Volume 4, Chapter 3: Sunekosuri / No One Can Predict the Future Part 17-22

This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu

Part 17

After leaving the fancy inn and returning to the rental car, Mai-san said the following.

“The enemy never gave her name and she sealed the lips of the one connection we had: Udou Itsuki…or his body double, I guess. It’s easy to focus on how she kept talking about going on the attack, but she was definitely making sure to get rid of any information we could use to track her down. If we don’t settle this before she can escape, we’ll always be in danger of attack.”

“Th-then why was she acting so belligerent?”

“So she could escape to safety while I went on the defensive. The most obvious example was ‘Don’t think you will survive to see the dawn.’ Someone who was actually afraid would probably hole up in a building, seal up the windows and doors, and wait until dawn. Meanwhile, she would have vanished and could wait until a month or year down the line to kill them. But I’m not going along with that.”

The way these people always had a secret plan or two behind what they said made my head spin.

I felt exhausted, but my only choice was to ask a question.

“What are you going to do now?”

“To successfully vanish, she’ll be rushing around to destroy any hint that could lead back to her. In that case, we can run into her by getting to one of those hints ahead of her. That’s where we can kill her.”

This was a race against time. To arrive ahead of her, we would need to get moving faster than her. It would be too late by the time she had destroyed all of the evidence.

And once again, these people worked on the assumption that they would kill their opponent. I just couldn’t keep up.

“Anyway, the biggest and most obvious hint would be the Aburatori. If she directly assembled the Package, the idiosyncrasies and traits of the assembly could give away her personal information. As she said, this is a small industry. She’d definitely want to destroy that if she’s planning to vanish here.”

“I can’t quite picture the situation.”

“She put together a separate-style Package. That means removing the central Youkai will destroy all of the Packages it was used for. So if you wanted to completely destroy everything as quickly as possible, what would you do?”

“You mean use some kind of ridiculous technique to kill a deadly Youkai that can’t be killed even if you stab or shoot it?”

“Anyone in this business should be able to kill a Youkai.”

You make that sound so easy.

Just so you know, I’m a canine Youkai myself! Tremble tremble!!

“In that case, the issue is where the Aburatori is located. She was probably tricking the body double to keep this whole thing secret and she can’t leave such a dangerous Youkai out in the open. It’s probably locked up somewhere or kept in a state similar to hibernation.”

“Are you saying there’s a secret base or something hidden in Hakone?”

“That would actually stand out too much.” Mai-san sliced my idea in two. “When smuggling drugs, you can slip them into the bag of an unsuspecting tourist. Even if the drugs are discovered, you can still escape. That’s how a professional treats anything truly dangerous. I’d say the Aburatori was secretly thrown in the attic or basement of some normal person who has no connection to the occult.”

“B-but if she’s going to swiftly destroy that evidence…”

“Look at this.”

Mai-san turned her handheld device toward me.

It displayed an article from an online news site.

“Mysterious fires in the new urban region of Hakone. Three homes completely destroyed. Gasoline residue was discovered on the exterior walls, so the police are investigating it as arson.”

“Very unnatural. These timely fires are almost asking me to investigate them. And while I’m digging through empty rubble, she’ll be leisurely finishing off the Aburatori.”

“That’s why she did this? Y-you have to be joking!! The people who lived there lost their homes and some might have died!!”

“We can discuss morality later. To look at this another way, she thinks I’ll outdo her if she doesn’t go this far. That means our target must be somewhere pretty obvious. Somewhere that would stand from just a glance at the map.”

As she spoke, Mai-san opened her device’s map service. She also called up the locations of the fires in the residential district of Hakone’s city area.

It looked like that area dealt more in selling ready-made homes than renting out apartments.

“Sunekosuri, what stands out most to you?”

“E-eh? W-well, the entire place is laid out neatly like a chocolate bar, but I guess somewhere with an unnatural amount of land would stand out most. For example…”

“Oh, but no choosing the parks. If the place has no clear owner, you can’t accuse the owner if something goes wrong. In other words, it has to be a privately owned building.”

“Th-then here maybe?”

I casually pointed my front paw at a building.

“Um, Green Leaves Home? A nursing and welfare facility? Eh?”

