Bottom A, Top O - Chapter 148

Entering the building. It was damp, dark, and filled with nothing but the sound of Narukami and Jim’s footsteps. The building was completely abandoned as the ground and ceiling were full of dust.

The air here was also bad. If one had a bad lung, it would not be before long they want to get out.

“Hey, we should go now. We must not get involved in something that’s not our business,” suggested Jim.

However, Narukami did not care as he said, “you can wait outside.”

A woman rushed in a hurry as she left the building. Something must have happened.

His gut also gave him a red flag about this building and as a good Sorcerer. There was no way he was going to ignore it.

The fact this building gave him that was more enough than a reason to investigate what was going on, not only for the woman.

Of course, there was no way Narukami explained all of this to Jim or he might view him as a crazy dude.

Following this line of thought, Narukami thought to himself, still, though, it is going to be hard to fight if Jim is here. Should I show my powers or should I not? I felt a vague Anomaly presence in this building but I do not know where they are.

Narukami paused for a few seconds as he pondered about something, pinching his chin.

After that, he added, I have to make Jim leave me alone but how should I do that? Narukami frowned.

“Jim, do you believe in a superpower?” Narukami abruptly asked.

If I could give him a fright with my lightning, he should be afraid of me and think that I’m a dangerous person. Hence run away from me, tsk, and here I am. I Want to hang out with him. Oh well, I could shapeshift myself to someone else, Narukami silently said to himself as he was let down. He could be compared to an excited child that his parents promised him to bring him to the amusement park but then his parents canceled it due to a sudden job.

The disappointment was immeasurable. Fortunately, not like a helpless kid, Narukami had another way.

“I’m not but I do love to meet someone. Why?” Jim returned the question.

“Now you are,” said Narukami as he abruptly halted his steps.

Right, one thing to be noted: he did not hear Jim’s last words. Only ‘I’m not.’

Jim followed as he stop his pace but he was confused. Either by Narukami’s words and sudden stop.

“What are you talking about?” Jim asked but Narukami did not answer. Through the words that were.

He instead answered it as any man usually does.

Raising his hand to his chest, lightning gradually formed before they were flickering. Lightning crackling noises could be heard.

Tzzz tzzz.

After answering Jim’s question through actions, Narukami did not look at Jim’s face as he closed his palm. Stopping the flickering lightning on his hand.

He also did not utter a word and so, the place became so silent that Narukami could hear his breaths.

As to why Narukami did not look at Jim’s expression was because he knew what it was going to be. A complete fear and shock.

Any moment now, Narukami said to himself as he waited for Jim to run at any second, or at least that was what he thought.

“That’s… so… awesome!” Jim yelled out as his eyes sparkled with anticipation.

“There he goes…” Narukami smiled bitterly before realization dawned upon him. He processed it for a few seconds.

“Just now, what did you say?” Narukami asked as he was rather shocked. Jim was not afraid but instead happy?

What was going on? Did I miss a page? Narukami probably thought so.

For a short moment there, Narukami’s facial expressions returned but they vanished in the next moment. His face became calm after his shocking expression in a short time.

“How do you sound surprised with that kind of face?” Jim pondered with one of his eyebrows raised. Narukami seemed surprised but only his tone, his expression was calm.

Narukami touched his face and cursed inside for this annoying side effect.

“You’re not afraid?” Narukami pondered after a long pause.

“Why would I? Not like you want to hurt me. What makes me curious of all is why would you show me your power? Aren’t you afraid I’m going to tell it to the authorities and have you subjected to a science experiment?”

Narukami touched his chin, “I want to try.”

“Eh?” Jim blurted out as he was completely baffled and confused.

Ah crap, I say it out loud, said inwardly as Narukami realized but he really wanted to be subjected to a science experiment. He wanted them to try to dissect his body. If their scalpel was hard enough to penetrate steel that was.

“Let’s say you told them. Do you think they’ll believe? Aren’t they going to send you to a mental hospital instead?” Narukami said and Jim nodded as he understood.

“That’s right, that does not cross my mind!’ He slapped his head. Next, he retracted his gaze to Narukami with a smile, “Thanks, Narukami!”

Narukami calmly nodded as his response.

“Then again, why did you show me your power?” Jim asked again, for he was afraid that Narukami had forgotten the question.

I can’t answer that I want to scare him away, can’t I? Narukami pondered for a short moment before replying, “there is no need to hide it from you anymore. There is a creature called Anomaly which consumes humans by depriving the latter to succumb to their negative emotions. This results in humans dying miserably.”

Jim was at a loss for words. Something like that could only be found in urban fantasy stories, right? Furthermore, such a creature went unnoticed by many people despite the fact it devoured humans was unbelievable.

Then is that explained the recently missing people? Jim thought to himself. Many people went missing recently and it increased slowly.

A lot of people suspect it had anything to do with the war between two Mafia families yet who would have thought it was more than that?

“Shouldn’t the government do something with it? A lot of people went missing and it’s the highest missing people case in the past fifty years!” Jim said as he was furious.

“How do you know that?” Narukami pondered curiously.

“I looked it up on the internet. The police department or in some articles showed how much the missing people cases had increased. This year is exceeding fifty thousand people!” Jim informed Narukami of information he did not know or to be precise, Narukami expected this but was unaware of the exact number.

“What can the government do even if they know the cause? The creature could only be dealt with by special means,” said Narukami.

Heck, the government did not care at all. If they were, they probably work together with the five organizations to deal with Anomalies!

Not simply help the five organizations cover the case should an Anomaly appear in the public.

The reason was unknown but if Narukami had to guess it, he had one or two in his mind.

“True, have you ever killed one?” Jim asked.

“Of course I have,” answered Narukami rather simply.

“Can you tell me how to do it?” Jim asked again but he realized that asking a person one after another might cause the person to be announced and so, he quickly added, “you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

Narukami shook his head. Just as he opened his mouth to utter a word, footsteps could be heard coming from the next floor.

Jim was alarmed but that could not be said to Narukami. He already felt the presence of some people ever since he entered the building but they were normal people so he did not bat an eye.

Except for one person.

Those people were coming their way.

“We should hide and prepare for an ambush,” recommended Narukami and Jim hurriedly shook his head.

“No way! I have no superpower and never get into a fight!” Jim did not agree with Narukami’s idea.

“Fine by me, just hide! I’ll handle this!” Narukami said. Jim looked around to find a place to hide.

The building had a lot of pillars and so, he went to the farthest pillar as he hid.

Step, step, step.

They went down the spiral stairs as they chatted.

“Damn that woman is so good! Can we get another one for tonight?” One of them said in a rather high tone as he was high-spirited. It was a person with low stature. It was unknown if he’s a boy with an adult voice or an adult with the body of a child.

“Dumbass, if we keep this going. The cops are going to find us and probably lock us again for the rest of our lives. We should get away from here,” said a man beside the high-spirited one. He had a calm expression and was probably the strategist of this group.

“How boring, aren’t you just afraid?” The little dude taunted.

“Your meaningless taunt is the same as your meaningless brain.” The man insulted his friend.

“What did you just say, you bast4rd!” The little one was enraged.

After that, they reached the floor and saw a person standing in the middle of the room with his two hands in his pocket.

His face was flat.

The ground fell silent as they noticed Narukami.