Seeing Hikigaya Hachiman appear right in front of it, the Nightmare Demon did not hesitate and immediately turned around to run upstairs again.
Seeing the spirit still trying to escape, Hachiman covered his sword with spiritual energy, then slashed a sword aura toward it. The sound of the wind slicing through the air behind did not deter the Nightmare Demon's determination to flee.
To Hachiman's slight surprise, it didn't dodge the sword aura but instead took the hit head-on and jumped back up to the upper floor.
"Why didn't it fight back?" Hachiman felt something was off. Even though this spirit was no match for him, it shouldn't be this weak. He quickly pursued.
However, the vast mall perfectly concealed the spirit's whereabouts, and he lost track of it. "System, can I scan?" Having lost the spirit's trail, Hachiman immediately wanted to track it via the system. But unexpectedly... [This dream is being interfered with by an energy, scanning is not possible.]
"Interfered?" Hearing the system's prompt, Hachiman connected this with the spirit's strange behavior earlier of not fighting back.
Could it be that the spirit was using all its power to interfere with the dreamscape, which is why it dared not fight him? This possibility existed, but Hachiman still needed to remain cautious.
Losing the spirit's trace and with the system unable to scan, trying to find the spirit alone in this huge mall was obviously unrealistic.
Therefore, Hachiman decisively chose to go downstairs to regroup with Iroha Isshiki to prevent the spirit from capturing her while he was searching.
Because of the earlier time urgency and the lack of an agreed signal or meeting point, he could only walk around the corridors once, holding his Zan-Ki sword to show his identity. Hachiman believed that with Iroha's cleverness, she would recognize he was the real deal.
Floor by floor, he searched downward. Soon, he reached the first floor. However, Iroha still hadn't appeared.
"Did she just not see me, or has she already been caught?" As he continued searching various rooms, Hachiman's heart grew a little anxious.
Fortunately, it was just a false alarm. Passing by a clothing store, a pile of clothes suddenly stirred. Iroha crawled out from among them and ran over to Hachiman's side.
"Senpai, did you take care of it?" Seeing Hachiman unharmed, Iroha instinctively thought that this spirit was easily dealt with just like the one on the train.
"Sorry, not yet..." But to Iroha's disappointment, Hachiman shook his head, denying her guess.
"I see..." Hearing Hachiman's words, Iroha's previously smiling face immediately fell, replaced by worry.
"Don't worry. Since I'm here, you're naturally safe." Just a quick glance at Iroha, Hachiman guessed what she was worried about.
To ease her concern, Hachiman then brought her into a small shop on the first floor.
"Senpai, why are we here?" Looking at the tiny shop, possibly the smallest space in the entire mall, Iroha asked confusedly.
"Of course, it's to shrink the space." After entering the shop with Iroha, Hachiman turned to face her and showed an apologetic expression.
"Shrink... the space?" Iroha frowned, repeating Hachiman's words. She raised her head to ask more, but as soon as she did, Hachiman struck her neck with his palm.
Her body went limp, and Iroha immediately fainted.
"Though it's just a test, you really can faint inside a dream..." Hachiman carefully caught her so she wouldn't fall to the ground. Then, he gently laid the unconscious Iroha on the floor and used the spell "Shield" to shield the entire shop.
Once everything was ready, Hachiman took out a small speaker from the system space, recorded the phrase "I am currently in a closed playground," set it to loop, and placed it by Iroha's ear.
Then, putting on his earplugs, Hachiman quietly sat to wait for the dream to change.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Nightmare Demon who had escaped by taking a hit from Hachiman had transformed back from black smoke into a vague humanoid form, now
crouching silently in a dark corner on the mall's top floor, quietly planning how to deal with this unexpected exorcist Hachiman Hikigaya.
Though wounded by Hachiman's strike, the Nightmare Demon understood from the injury that Hachiman's strength was far less than that of the other exorcists, and perhaps even weaker than its master! It could win!
This was why the Nightmare Demon hadn't fled from Iroha's dream but instead lingered. After all, the dreamscape was its home turf.
The lack of resistance earlier was only because it hadn't expected an exorcist to suddenly appear in Iroha's dream, catching it off guard.
Now, with full preparation, the Nightmare Demon was confident it could wear down that exorcist inside this mall until exhaustion!
Suddenly, the entire mall began to tremble. "What's happening?!" Jumping up instantly, the Nightmare Demon looked confused as the things around it gradually turned transparent and disappeared.
A few minutes later. Looking at the spirit standing dumbfounded across the playground, Hachiman turned off the speaker, took off his earplugs, and slowly stood up.
"Is that dream demon gone?" In room 1806, Inoue Yasutaka, who had been sitting on the sofa, suddenly opened his eyes. Just now, his connection with the dream demon was severed.
"Another one of that exorcist!" Thinking that the dream demon was already the third lieutenant-level underling lost this month, Inoue's face turned dark, and his hatred for Hachiman increased greatly.
But even so, Inoue did not dare to directly cause trouble for Hachiman. Recently, a terrifying entity suddenly appeared in the Kanto spirit realm.
Three demon god-level spirits were so frightened they hid in their lairs and refused to come out, and one demon king was killed on the spot.
Under these circumstances, even if Inoue hated Hachiman, he could only endure it.
"But though I can't act personally, I can have others do the work..." Thinking that none of the other spirits sent out besides the dream demon had problems, Inoue's expression softened somewhat.
After pacing and thinking in the living room for a while, he left his home and disappeared into the night.