“In other words, an old folks home. It was built half a year ago, so it’s almost brand new. I don’t know when the Aburatori decoy project started, but someone could have dug a space under the floor during construction and created a secret space not even the owner knows about. In other words, she could have done whatever she wanted.”

“So the person behind all this will be going there? To destroy the evidence by killing the Aburatori? B-but then…”

“Right.” Mai-san cheerfully nodded. “Let’s stake the place out to see what she does. Once we know what methods she uses, killing her will be easy.”

For an instant, my brain refused to understand what she meant.

Eh?

You mean…um…what you’re saying is… To sum it up…!!

“W-w-w-w-wait! I don’t know who this enemy is, but she’s coming to this facility if we don’t do anything, right!?”

“That’s right.”

“She dumped gasoline on and burned down innocent people’s houses just to throw us off her trail! Can she really kill this hidden Aburatori with a single attack? Because…because if she gets into a large-scale battle with it, what will happen to the old men and women staying there!?”

“It doesn’t matter if they get caught up in this. Our enemy doesn’t have time either, so she isn’t going to considerately sneak in or anything. She’ll probably pretend to be a home invader and go around killing people. If she steals some random bankbooks and seals, the police will be fooled. And if she later withdraws some money and exchanges it overseas, they’ll think it was the work of a foreign group.”

That’s not the point.

That’s not what I’m talking about!

You don’t get it at all!!

“If you know that, how can you suggest we just watch!?”

“It’s not like I’m killing them myself.”

“Those old men and women are completely innocent!! Are you just going to sit idly by while they’re killed!?”

“If I don’t, I won’t know what the enemy can do.”

I distinctly felt my mind shake.

Why couldn’t she understand something that anyone should know without being told?

And why was someone like that in a position where she held in her hands the lives of everyone in that facility?

“Um, Sunekosuri. It goes without saying, but I didn’t enter this world because I wanted to be some righteous hero. Did you really think I wouldn’t get civilians involved? What about that UN Under-Secretary-General? Was he a villain?”

“…”

“You can think what you want, but I don’t follow those rules. I take the actions necessary for a certain victory and sometimes that process will just so happen to save civilian lives. However, that doesn’t have enough value to leave the path of certain victory.”

Ahh…

Most likely, she was overwhelmingly right. In this small industry at least. Idealism meant nothing here. You would never win, you would never survive, and you would never stop having everything taken from you. I had known that. Even my wife had suddenly vanished one day and I hadn’t found her no matter where I looked. I didn’t think something so unreasonable could be explained away while sticking to idealistic ideas. That was why I had entered a dangerous organization like Hyakki Yakou in the first place. I had been taught all this by the very thing that had brought me here.

But…

Even so…

“To hell with that, you damn roach. Do you have any idea what you’re saying?”

A painful silence fell over the rental car.

I had said something decisive.

I understood that and because I understood it, I opened my mouth again.

“Do you think you’ll end up on the top of the world if you act like some kind of superhuman and look down on everyone like that? You’re taking the world too lightly. Your position doesn’t rise just because you look down on someone else. You haven’t gained anything.”

“Sunekosuri.”

“Are you afraid of putting in any actual work? Are you afraid of having a clear loss thrust in your face if you take on an actual challenge like protecting those old men and women but fail? Is that why you don’t even try and minimize your losses!? If so, you’re just laughable. You aren’t protecting anything. Not one thing!! You let the numbers mislead you while you abandon what matters most!!”

“Sunekosuri.”

I didn’t know if it was the reflection of the moonlight entering through the dark car’s window or if it was something else, but definite light filled her two eyes as she silently looked at me.

“You can pick a fight with me here if you want, but Hakone is a battlefield now. The rule about Youkai not dying doesn’t apply here. …Are you sure you understand that? You aren’t thinking some mysterious power is going to neatly settle everything in the end, are you?”

“…”

“You may feel like god is on your side right now and you might mistakenly think a righteous power will reside within you because you made the right decision, but that’s nothing but kind noise. If you continue on like this, you’ll find yourself surrounded by enemies. You’ll turn around, but you won’t find anyone there and no one will give you any help. The source of your power is a hollow delusion. Do you understand that?”

“I do.”

I was a Sunekosuri.

I had no cruel power to kill people like a Yuki Onna or Shichinin Misaki. I looked like a small dog and all I did was rub up against the shins of passing travelers. I knew just how dangerous it was for such a tiny and powerless Youkai to head out alone.

