CHAPTER 9: The Fang Covenant

  —"Nice to meet you, Nao. I’m Ren," the master said, raising his hand with a warm smile.

  Nao looked at Ren’s extended hand as if it were a foreign object. She wasn't used to warmth, especially after spending the night in a mental alleyway filled with static and monsters.

  —"Yeah, yeah, nice to meet you," she blurted out, ignoring the gesture and crossing her arms. —"Now, is someone going to explain to me why the runt in the giant jacket can melt heads in my dreams but looks like a bitter ice cube here?"

  Ren lowered his hand without losing his smile, letting out a small laugh. —"Wah-hah-hah! Straight to the point. I like you. You see, Nao, what you experienced last night is your entry into the 'Dream World,' and Yumi—just like everyone else here—is an exorcist," Ren answered cheerfully.

  —"Exorcist?" Nao arched an eyebrow, letting out a skeptical laugh. —"Like in horror movies? Don't mess with me. I didn't see ghosts with bedsheets; I saw things that came out of a nightmare painting."

  —"Oh, little one, a nightmare isn't just monsters," Ren said with a serious tone. —"Not everyone dreams of monsters, do they? Or perhaps everyone is a monster, but it depends on who is looking at them, don't you think?" Ren asked calmly.

  —"What are you getting at?" Nao shot back.

  —"Imagine you are a helpless little girl, and your father physically abuses you during your childhood. On the outside and inside, he isn't a monster with a tail and fangs; no, no. He is a monster that only you can see when you dream," Ren answered with a calm smile.

  Nao froze. Ren’s smile, which had seemed irritating before, now felt deeply unsettling. It wasn't a mocking smile, but the smile of someone who has seen the depths of the human soul and has stopped being afraid of what lies there.

  —"That is the true form of nightmares," Ren continued, taking a step toward her. —"They aren't external invaders; they are echoes of what we live through. You see them as static and ink because that is how your mind tries to process the chaos. What Yumi did last night was prevent that echo from devouring you."

  Nao gritted her teeth, feeling a shiver that had nothing to do with Yumi’s coldness. —"I don't need anyone to save me," she spat, though her voice trembled slightly. —"And certainly not a group of guys who talk like they're in a cult."

  —"I understand. I don't intend to force you, but I want to propose something: come here tonight and you will understand," Ren said calmly.

  Haru was shocked by his master's words; they were so cold, yet so real.

  —"Tch! I just wasted my time," Nao whispered, turning around until she walked away.

  —"Is it right to let her go?" Kumiho asked.

  Ren simply kept his smile fixed in the direction Nao had gone. —"It depends on her. If she truly wants to see the world this way, she will come."

  The atmosphere in the temple remained heavy, as if Ren’s words had left a dense fog that the morning sun could not dissipate. Mugen, who had been watching the scene with his arms crossed, let out a grunt of dissatisfaction.

  —"It's a waste of time!" Mugen roared, kicking one of the stones in the courtyard. —"That girl has more pride than brains. If she doesn't come back, she'll just be another ink stain on the asphalt when a real nightmare finds her."

  —"You were exactly the same, Mugen! Wah-hah-hah!" Ren laughed, turning around.

  Mugen simply blushed a little and said nothing, surprising Haru.

  —"It's time for lunch; let's head inside," Ren said, walking toward the dining hall.

  Lunch passed in an unusual silence. Haru kept glancing at Mugen out of the corner of his eye, still processing that the man who used him as a punching bag could have been just as stubborn and proud as the graffiti girl. Mugen, for his part, devoured his food with an aggressiveness that betrayed his annoyance, avoiding any eye contact.

  —"Master," Yumi spoke, breaking the silence without looking up from his rice bowl. —"Do you think she will return? She didn't seem like the type of person who accepts invitations from strangers after being told her life is an echo of traumas."

  Esta es la continuación del Capítulo 9. He pulido la traducción para que la atmósfera de la Catedral de Espejos sea más envolvente y, por supuesto, he aplicado las cursivas para los pensamientos internos de los personajes:

  Ren set his chopsticks aside and looked at the temple ceiling as if he could see through the wood. —"When the buzzing becomes unbearable, Yumi, the silence of the temple is the only refuge left. She will return because she hungers for order within her chaos."

