The piece of cloth rolled out a human-like torso shape, but the inside was completely empty. So the question was, what was its true body? The cloth, or the air inside it?
When Taichi used his gauntlet-fist to punch the cloth "face," his fist sank in, feeling like he had hit nothing. That's when Taichi knew things were going to be bad. The face wasn't where its core was hidden! The next moment, the strip of cloth wrapped around Taichi's arm. Thankfully, Taichi wasn't a one-armed hero; he had two hands. So his other gauntlet, shaped like a dragon's claw, easily restricted the cloth to his forearm.
Since it had no substance when punched, it naturally didn't have any powerful attack methods. But for a cloth ghost, the most effective combat method was probably entanglement. It would wrap your whole body up, leaving you unable to move, or it would cover your head, suffocating you. Taichi was lucky that there was only one ghost. If there had been just one more, he might have met his end right there.
After pulling the cloth ghost off his arm and freeing his other gauntlet, Taichi gave up on a conventional fighting style. Instead, he used both gauntlets to grab the cloth ghost by its ends, crumpled it into a ball, and then, with both gauntlets together, smashed it.
I give up on finding the core! I'll just force you to reveal its location!
The method was effective, and the cloth ghost went peacefully. After all, it couldn't even poke a face out before it was smashed to a pulp.
"This way of dealing with it is a little unexpected for me," the Nekomata blinked, looking like it had never seen anything like this before.
It's weird that a cat can make that expression.
"To be honest, I haven't either," Ann said, peeking her head out to look at the scene outside. "But it seems very effective."
"When you're fighting for your life, you can't be limited by formalities," Taichi replied, a slight smirk on his face. He also wanted to use a cooler method. After all, he was showing off in front of a beauty like Ann. But alas, he didn't know any spells or magic, and his only offensive tools were his gauntlets. When his fists couldn't do any damage—it felt like punching cotton—he had no choice but to use this un-dramatic method.
"By the way, it's been half a minute." As soon as the Nekomata spoke, it was picked up by its scruff.
"Master, the outside is clear." Minamoto no Raikou glanced at the useless Nekomata that had submitted to its fate and looked up at Taichi with a slight smile.
"That fast?" Ann asked, stunned.
"You've worked hard, Raikou," Taichi said, noticing that Raikou was a little out of breath. She had truly been fighting with her life for those 30 seconds, or she wouldn't be out of breath. Minamoto no Raikou's expression softened even more.
"...For a second, I felt like I was looking at my mom," Ann said, looking at Minamoto no Raikou's face with a hint of confusion.
"Alright, let's go now," Taichi said, patting the Nekomata's head and turning to Ann. "We have a race against time ahead of us."
At the designated meeting point, Taichi saw a certain trembling pink lump.
"...Yui, were you affected by the first wave or the second?"
That's right, the pink-haired girl with red, tear-stained eyes, who was clinging to Yukino Yukinoshita's arm and wouldn't let go, was Yui Yuigahama. X hadn't found her in the first wave of surveillance footage. It was unclear if her area had no cameras or if she wasn't in Shibuya, where the first wave hit.
"The second wave," Yukino answered for her. "One of Ms. Iwanaga's Yokai found her while searching for you earlier."
"She was brought here because she kept her physical form, just like us," Akane said, looking at Yui with a pitiful expression.
"The Yokai who brought her didn't explain the situation clearly," Kotoko said, scratching her cheek sheepishly. "So this child thought she was captured by a Yokai to be eaten somewhere until she saw Ms. Yukinoshita."
"She cried the whole way. It was so pitiful; her voice is a little hoarse now."
"But she was brought here safely. We should thank the Yokai who brought her here," Taichi said, looking at Kotoko. Yui froze for a second, then looked down in shame. She had been so scared at the time, and when she saw Yukino, her sadness turned to joy, and she completely forgot to thank the Yokai, and she even caused the poor thing to get scolded by Kotoko.
"Oh, you're an interesting one," Kotoko said, raising her eyebrow and looking at Taichi with surprise.
"And that person over there must be the 'new fighter' Mordred mentioned," Kotoko asked, looking at Minamoto no Raikou, who was standing beside Taichi.
"Yes, this is Ms. Raikou," Taichi said, nodding and introducing her to Kotoko.
"First Mordred, and now Minamoto no Raikou... Taichi-kun, are you some kind of special person who can summon fictional beings into reality?"
Given Mordred's inhuman strength that she had shown before, and Minamoto no Raikou, who was also a woman who was able to protect Taichi and Ann on their way here, Kotoko couldn't help but make wild guesses.
"Don't guess randomly. I won't reveal that secret information," Taichi said, taking the stack of katashiro out of his pocket and handing it to Kotoko. "Would you mind using all the Yokai at your disposal who can tell human genders apart to collect the spirits?"
"Sort by gender? Oh, right, the spirits aren't wearing clothes," Kotoko said, hitting her forehead and taking the stack of katashiro. "I'll be sure to tell the Yokai about that."
"And, have you gotten any leads on the culprit's location?" Taichi asked, shifting the topic to a more serious matter.
"We have a little bit of a lead," Kotoko said, frowning slightly. "But the culprit is a cunning one. We suspect there are three possible hiding places for the Hannya-masked person just in Shibuya alone, and more may have popped up after the second wave of fog spread."
"Do we have to go to each one to verify?" Kotoko asked Taichi. "My Yokai might not be able to get into those suspected hiding places, as they're not a combat-focused exploration team."
"Let's split up," Taichi said. "We have two powerful fighters on our side now."
Mordred puffed out her chest, and Minamoto no Raikou gave a faint smile.
"We'll use these two as our core and split up to find the culprit's true hiding place."