“But I am standing here. Whether by coincidence or inevitability, I am here now. No matter how weak or puny I might be, I can influence the overall situation now that I’m standing on the stage. That possibility remains, so the rest is my problem. You have no right to tell me what to do!!”

“Is that so? Well, if you do understand, I won’t stop you.”

Mai-san rolled down the passenger side window. There was nothing more to say, so I leaned out the window and entered the Hakone night.

I was certain she was not as bad a person as she claimed to be.

If she was truly living a life free of bonds like this mysterious enemy of ours, she would have no reason to choose her targets so carefully. While disguising it as a failed unexploded ordnance recovery or a sudden volcanic eruption, she could have blown away the enemy along with the entire city of Hakone with no concern for the civilians or G20 leaders. It sounded absurd, but with her power and skill, it would have been a piece of cake.

But she did not do that.

No matter what anyone said and even if she mocked the idea herself, she drew a line between who she would kill and who she would not.

But she had not noticed that fact herself. And right now, she was trying to crush that small bud underfoot without ever noticing it was there.

Even if it was temporary and forced on me by my higher ups, I was her partner.

I could not allow her to crush that small bud. And to do that, I had to protect the old men and women of the old folks home from our enemy!

Part 18

I could not rely on the great power of Hishigami Mai.

I had to fight someone of equal or greater power on my own.

The situation was hopeless.

In fact, my specs were no different from a small dog’s, so even arriving at the residential area in question would be difficult. I approached a truck waiting at a light in the dark city, made a few failed jumps, and finally gathered all my effort and willpower to climb up onto the back of the truck.

On the way, I was nearly taken in a completely different direction, but I moved to different trucks a few times before finally reaching my destination.

I was met by such silence that it felt like the world had been destroyed.

The night was pitch black.

My vision blurred and it was likely due to more than just a Youkai’s dislike of modern cities. There was some unknown presence here and it was on a level to instill fear even in a Youkai like me.

Even this late at night, it was strange to find no lights whatsoever. I felt the same sharp aura as when the electricity was cut off before a SWAT team barged in on a criminal barricaded in a building. Had the enemy already arrived? Would I really make it in time?

For the time being, I ran along the asphalt road to reach the Green Leaves Home.

The grounds were smaller than a school’s. They were closer to the size of a kindergarten. The well-maintained lawn contained a few pieces of playground equipment and the sort of grill set found at campsites. They may have been for when the residents’ grandchildren visited.

A quick look around showed no signs of broken windows or doors.

Deciding I had arrived first, I rang the front doorbell. More specifically, I began jumping again.

Kh… Hitting the button with my front paw is surprisingly hard!!

After a while, a few lights came on inside the building and slippered footsteps approached the door.

When the door opened, a short old woman stepped out.

“Oh? What do you want at this hour, little Youkai?”

“I am…”

I just about named myself, but quickly realized something.

What would I gain by identifying myself as a powerless Sunekosuri?

I rethought my plan and gave a meaningless snort.

“I am a Youkai that predicts the future.”

“Oh, my.”

“A tornado is coming! A huge disaster is coming! In just a few minutes, it will pass through here. If you understand, then please wake everyone and evacuate. A rectangular portion of the lawn has been cut out and there’s an underground space there, right? That should work as a tornado shelter.”

“Oh, my, my. That is a problem. We need to tell the neighbors too.”

“Hurry!! I’ll go tell the neighbors!!”

When I urged her on, she looked troubled but still moved back inside the facility. Despite the late hour, the thirty to fifty old folks obeyed my instructions. It may have been their age that let them trust the words of a Youkai like that.

“Hurry! I don’t know if it’s a storehouse or what, but there should be a door in the yard leading underground. Please head there!”

“Oh? Aren’t you a Sunekosu-…”

“Hurry, hurry!! The tornado will be here soon. Woof woof!!”

One of the old men just about saw through my lie, but I silenced him with pure momentum. Right now, I was an ominous canine Youkai that predicted disasters.

After making sure they had all made their way below the yard, the previous old woman began to close the door from the inside, but she stopped for a moment.

“What about you? There’s a storm coming, isn’t there?”

“A tornado is coming, but don’t worry. I may not look it, but I am a Youkai and I still have work to do. I need to inform as many people in the neighborhood as I can.”

