A woman dressed in a blouse and pencil skirt was standing at the top of the stairs. When Adam and Jiayi arrived, she gave them a glance and carried on singing while rocking the bundle of cloth in her arms.

Adam gripped Jiayi's hand tightly and readied Burrow in case the woman became hostile. Fortunately, she seemed to be too preoccupied with singing the lullaby to be bothered about their presence. She continued climbing up the stairway while cradling the bundle. They followed the woman to a classroom and saw her sit down on the teacher's seat.

"Stay quiet and let me do the talking."

Jiayi obediently nodded.

The pair entered the classroom and the woman remained unperturbed. However, Adam didn't let his guard down and continued holding Jiayi's hand.

"Excuse me, madam. May we have a moment of your time?"

The woman ignored Adam and reached into the bundle with a smile on her lips.

While the woman was caressing the occupant of the bundle, the cloth shifted and revealed what was inside. He was an undeveloped fetus that was about the size of an adult's palm. His head was almost half the size of its body, and his eyes were located on the sides. His tiny limbs were moving in response to his mother's lullaby.

"Eww, what's that ugly thing, is that a baby?" Jiayi made a grimace with her face.

Adam fought the urge to bury his face in his hands.

Meanwhile, the woman immediately turned and glared in her direction. Half a beat later, the fetus shrieked and lunged straight at Jiayi.

Adam used Burrow before the attack reached her and the two of them reappeared in the corridor outside the classroom.

The fetus tried to pounce at Jiayi again but the length of the uncut umbilical cord stopped him from getting too far away from his mother.

Despite the opportunity, Adam held back from retaliating against the fetus. While the woman was simply staring at them and didn't appear to have any inclination to attack, he was fairly certain she would take action if he did. Instead, he burrowed to the front of the school with Jiayi in tow.

"Stay here."

Adam went back to the classroom to check whether the woman was still inside before heading to the classrooms on the ground floor.

Adam uttered an incantation and formed seals with his hands. He then took a deep breath and exhaled while puffing his cheeks. A torrent of fire rushed out from his mouth and ignited the objects inside the classroom. The flames were nothing compared to what Echigoya did on Onigashima but it was more than enough to set the classroom ablaze. He moved from room to room until all of the classrooms on the first floor of this building were on fire.

Before long, the fire spread to the upper levels.

"Aaahhh!"

The woman's screams echoed throughout the school. She tried to escape with the fetus in her arms but the flames obstructed her. Most spirits had a weakness to sunlight, heat, and fire. Not only were the flames hurting her, but it was also hampering her abilities. If she wasn't surrounded by the fire, she would be able to pass through the walls and escape.

Adam didn't stay to watch. He knew she was done for once the fire spread.

***

Nightmare - Urban Legends

Main Objective: Resolve 7 paranormal events (2/7)

Side Objective: Find the missing child (1/1)

Side Objective: Investigate the school haunting (1/1)

***

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Three months later, Adam was drawing on a rectangular piece of paper with his finger. The paper was filled with strange diagrams as well as alien characters that shared some resemblance to kanji but were different enough to indicate it came from a different language system. When the ink started to run out, he used a knife to cut his finger and continued drawing. After a while, he finished the last stroke on the paper.

"Done!"

Adam beamed with pride as he examined the paper talisman—reifu. He succeeded on his first try.

"Sensei, I'm here!" Jiayi barged into his room without knocking as usual.

"Good, you're here. Just in time for my parting gift." Adam handed over the paper talisman. "Place this spirit-ward talisman somewhere in the middle of your home and it'll keep stray spirits away."

"...sensei, are you leaving already?" Her eyes started to well up.

"All good things must come to an end." He patted her on the head. "Don't forget to study the books I gave you when I am gone."

Adam prepared for her a total of 108 books translated from Onmyōdō Fundamentals. The number of volumes ended up tripling because he tried to make the text as easy to understand as possible.

"Wah, d-does that mean I won't be able to eat supper anymore?" Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"...I'll leave you some money."

Despite his best efforts, he didn't manage to progress in his main objective ever since the episode at Jiayi's school. He had already checked out all of the places he pinpointed earlier, but most of them were either a hoax or a misunderstanding. The ones that were actual paranormal events didn't count even after he resolved them.

A few hours later, Adam was on board a cruise ship.

In order to get on the ship without a passport, he had to make preparations. Firstly, he had to get better at using Glamour. He delayed his departure not only to translate the onmyōdō books for Jiayi but also to improve his mastery over Glamour. After months of practice, he was now able to slip by the security checkpoint unnoticed with Glamour. Secondly, he was bringing the kitten with him and the cruise didn't allow pets on board. Sneaking the kitten onboard was easy with Glamour, but he wouldn't be able to keep the kitten from meowing. As such, he started learning how to draw talismans to make a silence talisman.

The destination on his ticket was Tokyo. He had no idea whether there were any paranormal events there. His reason for going there was to collect onmyōdō texts. He wasn't in a hurry to leave this nightmare yet. Of course, if he encountered any supernatural creatures causing trouble while he was there, he would be more than happy to deal with them.

Inside his cabin, Adam was teasing the kitten with a chew toy attached to a stick with a cord. The kitten now officially belonged to him. When he tried to instruct Jiayi on how to take care of the kitten before he left, she persuaded him to take the kitten with him instead. The only problem was he still hadn't come up with a name for the kitten yet.

"Saoirse? No, too girlish. Cinnamon? Orange? Pumpkin? Pumpkin!"

After hearing his new name, Pumpkin started shaking his paws at Adam as if in protest.

"Aww, you don't like the name? Well, too bad, it's your name now."

"Meow!"

Pumpkin tried to resist the tyranny of the despicable oni but the difference in strength between them was too great. After several attempts, he retreated into a corner to lick his wounded pride. However, a tribute of a bag of treats was all it took for him to reconcile with the oni.

After playing with Pumpkin until he fell asleep, Adam decided to leave his cabin for some fresh air. He had been cooped up in there since he boarded the ship. He was feeling hungry too.

When Adam got to the buffet, he was sorely disappointed. Not only was the food bland, but it also lacked variety. Still, he piled food onto his plates because he was starving. He kept eating until the manager politely asked him to leave and not return.

Adam took his time exploring the ship and found the casino. As he had never been to one before, the only games he knew how to play were blackjack and the fruit machine. Seeing as he couldn't cheat with the slot machine, he decided to play blackjack instead. Using his shikigami to spy on the dealer's hand, he managed to win many of the games. However, he kept his winnings to a minimum and even deliberately lost some hands to avoid getting asked to leave again.

Around midnight, he went to the theatre to watch a musical and headed back to the cabin.

The next morning, Adam was woken up by a scream. Naturally, he pulled his blankets over his head and went back to sleep. However, it wasn't long before the pounding on his door woke him up again. Reluctantly, he got up and opened the door.

Two men dressed as cabin stewards were standing outside his door.

"Yes?"

"Good morning, sir. We apologize for disturbing your rest, but there has been a murder on the ship. The captain has asked all passengers to stay calm and remain in their cabins unless necessary. Thank you for your understanding, and we hope you have a good day.

The cabin stewards took their leave and went on to inform the other passengers.