  Meanwhile, Nao walked through the shopping streets. Everything seemed fake to her. The glow of the shop windows, the laughter of the people... it all felt like a cheap coat of paint covering a rotting wall. Every time she blinked, she saw sparks of color.

  —"'Nightmares', 'Exorcists'... nonsense," she muttered, kicking an empty can.

  She sat on a rooftop to watch the sunset. When the sun went down, those yellow and purple colors appeared, affecting her vision. The buzzing returned, louder than ever, vibrating in her teeth. She remembered Yumi's gaze from last night: that absolute indifference toward the monster that had almost killed her.

  —"Damn it..." She stood up, squeezing the amulet in her pocket. "If this is a trick, I'm going to burn that temple down."

  Nao arrived at the temple and found something she didn't expect. The atmosphere had completely changed. She climbed the temple steps with her fists tucked into her jacket. Upon reaching the courtyard, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was no laughter, no chess, and no tea. They were all sitting there, watching Ren, who simply smiled as a dream butterfly landed on his hand.

  —"Seems like you did decide to join us tonight, huh," Ren said without turning to look at her.

  Nao stayed on the first step, feeling that the temple's atmosphere was no longer that of a cozy home, but that of a war room. Ren's calm, with that butterfly of light pulsing on his finger, made her more nervous than Mugen's shouting.

  —"I said I'd come to burn the place down if it was a trick," Nao replied, though her voice sounded less steady than she had planned. "And the noise in my head won't stop. What the hell is that?" she asked, pointing at the butterfly.

  Ren blew softly, and the butterfly dissolved into golden sparks that floated toward the darkness of the courtyard. —"It's a trail," Ren answered, standing up with silent agility. "A sign that someone, somewhere in this city, is about to dream. Look behind you."

  Turning her gaze to see the moon covering the city, she saw it: the lights were shifting, and the Gates were beginning to appear.

  —"What is that?" Nao asked, referring to the Gates.

  —"We're going to one tonight. Care to join us?" Ren asked, while everyone had already prepared to leave.

  —"I guess I don't have a choice," Nao whispered.

  —"Take this," Ren said, tossing an earring to Nao.

  —"What's this for?"

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  —"For your protection," Ren replied.

  And so, the group headed toward a Gate. Yumi gave his two taps, but it didn't open.

  —"Let me," Ren said, stepping directly toward the door and opening it without a word.

  —"W... What is that!?" Nao asked, terrified.

  —"You always make it look easy," Yumi murmured, stepping toward the threshold.

  Nao was paralyzed. In front of her, where there had once been only a dark alley, a void now stretched out, pulsing with a deep purple, almost black color. It wasn't a tunnel; it was as if space itself had been torn away.

  —"Don't worry, you get used to this little by little, heh... heh," Haru told Nao as the others entered the dimension as if it were nothing.

  Nao gathered her courage seeing Haru enter like that, so she also walked toward the portal. She was overcome by a sensation of dizziness and nausea; it felt as if she were floating in nothingness. The sensation ended as she passed through. The place was no longer the city. They were in the middle of a Cathedral of Giant Mirrors. There was no roof, only an electric violet sky where the clouds looked like strokes of static. The floor was made of a dark glass that didn't reflect their faces, but distorted versions of their own bodies.

  —"What... what is this place?" Nao whispered, touching the earring Ren had given her.

  —"A dream, or rather, an artist's nightmare," Ren replied nonchalantly.

  Nao looked down at the glass floor and let out a gasp. Her reflection wasn't wearing her clothes; she saw herself covered in a black substance that looked like oil, with hollow eyes and an expression of pure anguish.

  —"Don't look at the floor too much," Yumi warned, his reflected image strangely surrounded by chains of ice. "The surfaces here try to show you what the nightmare wants you to believe about yourself."

  [TARGET ANALYSIS: B-GRADE NIGHTMARE – THE SHATTERED NARCISSUS]

  Haru's reflection was surrounded by fire, while Mugen's was a version of himself with no muscle or height. Ren's reflection was absolute darkness, while Kumiho... he had no reflection at all.

  Nao stepped back, panting, as she watched her knuckles stained with that red static that seemed to burn the air. The glass face she had struck shattered on the floor, but the Shattered Narcissus emitted a screeching sound, like a thousand fingernails on a chalkboard.