“Okay, but come back here if it gets dangerous. Just because you’re a tough Youkai doesn’t mean we can force all our pain onto you.”

I said I would and she finally closed the door.

Now, then.

I pictured the general layout of the old folks home and hurried around to check with my own eyes. There was a rectangular concrete building, a tank of what was likely town gas out back, swings and a slide in the large yard, and the grill set. Was there anything I could use as a weapon or otherwise? There would be blades in the kitchen, a fire extinguisher in the entranceway, and a tool box I couldn’t find one. There was probably a storage closet or something somewhere, though. After looking around a few times, I found the gardening tools: agrochemicals, plastic rope, and steel stakes.

I would do everything I could and I ran around making my preparations.

The enemy would arrive eventually and she would kill all witnesses even if there were a hundred or even a thousand of them. Those elderly people could not escape on foot in the middle of the night, so intercepting the enemy here was the only option.

And meanwhile the only person who has an actual chance of pulling that off is-…

Just as that thought entered my mind, something happened in just an instant.

The sound of destruction was simply overwhelming and it took me a while to realize what had happened.

I had been standing on all fours in the large yard, but my vision began spinning around and around. Everything transformed into a collection of meaningless flowing lines. My body was in midair and even the cement blocks surrounding the yard and the ground itself had been blown away by a massive strike on the level of a plane crash. By the time I realized all that, my thoughts finally caught up.

I had been knocked into the air by something frightening.

It was a giant arm measuring several dozen meters long. It looked like it was made from armor panels and thick leather held together with glue. A scooping upper cut had torn through the cement blocks and the ground to mercilessly strike me.

That was all there was to the attack, but I shot across the grounds of the old folks home and mercilessly slammed into the building’s wall. The stones that flew along with me broke through the windows and even the wall.

“G-gah!? Gbbh. Bebhh!!”

I can’t…breathe!!

My own blood…is blocking my throat!!

“Cough….cough cough!! Pant pant!!”

I somehow managed to cough up the blood and secure a path for air, but my head was still shaken. I was a Youkai and thus wouldn’t be killed even if I was stabbed or shot, so what was this? I felt the pain of having my ribs squeezed to their limit and having every single organ crushed. I was undoubtedly approaching death.

By the time I noticed the sound of scraping metal, the giant arm had vanished.

In its place, someone stepped over the smashed cement blocks and into the yard.

It was a girl who looked about high school age and who wore a showy yellow sailor uniform. I did not know if any school actually used that uniform, but there was another more important issue. Simply meeting this kind of person would mean death, so was it even possible for her to have a normal school life?

She gave me an utterly scornful look as I unsteadily tried to stand.

“Don’t tell me you actually thought you’d gotten here ahead of the professional agent and that I just so happened to attack just as you finished your pathetic preparations. If so, you’re not very bright. Not very bright at all. Of course that isn’t what happened.”

As she approached, I detected a sweet juicy aroma similar to peaches. The kind smell seemed so out of place in the otherwise nightmarish scene that I felt like my senses had been thrown out of whack.

“I’m a freelance agent, you know? I make my way through this world without the help of an organization and I’ve survived this long. Did you really think you were faster than someone like that? It was the opposite. The complete opposite. I had already arrived and I was monitoring you to judge your strength. That’s what happened. You may be stupid, but I assume you get it now.”

“…”

“Now, here’s a question for you. If I went to the trouble of judging your strength, why did I just make a blatant head-on attack? The answer is because I judged you were nothing worth fearing!!”

With a metallic sound, her slender right arm transformed from fingertip to shoulder. It was now a mass of steel and leather held together with glue. It almost looked like old Japanese armor.

That was the identity of the previous attack. It was a transforming suit of armor.

But as soon as I thought that, the truth far outdid my imagination.

“The Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach. That is the name of the artificial Youkai I created. In other words, this is my Shikigami. Now, what legend do you think I based this on?”

The Scarlet Peach.

A gentle and sweet aroma filled the air.

I shuddered and all of my fur stood on end.

It can’t be…

I thought of a name so well-known even a child would recognize it.

“Momotarou!?”

