Chapter 314: The Soul's Filling (Patreon)

As Geno began to move, the onlookers all went tense. Belle quietly ducked behind Twiggy, just as she used to back when she was using Eous's body.

Yanagi Tsukishiro's hand had also drifted to her hilt without a thought. It was pure survival instinct.

But what Geno did next made everyone's pupils shrink.

There was a wet squelch, the sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh.

Don't get the wrong idea. Geno hadn't gone berserk and turned into some deranged killer to carve up Hoshimi Miyabi. Instead, he had run the blade through himself.

"Ah! Geno!"

The sudden sight terrified Belle. The spraying blood made her fear for Geno, and she moved to rush over and check on him, but Twiggy held her back.

"Calm down. He's fine. Look."

Hearing Twiggy say that, Belle settled a little and watched what Geno did next.

Geno had skewered himself, yes, but the blood that sprayed out didn't splatter everywhere like in some famous painting. It hung in midair as if time had half stopped, and then Tailless absorbed it bit by bit.

"Right, just like that. Since you took the payment, you've got to do the job for me. Got it?"

Geno muttered in a low, strained voice, as if talking to himself, but he was really speaking to Tailless's consciousness.

As if it had understood, Tailless flared with golden light along its blade. Seeing that, Geno pulled it out of his own body.

"All right. Time to say good morning."

The moment Geno finished speaking, golden motes of light began drifting off Tailless's blade. They slowly gathered in midair into two clusters, one large and one small. The small one drifted gently into Hoshimi Miyabi's body, while the large one gradually took shape where it hung.

A charming young woman with long fox ears and her hair in a bun appeared before them all.

"Th-this is...?!"

The uncanny sight dropped every jaw in the place, but Geno just smiled warmly and greeted the woman, whose eyes were still closed.

"Good morning, Aunt Misako."

Hearing that familiar voice beside her, Misako slowly opened her lovely eyes. The first thing she saw was Geno's handsome face.

"Geno, where am I..."

She was still a little dazed when she saw him, but she quickly noticed the others around them and began checking on her own state.

And she found that she was no longer inside the space within Tailless.

"Could this be... Eridu?"

"To be precise, New Eridu."

Misako looked around, not quite able to believe it, and her eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.

Soon she spotted the figure behind her, one both familiar and strange.

"Little Miya!"

The instant she saw Hoshimi Miyabi, Misako lunged toward her in excitement. But as a spirit, how could she touch a physical body? Predictably, she grabbed nothing but air.

"Please, don't get too excited. Miss Hoshimi Miyabi's body is recovering and she should wake up very soon. Until then, it'd be better to settle your emotions a bit."

Geno still wore that same beaming smile, and the wounds on his body were slowly closing.

Luckily, everyone's attention was on Misako, and nobody noticed anything off about Geno.

"Misako... Could you be Section Chief Miyabi's mother, Lady Hoshimi Misako?"

Yanagi Tsukishiro was every bit Hoshimi Miyabi's best friend. She knew a fair amount about the Hoshimi family and the events of the Old Capital days.

But she had always been afraid of touching a sore spot, so she had never brought it up in front of Miyabi.

And looking at that beautiful face, nine-tenths the image of Miyabi's, Yanagi voiced her bold guess.

"And you are..."

After so many years, Misako had finally come back to the world from Tailless, and it felt like waking up in another lifetime. Faced with this figure who seemed to know both her and her daughter, she asked softly.

"This is Deputy Section Chief Yanagi Tsukishiro, your daughter Hoshimi Miyabi's colleague, and also one of her very best friends."

"Ahem. What Geno said is... more or less right."

Beaten to the introduction by Geno, Yanagi flushed. Especially when she heard the words "best friends," her face went as red as the Evil Queen's poisoned apple.

Hm? Is something a little off here?

Back to the point. The moment Misako appeared before her, the only word in Yanagi's mind was shock.

Because Hoshimi Misako had already died back when the Old Capital fell.

"That's right. So what's standing in front of us is the soul of Hoshimi Misako. A ghost, in other words."

Geno was refreshingly honest about it. After he said it, though, it did the others' hearts no favors, especially the girls'.

"I kind of wish you'd lied to us..."

Belle sagged. She'd half expected it, but when the truth was really laid out in front of her, it was still hard to swallow.

So ghosts really do exist in this world!

"A so-called ghost is just something formed from gathered Ether particles, so it's understandable, I guess."

Twiggy had long since gotten used to it. After all, there were two ghosts hiding in her ring.

Yanagi and the others gradually came to accept the genuinely hard-to-accept fact.

"Fine. I'll believe it's real for now. Then can we move forward with Section Chief Miyabi's treatment?"

More than the resurrection of Misako, or rather her return as a ghost, what Yanagi worried about now was Hoshimi Miyabi's safety.

But Geno scratched his head, looking puzzled.

"Treatment? I already treated her."

Seeing everyone's blank faces, Geno explained.

"When I released Aunt Misako just now, there was also a little ball of light, right? That's my treatment plan. Once that light melts into Hoshimi Miyabi's body, she'll be back to normal in no time."

Hearing that, Yanagi had a question.

"If Aunt Misako appeared in soul form, then is that ball of light also some kind of soul?"

Yanagi had spotted the blind spot, and Geno's eyes lit up with praise.

"Exactly!"

Geno clapped his hands. By now his injuries had fully healed, too. He slid Tailless back into its scabbard and explained to everyone.

"I've already filled her soul back in. All that's left is to wait for Hoshimi Miyabi to wake up on her own."

"Soul?"

"Filled back in?"