Chapter 40: Declaration of Death
The child with nails in his mouth, and cursed powers...
"What is his name? Where does he live now?" asked Uesugi Kiyoshi eagerly.
The bodyguard glanced at Tomie Kawakami and shook his head.
"Not sure, we just happened to meet on the road, and to be honest, it was Miss Kawakami who started it..."
"Let's not worry about that!"
Tomie Kawakami kept interrupting her, then held Uesugi Kiyoshi's hand and behaved sweetly.
"The president is so nice... We must find that person, and then teach them a lesson!"
"Well..."
Rather than seeking revenge, Uesugi Kiyoshi was more interested in the child himself.
If he guessed right, Souichi was the one cursing Tomie Kawakami.
Though only eleven or twelve years old and still in primary school, this boy who liked to hold nails in his mouth had extraordinary abilities in predicting and cursing.
And bad luck.
Uesugi Kiyoshi had been wanting to recruit him, but he didn't know his full name. Now, the opportunity had finally come. By checking the video at that time, he would naturally find the person.
"Gaoqiao, when did you..."
He called the name of the female bodyguard and was about to ask carefully, but suddenly he noticed something was wrong.
From some unknown time onwards, everyone in the room had lowered eyelids, frozen in place with their limbs in the air, maintaining a motionless posture as if they had turned into stone.
Even Tomie Kawakami fell silent.
The door of the office opened slowly, with no one outside, the lights in the corridor flickering, and a soft, almost imperceptible voice calling out to Uesugi Kiyoshi.
"Come down..."
"...Or, should you come up?" Uesugi Kiyoshi asked tentatively.
In the next moment, he was downstairs.
Although it was getting dark, the square was empty, without a single pedestrian.
The bodyguards who should have been scattered around in bright and dark places are nowhere to be seen.
Across from the main entrance of the Uesugi Society building, there is a brand-new ice cream truck parked at the moment. On the position of the headlights, there are two huge eyes growing, blinking at Uesugi Kiyoshi with curiosity.
The loudspeaker on the roof of the truck keeps repeating shouts.
"Ice cream, ice cream, made with the finest ingredients, so delicious, would you like to try some ice cream?"
Through the open side door of the ice cream truck, Uesugi Kiyoshi sees white ice cream casually piled inside. A little boy is lying on top, licking it eagerly with his tongue, a satisfied smile on his face.
Then the smile melts away, along with his body, turning into new pure white ice cream.
"As you can see, my ice cream is made with the finest ingredients!"
The voice from earlier resounds again, Uesugi Kiyoshi turns around, looking at the person who suddenly appeared beside him.
He is dressed in a white waiter's outfit, wearing a chef's hat, young and handsome, a flawless beauty.
"My ice cream used to be very popular with the children, but now they prefer to drink the beverages you produce. I walked around the city and only found this one customer!"
"Because it really tastes good!" Uesugi Kiyoshi chuckled and stepped back, "Would you like me to get some for you to try?"
"Is this it?"
The young ice cream seller produced a tall glass with a liquid that shone golden and bright. Meeting Uesugi Kiyoshi's eager gaze, he raised the glass and drank it all down.
However, the life-saving branch didn't arrive.
"Strange is what we create, how could it possibly affect us?"
"May I ask who you are?"
"I am Order Demon Ode." The young man placed his left hand on his chest, leaned forward gracefully, and bowed, "I have come to eliminate you in order to maintain world order."
"..."
Upon hearing these words, Uesugi Kiyoshi was unsure of how to respond at that moment.
It's one thing for demons to maintain order, but how did I become a disruptor of order myself?
"We demons feed on human fear, humans are no match for demons, but precisely because of this, it is even more important to maintain order and avoid overexploitation."
Sensing his confusion, Ode began to explain the reason.
"The order I have established is that demons cannot act directly, but rather influence humans indirectly through creating strangeness, in order to achieve sustainable development. Examples are my ice cream truck and Headless Sculpture."
He then looked at Uesugi Kiyoshi, smiling as he spoke, "Speaking of the Headless Sculpture, originally just a small toy placed in the school, now there are almost ten thousand of them, it has really drained a lot of my soul energy!"
So this guy is here for revenge!
Uesugi Kiyoshi suddenly realized.
"Actually, you can modify the rules a bit!" he suggested, "For instance, change the rule for the Headless Sculpture to require it to be handmade."
Ode smiled and asked, "Can babies change their gender after they are born?"
Uesugi Kiyoshi hesitated to speak.
"Humans are supposed to be powerless against the strange and have no way to handle it. It is the basic order, but your appearance has changed everything."
Ode walked around Uesugi Kiyoshi, amazed.
"It's rare to see someone without a soul but with such a powerful soul energy. Because of you, the demon brethren are restrained and dare not create new abnormalities for fear of becoming a laughingstock. If this continues, accidents may happen."
"So, for public and private reasons, I have to get rid of you," he concluded at last.
"But I have also contributed!" When he saw the other raising his hand, Uesugi Kiyoshi's mind raced, and he shouted, "What consequences would Head Balloon cause without me? What would happen to Tomie's future?"
Ode pondered for a moment and said. That guy didn't go through the proper checks and still created such a thing. Let's do this - as a reward, I will give you an extra seven days of life.
"Could you add something else, like answering a few questions for me?"
Ode laughed heartily and nodded in agreement, saying, "Truly, you are the legendary capitalist devil, go ahead."
"How will you kill me?"
"I will return in seven days to absorb your soul energy completely, don't worry, it won't hurt at all."
"Will you harm the people around me?"
"They haven't caused any trouble, so I won't harm them."
"What if you don't manage to kill me?"
"Don't worry, I will be patient and keep trying until you're dead," Ode replied seriously.
While Uesugi Kiyoshi wanted to ask more questions, Ode's figure started to fade away, along with the ice cream truck, slowly disappearing into thin air.
The noisy surroundings returned to normal, but one sentence kept echoing in Uesugi Kiyoshi's ears.
"So, seven days later, goodbye."