“His extermination of the oni is the simplest symbolism there is when it comes to killing Youkai. Even if you gathered thousands upon thousands of deadly Youkai, I could kill the entire horde unharmed. Sorry, but if you were a human who could be killed by normal means, you might have actually lasted longer.”

She would not even try to use a gun or a knife.

She was the type to choose a different set of weapons when fighting a human or a Youkai.

And here, she had switched gears to truly become my natural enemy.

Part 19 (3rd person)

Inside the V-shaped flying wing that was Hyakki Yakou’s mobile headquarters, the group’s Mamedanuki let out a smoky sigh. The Youkai was less than thirty centimeters tall and looked like a stuffed tanuki, but her(?) role was that of a body double.

For that reason, she was ridiculously good at information analysis.

What information should be thrown out and what information should be protected? Who suspected her and who trusted her? If she made a single lie to protect herself, how would it eventually come back and affect her? If she could not instantly analyze all that and smoothly make a decision, she would never have been given the job of a body double.

Currently, that expert of a Manedanuki was grimacing while staring at the documents on the low table she lay on.

“Honestly, he let the kind noise get the better of him. Does he really think a contact who supports things behind the scenes could really defeat a professional monster if he stood in harm’s way? And against someone who built a Momotarou specialized in slaughtering Youkai no less.”

It was hard to think he stood a chance.

And oddly enough, a certain mindset would view that itself as a reason to fight.

That mindset was an ally of the weak.

Those were the heroes of epics told the world over and of the fictional period drams and westerns derived from those epics. The deeds of those heroes were indeed attractive, but that was the attraction of doing something that would normally never succeed. If one hundred people attempted them, not all of them would be successful.

That attraction was the maw of a great monster.

If you let it tempt you, you would be unable to resist its pull and its many fangs would tear you to pieces.

“That idiot is going to die. And yet he’s seen countless people disappear in this same way.”

At that point, a voice directly opposed the Mamedanuki’s accurate analysis.

“He won’t lose.”

The voice came from a small child of an already small species.

The puppy was only about five centimeters tall and he looked up at the Mamedanuki with his four legs braced against the floor.

He stared straight up at her.

“Daddy won’t lose to a bad guy.”

“You’re right,” muttered the Mamedanuki while toying with her slender Japanese-style pipe. “He still hasn’t settled things with me. And he won’t give this an ending that would make the lady sad.”

Part 20

The hard creaking sound of the armor continued.

It was coming.

I didn’t know how it worked, but that ridiculous attack that instantly grew to several dozen times its size was coming.

“…!!!!!!”

The massive fist tore through the air itself as it flew straight toward me.

I only had the athletic ability of a small dog, so I could never avoid it even if I jumped out of the way now.

But I was a Sunekosuri.

I was a Youkai that could do nothing more than rub up against travelers’ shins in the night. But even if that was a useless ability, my movements could reach the supernatural when doing that.

“Oh?”

The girl wearing the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach sounded surprised.

To her, it may have looked like my small form suddenly vanished.

In truth, I had only snuck right up to her feet.

The great destruction arrived a moment later.

That building had looked so sturdy, but a great din burst out as the first floor was torn to pieces as easily as a spider web.

My chest hurt, but I had avoided the attack.

And from here…!!

As soon as that thought came to me, I heard a hard sound.

The soft girl’s skin I was rubbing my cheek against changed to cold and hard metal.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

She made such a skilled recovery that my mind grew absolutely blank.

She did not hesitate to bring her Japanese armored foot down to crush my back. It was a sharp strike as if from a pile driver. At the same time, the armor made of metal and leather expanded and increased its destructive force with its incredible mass.

I was fairly certain I heard something break inside my body.

But in reality, I was feeling the ground cave in and collapse below me because of all the weight bearing down on me. Yes, there was a space underground. I should have been crushed between the giant foot and the ground, but the thin layer of ground broke instead and I fell into the space below.

But wait.

The space below the lawn would be…!

“Cough, cough.”

I heard coughing from surprisingly nearby.

A large pile of dirt covered my head and someone was looking down at me instead of worrying about themselves.

“Wh-what is it? This isn’t a tornado. What is going on? And…and why are you bleeding so much?”

Dammit!! How could I let myself fall into the very place I had the old men and women evacuate to!? This is no different from pushing them right in front of the wild beast!!

“Hee hee.”

Directly above, I heard the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach girl laugh.