  And it didn't stop there. From the cathedral's giant mirrors, the reflections of each of them began to emerge. They weren't exact copies, but distorted versions, amplified by their own fears:

  Esta es la conclusión del enfrentamiento en la Catedral de Espejos. He resaltado el contraste entre la eficiencia letal de Kumiho y la actitud infantil de Ren, manteniendo las cursivas para los pensamientos internos:

  Mugen’s reflection emerged from a mirror—a small, thin figure, but with the same expression of rage, brandishing a knife that seemed made of shadows. From another mirror, a figure made of crackling flames with Haru’s burnt face appeared, laughing with a hollow sound.

  Yumi’s reflection, chained and with an aura of ice that made him almost invisible, materialized slowly, his empty eyes looking at them with contempt. For Nao, from the largest mirror, her own reflection emerged—covered in oil with hollow eyes, an expression of despair, and her mouth open in a silent scream.

  As for Ren, it was just his body; nothing had changed, and he simply walked forward.

  —"Kumiho," Ren said with his eyes closed.

  Kumiho instantly leaped with his sanchaku ready to fight Ren’s copy.

  —"Go with the Master; we'll handle this," Yumi told Nao, who was terrified.

  Nao didn’t have time to talk back. So, she ran.

  —"Hey, if you're so powerful, isn't your copy the same?" Nao asked nervously while looking at Yumi.

  —"We shall see," Ren replied calmly.

  Mugen quickly finished off his copy, so it was his turn to face Nao’s shadow.

  —"I hope you’re not as weak as the boy over there," Mugen said, referring to Haru.

  —"So they use elements," Yumi noted, fighting with his shield and spiritual energy.

  —"Master Mugen, on your left!" Haru warned, moving with agility to prevent his flame copy from cornering him against a mirror.

  Mugen let out a grunt. He had just dissipated the remains of his own copy with a sharp strike of spiritual energy when Nao’s oil reflection lunged at him. The black substance hissed, trying to wrap around his legs.

  —"Shut up and concentrate, Haru! If you let that stain touch you, I’ll make you train double tomorrow!" Mugen roared. He looked at the oil copy with a look of disgust. —"And you? You're just a dirty puddle. Be grateful it's me who’s going to wipe you off the map, brat, because you couldn't even handle your own shadow."

  As he threw a punch, his gloves appeared, shattering the shadow immediately.

  Meanwhile, Kumiho only watched Ren’s copy, which just kept walking forward. It didn't use magic or energy; it was a common human. Kumiho simply shot it in the head with disbelief.

  —"Hey, don't make that face!" Ren complained, throwing a tantrum.

  Kumiho holstered his weapon in absolute silence, not a single muscle in his face moving after eliminating Ren’s reflection. To him, it was nothing more than an obstacle removed; it didn't deserve words, let alone an emotional reaction.

  —"You make me look so boring!" Ren complained, waving his arms in a tantrum that broke all the solemnity of the cathedral. —"Even Mugen has a copy with shadow knives, and I'm just... me! It’s unfair, Kumiho!"

  Kumiho looked at him with disbelief, watching him complain like a small child. He kept his gaze fixed on Ren for a few seconds, weapon already away. His face was a mask of stone, but in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but question his master's logic. —He really is a lost cause, —Kumiho thought.

  —"You are a lost cause, Master," Kumiho murmured with his icy voice, ignoring the tantrum and turning toward the center of the cathedral.

  —"You could have at least pretended it was a bit hard!" Ren continued, puffing out his cheeks. —"Mugen destroyed a giant oil shadow, and you just... boom! Zero drama, Kumiho, zero drama!"

  —"Stop saying stupid things, old man, and look ahead!" Master Mugen roared. His spiritual gloves still gave off small red sparks after pulverizing Nao’s shadow.

  Yumi and Haru had also finished their shadows. Suddenly, the entire environment began to tremble. A great glass lady emerged.

  —"Hahaha, it seems you were able to kill my minions," the nightmare screamed.

  But in the next moment, Kumiho mercilessly fired a giant bullet, shattering the lady and killing her in a single strike.

