beach? How could such a thing happen?!” Akai Jun shouted loudly.
Chiba Rumi was good at swimming?
Tsukiyomi Ruri fixed her gaze on Akai Jun. From the looks of it, this Akai Jun was probably someone connected to Chiba Rumi, and he had been investigating the circumstances of her death.
The fact that he knew who she was was likely because she had been one of the people present at the scene.
“And there’s another point,” Akai Jun said with a dark expression. “Through my covert investigation, Chiba-san’s ankles showed signs of being grabbed. Meaning someone grabbed her ankles while she was in the sea and forcibly dragged her under, drowning her. This was murder. Someone killed her. And you two are the murderers!”
“Even if Chiba Rumi was murdered, what makes you think it was us? Just because I’m a ghost? That’s discrimination against ghosts!” Leona was exceptionally indignant about this.
“Who else could pull this off but a Reincarnator? And the only Reincarnator present at the scene was you, Tsukiyomi Ruri! You ordered your ghost to do it!” Akai Jun pointed his blade at Tsukiyomi Ruri.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t me,” Tsukiyomi Ruri said flatly. “Besides, if a Reincarnator really wanted to kill Chiba Rumi, they could have done it from the shadows. There was no need to go out into the open.”
“Don’t try to deny it! Chiba-san just happened to be killed by a Reincarnator, and a Reincarnator just happened to be at the scene. Who else could it be but you?” Akai Jun said angrily. “Too bad you didn’t hide well enough. When I investigated everyone present, I found a ghost lurking around you. The answer is obvious then. Damn it! I’ll never see Chiba-san on TV again!”
He hadn’t found a motive for Tsukiyomi Ruri to kill Chiba Rumi, but in his eyes, there was no other suspect worth considering. So it had to be Tsukiyomi Ruri.
However, after venting his righteous fury, Akai Jun didn’t charge forward to attack. Tsukiyomi Ruri’s earlier display of blocking his attack had already shown him he was no match for her. So he chose to retreat.
Even fearing Tsukiyomi Ruri might chase him, Akai Jun waved his hand as he fled, activating an ability that shrouded the already dark alley in swirling mist.
As he fled, Akai Jun didn’t forget to leave a parting threat: “Just you wait! Once I find an opportunity, I’ll definitely kill you, and even kill the people around you, to avenge Chiba-san!”
Hearing this, Tsukiyomi Ruri’s gaze turned cold.
“Did I say you could leave?” Tsukiyomi Ruri slowly raised her hand, black flames coiling around her palm.
She then waved her hand. The flames erupted outwards, shooting with an almost sentient precision directly beside the fleeing Akai Jun. The searing heat scared him so much he instinctively dodged aside, falling flat on his rear.
By the time Akai Jun looked up again, Tsukiyomi Ruri was already standing before him.
“Ruri, how should we deal with him?” Leona asked, hiding behind Tsukiyomi Ruri.
“If I hadn’t arrived in time, you would have completely dissipated. What do you think I should do with him?” Tsukiyomi Ruri said calmly.
Anyone who had tried to kill her or her friends… no matter who they were, there was no need to let them live.
Tsukiyomi Ruri waved her hand. The black flames instantly engulfed Akai Jun. He only managed to let out a single scream before being burned to ashes on the spot.
