Matsuo trudged to the front door and fasten the dozens of locks latched on it. Then, he diligently bolted the locks on the windows, kitchen door, living room door, and finally, his bedroom door.
He climbed into bed and looked up at the ceiling.
All the lights in the room were left switched on. They illuminated his bloodshot eyes and the dark circles hanging heavily beneath them. Even with the lights turned off, you could see how awful he looked.
Every crack and gap that was in the bedroom had been stuffed with newspaper or tissue paper. Even so, Matsuo felt that a pair of green eyes would appear.
Exhausted, he eventually fell into an uneasy sleep.
He woke when he heard a crisp voice calling for him.
"Matsuo, come play with me."
"Matsuo, can you hear me?"
"Matsuo, let"s play one more round, shall we?"
Matsuo fought to lift his heavy eyelids.
"Who"s there? Who"s calling me?" he murmured.
When he finally opened his eyes, he made out Momo"s figure in front of him, rubbing the top of its head against him.
"Momo? Why are you here again?"
"Matsuo, I"m here to play with you," the ginger cat smiled, eyes sparkling with joy, "Matsuo, you finally understand what I"m saying!"
"I...I understand you?" Matsuo spoke slowly, brows knitted together.
He lifted his head and looked at his reflection in the mirror.
The image staring back was a nightmarish version of himself. His face was pallid and waxy, eyes glowing with a faint, green glimmer. The corners of his lips were turned up in a mocking smile.
Matsuo jumped backward in fear. He thought his back would hit the wall, but he fell through it and landed on the street instead.
He looked down at his body.
"I...I"ve become a ghost?"
He heard a door open. He turned his head towards it the sound. A man had swung open the room door. Exhaustion marred his facial features. The bags under his eyes were so swollen they looked like bruises.
"Why? Why does he get to be alive while I have to be a ghost?"
There was a ferocity in his expression. The green glow in his eyes grew brighter. He edged forward, looking through a crack in the wall to spy on the Matsuo that was still in the house.
The Headless Horseman pulled both arms outwards and backwards, hurtling himself up 12 floors, eyes locked on the spirit of the teenage girl on the roof.
"S**t!" she cursed, quickly beckoning the last of the spirits towards her.
They formed a wall of protection around her.
She was fast, but the Headless Horseman was faster. Before anyone could see what he was doing, he had appeared next to the girl.
"Gotcha!"
She blanched visibly as the spirits lunged at the Horseman.
"There"s no point fighting me," he smiled.
He raised a hand and stretched five fingers, then clawed at the air. In an instant, a spark of golden light appeared and expanded, bursting the spirits that were coming his way.
He turned to face the spirit of the teenage girl. There was an invisible force that blossomed around him.
He cut to Elizabeth"s power.
"Deprive all five senses."
"Is.h.i.+da is unreachable."
"The kamikaze spirits have been destroyed."
"The little girl and her friends have been saved."
"All hostages have been rescued."
"All spirits are gone."
"Invisibility, teleportation, force fields, telekinesis, superhuman reflexes and a heck of a ton of experience in superpower combat."
"He can probably cause more damage than a missile, can"t he?"
"He is a monster."
Matsuo shook his head gravely, watching the battle unfold below."
"I"m glad I"m up here in the sky. If he gets his hands on me, he"ll probably crush me to bits."
He was hovering hundreds of meters above ground, a human figure floating in the ink black sky. He had been up here all along, right from when the first attack against Xiao Yu and Zhao Xue began.
He was not just a spectator. He was the mastermind. Every spirit and every a.s.sail was his single-handed doing. Even the spirit of the teenage girl was his puppet. He had lost control of her when two red specks of light appeared in the empty s.p.a.ce where the Horseman"s head should have been.
Matsuo"s head was spinning. Since the Horseman"s appearance, he had been coming up with ways to defeat him. Unfortunately, none of his attempts had worked.
He knew now that the gap between himself and his opponent was far too large. There was no way to beat him tonight.
Matsuo sighed, "It"s over."
He could not help the disappointment that bubbled in his chest. He had worked very hard to get to where he was today, but that was all going down the drain.
"But that"s alright. A lot of people still owe me money. As long as I"m still alive, I"ll have countless of chances to try again. Till next time, Headless Horseman."
As Mats...o...b..gan to glide away, a series of explosions sounded from the ground. Each boom was louder than the one before.
His eyes widened as he looked below. "What?"
A long and thin black shadow was charging rapidly towards him, like a flash of dark lightning.
"It"s the Horseman" Matsuo was beginning to panic for the first time, "How did he know I was here?"
Zhao Yao had expected that the real teenage girl would appear after her spirit form had been robbed of her senses. When that did not happen, he suspected that she was not the apostle behind this mess.
He squinted his eyes and began studying the surroundings carefully. Armed with superhuman vision, he could see the black spot that hovered above them far away.
Zhao Yao fetched up Sphynx cat from the belly. The muscular cat raised him easily, as if he was lifting an onion, not a human being 20 times his size. Then, he catapulted him into the sky like a cannonball.
"G.o.ddammit," Matsuo seethed.
He quickly dodged the incoming Horseman, whom zoomed past him into the dark of the night.
Matsuo was just about to heave a sigh of relief when a column of golden light cut through the sky and coiled around him.
"Dematerialize!" Matsuo commanded, instantly reducing his tactile form to an incorporeal one.
He would not be able to touch or be touched now. He would be unable to use his other powers in this state, but he would be safe from all physical attacks, including the beam of light that had held him in place.
Matsuo slid through its grasp easily, falling towards the ground.
He let out the sigh that was caught in his throat. The distance between himself and the Horseman grew greater and greater.
"See you next time, Headless Horseman," he smirked.
He was still falling, but that did not worry him. He was not going to hit the ground and go splat. Instead, he would enter the underworld, where no human would be able to catch him.
His gloating came to an abrupt end when time came to a standstill.
Zhao Yao planted both feet firmly on the golden beam that Ares had created. He used it like a bridge to get to the place where he had caught Matsuo.
He stood at that spot and used his hands to measure the distance.
"He probably went that way," he concluded.
Zhao Yao redeemed the ghastly cat princess dress, then placed three dimension doorways in the path that his opponent should be on.
When time resumed again, Matsuo was still in the process of falling towards the ground. He was still gloating over his escape from the clutches of the Horseman.
The smug smile was wiped off his face when everything went pitch black for a moment. When he could see again, he found that he had entered a strange dimension.