Chapter 24

Inside the Returning Bath Facility, Kizuki is looking at the ghost-youkai hybrid. The low mutterings of this creature was barely heard, muffled by the sounds of a running shower.

Kizuki, with undisguised disdain evident on his face, reached a hand out to the Akaname.

It was preoccupied with the locker, with it's clumsy fingers trying to it open, it hadn't notice the simmering anger of the nearby rokurokubi.

With one swift motion, Kizuki's hand grasped it's greasy head in an iron grip. It let out a quick yelp as it was forcibly dragged by the face outside of the building.

A few seconds later, a wet figure clad in only a towel suddenly appeared where they once were. The girl was in the shower only moments prior minding her own business, until the sound of the yelp took her by suprise as she rushed to find it's source, only to be met with a now quiet room, and a scratched locker that contained her belongings.

One look at the scene and she had an inkling as to what happened.

The girl then decided to review the security cameras of the locker area to verify what had transpired. She opened the locker, put on her clothes but paused as her gaze fell upon a ribbon. She shook her head to refocus herself and placed the ribbon inside her school bag.

Meanwhile, High in the sky.

Kizuki was standing on a small platform made of his heads. Infront of him is a scared Akaname, whose trying his best not to fall because of the heads under his feet kept shifting around.

"What the?! Who are you and why are you doing this?!"

His shouts were only met with the disgusted gaze of Kizuki. This unsettled him but he was not willing to back down in a show of intimidation.

"Look man, just put me back down and we won't have any problems alright?!" He barked out. He waited a few seconds before a reply came.

"...Still drunk on that newfound power of yours, pitiful ghost?" Kizuki softly said as he looked upwards to the sky. "It's a shame that the moon is shy tonight."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He asked, confused. "And what did you just call me?! That's it! You're dead, you hear me!"

He lashes out, clawed hands outstretched and his tongue extended. Halfway through the jump, a head underneath his trajectory jumped out. It crashed into his chest and sent him back to his initial position.

"Are you prepared to be erased?" Kizuki asked in calm anger. He previously thought that taking care of the miasma catalyst would be a quick endeavour. But instead, he found a pervert wanting to break into a girl's locker. In addition, he senses the magic of his ribbon inside said locker. He quickly figured that the locker belonged to Kuroko, his coworker.

Because of his early upbringing surrounded entirely by the women of Gensokyo, --Save for Shinomori and Rinnosuke, the only two exceptions-- Kizuki has been raised to NOT being a pervert. Furthermore, Kizuki also has memories of his first life. He remembers that most of the time, the fate of perverted characters are being beaten up either by women, by fans or the general public. As a non-masochist, the natural choice was to be a decent human bei- a decent youkai.

Not to mention that he is very similar to Sekibanki. Kizuki heavily values the bonds he made with his newfound friends. Seeing someone having lecherous intent towards someone close to him was reason enough to get angry.

With all these factors combined, Kizuki was short of simply blasting him into nonexistence. The only reason he hasn't done so was because he was still above Tokiwadai and an explosion of heads or a beam of head lasers would be a like a beacon in the night sky.

That's why he opted for a more subtle solution.

From underneath his capelet, he raised his hand holding a small red tassel connected to a small golden bell. It was plain, with neither inscriptions or embellishments, it was simply a golden bell whose size could easily make someone mistake it for an earring.

These were one of the things he found from the abandoned shrine when he found himself in this time period. At first, he didn't understand why he brought back all of those things, he was simply following his intuition. Only after a few months of studying and understanding magic did he come to have slight comprehension.

The small golden bell with a red tassel, the broken circular mirror, the prayer bracelet with a few golden beads and the hamaya (A religious arrow) with a golden arrowhead were items with a budding consciousness.

It is a common belief that items reaching their 100th year anniversary of their creation would gain life, turning into a tsukomogami, but the truth was that it had many other strict requirements depending on the item itself.

Soaked in the residue of the shrine's ambient spiritual energy for who knows how long, then soaked with the spiritual energy that Kizuki naturally exudes for the past few years, was enough to ignore certain hurdles.

Kizuki took them along with him from the shrine as he instinctively knew that they were of his kind. Like how a human would at least be concerned if they found an abandoned newborn baby.

In Kizuki's case when he found out and decided to keep them, the largest deciding factor to his decision was Kogasa Tatara who was also a tsukomogami. Kogasa was close to his sister, a lot closer than that of Kagerou and Wakasagihime, which allowed for more chances to interact with him.

She cared deeply for other tsukomogami, and this also seeped into the Rokurokubi siblings.

It would take some time before the items get a complete consciousness, but that doesn't stop Kizuki from feeding them occasionally. Their vessels are small, not to mention their still budding souls, they cannot handle too much sustenance so he only gives them a little from tine to time.

The bell was the oldest among them, and it was capable enough to handle small-fry like the Akaname.