The gentle aroma of peaches invaded this supposed area of safety.

“Hee hee. Hee hee hee.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!”

I could not let the fight come here. I had to avoid a location that would get them involved.

I immediately moved through the elderly group by travelling from shin to shin. My swift movement looked like someone darting through the gaps in a forest or like the movements of a snake or eel. My goal was the stairway leading up and the door to the surface. Nothing mattered except starting this anew from a position that would not put the old men and women in danger.

But my efforts were not rewarded.

By the time I had run up the stairs and to the door, the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach had already attacked.

The giant arm of armor defeated the entire purpose of an underground structure much like destroying a car’s roof to turn it into a convertible. The wrecking ball of a fist approached along with a tremendous amount of dirt and knocked me and the steel door into the air outside.

I did not even have it in me to cry out.

When my small body finally slammed into the ground, I found myself a disturbing distance away. This was the area with the playground equipment. Specifically, I had landed on the gas range of the grill set.

I can’t win.

Even if infinite options spread out before my eyes, every single one of them would ultimately lead to my death. The girl wearing the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach had made that a reality. She had set things up that way before beginning the battle. That was why I could not win. It did not matter how much I struggled. In fact, the more I struggled, the more I would be hopelessly cornered.

“Ahh, ahh. I was spotted.”

I heard a footstep.

“So which would you prefer? Should I slaughter those old people after roasting you or should I wait to roast you afterwards? Now that they saw a professional at work, their fate is sealed. You can choose whichever order you like, though.”

I heard another.

She was slowly approaching, but I could not move. I was like a fish on the chopping block. I could not even move enough to fall from the dangerous-looking gas range.

The unnaturally gentle peach aroma reached my nose.

The girl controlling and wearing the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach had arrived close enough to look down on my bloody form. Her expression was less that of someone preparing a meal and more that of a child torturing a captured insect. But despite knowing what fate awaited me, I could not make the nimble movements of a movie star.

An ominous vibration shook the gas range and myself.

When I realized her slender fingers had grabbed the ignition switch, an unpleasant feeling ran down my spine.

“Have you learned your place yet?”

“A-all too much.”

“Then die.”

Her smooth and unhesitating words seemed to burn my stomach as she spoke without holding back.

“I’d really rather not eat dog, but it would be a shame to have you go to waste. How about I feed you to those old people? I wonder how they would react to that.”

“But thanks to this, I’ve learned some of the secret behind your Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach.”

Her fingers on the switch paused for just an instant.

But this pause was rooted in interest and curiosity, not fear and caution. She seemed to be saying she would ignite the gas range the instant those feelings cooled down.

“It’s not quite accurate to say that strange armor harms me as a Youkai. The punching and kicking aren’t what really matter. If so, you wouldn’t be trying to cook me on a gas range in the end. You can’t kill a Youkai by stabbing them or shooting them, even with a harmless Youkai like me. Even a gas range is a normal method. Using it to torture me is one thing, but you wouldn’t choose it as a finishing blow.”

“Meaning?”

“You use two different supernatural powers. The first is the armor and the second is the creation of a field in which Youkai can be killed with normal methods. And outside the armor, there’s only one symbol of Momotarou here: that peach aroma. You scatter that around to prepare the environment needed to exterminate the oni.”

The girl gave a surprisingly cute laugh of confirmation.

“You may look pretty stupid, but you made it that far, did you? Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach includes both a Shikigami and a fire altar. Combining Onmyoudou and Mikkyou is a heretical method much like combining non-complementary foods for a gimmicky dish. That’s why it should have slipped past any specialists in this field. …It looks like taking on an idiot backfired.”

“You were never wielding any especially strong power; you were weakening us Youkai. That armor is being used entirely to attack. It isn’t actually protecting you at all.”

If she could truly wield such unmatched power, she would not have needed to use a gun when killing Udou Itsuki’s body double. It would be best to assume her supernatural power, the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach, could only wield its full power against a Youkai.

“So?” She tilted her head. “Whatever the case, you’re still going to die here. Just like any old dog, you can easily be killed with a knife or gun right now. Or are you so stupid you don’t even know what it is you’re lying on or what my right hand is holding?

“Ha ha.” I laughed without meaning to. “Maybe it’s because you scatter that peach aroma everywhere, but have you really not noticed anything ‘off’?”