  —"..........."— Everyone stared at Kumiho and the Lady with utter disbelief.

  The echo of the shot rumbled through the cathedral, followed by the crystalline sound of thousands of fragments hitting the floor. The "Great Lady," who just a second ago seemed like a B-Grade threat, was now nothing more than a pile of shimmering rubble.

  —"Kumiho!" Ren shrieked, breaking the silence and clutching his head. —"That was... that was illegal! She was in the middle of her monologue! The lighting was perfect, the trembling was super dramatic! You ruined everything!"

  Kumiho didn't even flinch. He holstered his long weapon with a mechanical movement and began walking toward the exit that was starting to materialize behind the remains of the nightmare.

  —"It was a static target," Kumiho said in his flat voice. —"Drama does not accelerate the exorcism, Master."

  POW!

  Two heavy blows landed—one on Kumiho's head and another in his stomach. It was Yumi and Mugen.

  —"Useless! I wanted to fight!" Mugen claimed, furious.

  Kumiho doubled over slightly from the blow to the stomach, but his expression barely changed beyond a slight furrowing of his brows. He straightened up slowly, ignoring the pain while Mugen kept yelling in his face.

  —"You're a killjoy!" Mugen insisted, red sparks from his gloves still flickering with frustration. —"I've been putting up with the brat and the old man all day just for you to come and end the fun in a second! Next time, I'm throwing you at the nightmare!"

  Yumi, who still had his fist clenched after the blow to Kumiho's head, nodded with icy seriousness. —"Combat analysis required observing the Crystal Lady's patterns. You ruined it, Kumiho."

  —"That’s right, that’s right! See, Yumi, you actually understand me!" Ren celebrated, switching from comedic tears to a triumphant smile in a heartbeat. —"See, Kumiho? Even the boys wanted to see a show. Wah-hah-hah!"

  Nao watched the scene from a few meters back, completely baffled. She couldn't believe these people, who moments ago were surrounded by monsters and projections of trauma, were now fighting over who got to "hit" the nightmare.

  —"Are you... are you serious?" Nao blurted out, her voice still a bit shaky. —"That thing almost killed us all and you're angry because it was 'too fast'? You’re crazy! All of you!"

  —"Well, yes, but it was a B-rank nightmare; it wasn't that strong," Ren said calmly.

  Nao blinked, incredulous. —"'Not that strong'? That thing was three meters tall and surrounded us with deformed versions of ourselves!" she exclaimed, pointing to the crystal remains already starting to evaporate into a violet mist. —"Your standards for 'strong' are totally rotten!"

  Mugen turned around, ignoring Kumiho for a moment to lock his gaze on Nao. His gloves vanished in a burst of red sparks, revealing his bandaged hands.

  —"Listen, brat," Mugen growled, stepping toward her until their faces were just inches apart. —"A B-Rank is strong when there’s only two of us, it’s true. But with all of us together, it's child's play."

  —"You get used to it... I think," Haru told Nao.

  Nao let out a snort, looking away from Mugen’s intensity. —"'Child's play'... sure. I wish my childhood games had included less static and fewer talking mirrors."

  Ren began walking toward the center of the cathedral, where the Crystal Lady's body had disintegrated. The violet sky began to flicker, losing its electric glow. The dimension was losing its anchor.

  —"Well, mission accomplished," Ren said, stretching his arms upward as if he were coming out of a yoga class and not a nightmare dimension. —"Haru, Yumi, help Nao with the dizziness from the return journey. Kumiho, stop bleeding internally from Mugen's hit."

  Then everyone returned the way they had come, and Nao followed them.

  The next morning, while everyone was having breakfast, Nao was also sitting there. No one said anything, and only Haru wanted to ask.

  —"Uh... Master? What is Ms. Nao doing here?" he asked, confused and nervous.

  Ren, who was eating with gusto, swallowed his food. —"I don't know, she's been here since this morning."

  —"Eh?" Haru's eyes widened in surprise.

  —"I'm Nao, and..." she started to turn red, "...and I want to be an exorcist..." she said, embarrassed.

  Everyone maintained their composure, except for Ren, who was delighted.

  —"Welcome," they all said at once.

  Nao just smiled a little upon hearing them.

  !Hao, I’m Hann. ??