Aided by Kizuki's will, a strong suction force was generated from the bell. The instinct of the Akaname flared, warning him of the danger. He tried to jump off the ledge of the heads, willing to gamble on the slim chance of survival from Falling from great heights relying on his 'body', but was unsuccessful as the platform he was standing on was made entirely of the heads created by Kizuki.

The heads rolled him closer to the bell. As he looked closer, he barked out empty threats of pain and agony. When those failed, he then tearfully begged to be let go, promising to be better. Until his form finally touched the bell, he screamed in agony.

His wails fell on deaf ears, for the winds of the night sky muffled the sounds of his suffering.

Kizuki watched silently as the Akaname was devoured. His gaze of disgust was replaced with one of softness, looking at the bell while it let out a soft chime as he took it back underneath his capelet.

He took a deep breath of cold air, and let it out slowly. Knowing that it's all over, he flew back to his dormitory while enjoying the night sky.

During the entire ordeal, not once did it cross his mind that he went overboard with how he dealt with the matter.

The Akaname was a pervert, and who knew how many others girls he preyed on.

Physical pain can only go so far to spiritual beings, mental trauma and psychological scars are optimal for punishment to make them suffer. Which was why he was deliberately slow in sucking him into the bell.

Kizuki is the same, his body heals fast. Small broken bones can heal within twenty-four hours, but that was passive healing from two years ago. He hasn't sustained any injuries to the same degree since then so he hasn't have any idea to how fast it is now.

His mind on the other hand, is not as strong. It isn't weak per se, but it's just that even with his past life experiences, his mind is still influenced by his body.

Leaving the mind increasing unstable for too long is bad for a human, but for a Youkai, it could be a matter of life itself.

An example would be Kogasa. Her true body is the umbrella and the humanoid body is one she created. If she left her mind unstable for a certain amount of time, the humanoid body would disperse.

For the Youkai whose true body was the humanoid form itself, this could lead to becoming an abomination or worse, disappear.

A prime example would be The Hanako.

An urban legend of a little girl haunting school toilets. She was popular enough to not worry about fading into nonexistence, but both her legend and her child body has left her mind immature and weak.

She feared her own death during the 'Downfall'. In her fright, she took the drastic measure of absorbing the other urban legends in the same school.

It was a drastic measure, one that wasn't needed to begin with, but to her, that wasn't enough. She left her home ground and absorbed more outside.

She devoured any of who she came across until eventually, she became an amalgamation of numerous others.

The price she paid to "stay alive" was her own self. 'She' became 'it'.

The danger 'it' posed was no small account.

There were those who tried to exorcise or purify her. Those who tried talking to her in hopes of her sanity coming back. Those who tried sealing her.

None succeed to do so, until one day, she simply vanished.

No one knew what happened to 'it' after that. But her story became a cautionary tale for all supernaturals.

This was something that Kizuki was told about by Reiko-nee. She was old friends with Hanako and it saddened her deeply to lose her friend in such a manner. She warned Kizuki, and all her other friends, to take care of their minds and to never to know your limits when absorbing something or someone. For their mental health is a lot more important than their own bodies.

Taking this into account, when Kizuki Finally arrived to his dormitory, he chose not to sleep. Instead, he picked up a brush and continued painting his unfinished work.

This is one of his hobbies that does to relax. The other hobby he has is creating his own sake --It is illegal for anyone less than twenty years old to purchase alcohol let alone a middle schooler-- to drink during the full moon.

His room is decorated with his own works. The themes for his paintings have always been Gensokyo, for Kizuki has been getting increasingly homesick over the years.

The sceneries of mountain of mountains and rivers, of people and bustling in activity, to the portraits of friends and family. These paintings have already long been known by others like Chiyo and Nezu. In sympathy, they've let it be, only reminding Kizuki to be careful since someone might find loopholes with the paintings and the 'official story' on paper.

If someone did ask, he would only say that it was a dream, or a flash of inspiration. It was, after all, hard to find the authenticity in the blurry memories from childhood, and most people would have the tact not to ask further with regards to more sensitive subjects.

A few hours has passed and Kizuki gently put down his paint brush. He walked over to his bed while taking off his capelet before unceremoniously laid down on the bedside.

He turn his head to look at his latest work, a cozy scene of him and Sekibanki leisurely drinking tea. If they were the same age, people would mistake them for twins. The only other difference between them was that he has sanpaku eyes.

Kizuki was homesick. That was something that he was no longer able to deny and it only grows. Even the letter left to him by Shinomori was no longer able to ease his thoughts of worry and anxiety.

If it was the him before, He would've thrived in this solitude, but the connections he made in this life has spoiled him.

His gaze wander through the rest of the paintings scattered all over the room.

The festive atmosphere of the monthly gatherings, The chilly waters by the misty lake, The classroom at the temple school, Playing by the riverside, helping out at Rinnosuke's shop...

Kizuki sighed and slowly closed his eyes.

'Leave the bad thoughts and sleep. At least in dreams, anything is possible.' He thought as he slowly succumbed to the mattress's soft embrace.

Sleeping away the last few hours of the night, he hopes that the lull of the night would reset his mood by the time he wakes up.