“…?”

“This is indeed an outdoor gas range used for cookouts. And it’s really easy to ignite because a gas pipe buried underground carries fuel to it. But what if someone had sabotaged it ahead of time?”

She stopped breathing when I said that.

She seemed to have finally noticed the stink mixed in with the peach aroma.

“I’m a weak Youkai that can’t do anything more than a small dog and I have no traits that would let me kill a human, but even a small dog’s prank can cause a disaster. For example, he could bite through the rubber hose connected to the gas line.”

“Do you really understand what you’re saying?”

“And your technique only provides offense! You completely ignored defense because you assumed any Youkai weakened by the peach aroma couldn’t do anything worth worrying about. So what if someone brings a normal method into this? If you’re caught in a gas explosion, I doubt you’ll escape unharmed!!”

“My fire altar is still weakening you, so you can’t say you won’t die because you’re a Youkai. If there’s an explosion here, that normal method will-…!!”

“Yes, I know.”

As I spoke, I moved my mouth to show off my teeth.

Specifically, I showed off the piece of flint the size of a sesame seed I had glued to my canine tooth. I had taken apart a cheap lighter I had found inside the facility to get the flint.

And after choosing to show it off, I made an announcement.

“But what does that matter, you damn roach?”

I immediately clacked my canine teeth together.

You’ll probably never understand just what strength fills my heart while I desire to help these complete strangers without trying to earn anything from it myself.

And that is why you will lose!!

A tiny orange spark burst into the dark night.

The look on the girl’s face had been that of someone who had never once thought of anything but her own victory, but in this instant, I saw that look distort.

And a moment later…

…my vision…

…grew…white.

Part 21

I was gasping for breath.

My vision faded in and out. I felt like I would lose consciousness if I stopped focusing for even an instant. I was lying on the lawn a good distance away from the grill set. I heard what sounded like a crackling fire and a corner of the facility grounds was glowing orange.

I desperately tried to stand, but I could not put my legs below me. My front right leg would not move as I told it to. Half of my vision was covered in something dark. Part of me may have been broken or burned, but I was a Youkai, so it was possible I would naturally recover. After all, we generally gathered strength through the passage of time. Even so, I had no way of healing my wounds right away.

“This isn’t…”

I gave up on standing and practically dragged my face along the ground to move at about the speed of a caterpillar.

“This isn’t over yet…”

I had to evacuate the old men and women from the facility grounds. I had not been able to predict where the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach girl would attack, so I had sabotaged the gas lines all over the grounds to create as many attack points as possible. It had just so happened that the outdoor grill set was the one I ended up at. For example, I had also created a gas leak in the facility’s kitchen, so I needed to prepare for a possible ignition of that one as well.

And if Mai-san’s prediction was correct, the girl had been controlling Udou Itsuki’s (or his body double’s) organization and they had kept the deadly Aburatori somewhere on these grounds. I didn’t know what method they were using, but it was impossible to know who the Youkai would bare its fangs toward if the battle or fire woke it up.

That meant it would be best to have the old folks escape as soon as possible. My goal was not defeating the Brave Warrior of the Scarlet Peach. No matter the reason, if even one of them died in the very end, it would mean I had lost.

And so I dragged my battered body toward those old men and women.

One day, when I found my missing wife and had my family back, I would be able to tell them with pride the path I had taken to reach that point.

I can’t give in now.

Part 22 (3rd person)

A quiet noise sounded from the sea of spreading flames caused by the gas explosion.

“Oh…gh…”

“It” had a mouth to speak.

However, the exposure to the intense heat had completely destroyed its lips and throat.

“G-g-gah-gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

Unable to speak properly and letting loose something like a roar, it forcefully stood up within that scorching orange hell.

The damage went beyond the face.

All of its skin had melted into something like a cream and fused with its crumbling clothing. Its entire body had become a twisted mass of muscle fibers. Its hair had vanished in the flames. Its soft subcutaneous fat had completely cooked and separated from its body, so it looked like a sexless anatomy model.

Even so, it did not die.

Something odd was mixed in with that model. An amber-dyed material that looked at least one hundred years old had been hidden below the skin. The material was placed around the body as if to strengthen the skeleton, so it looked like a cyborg made with traditional Japanese mechanisms.

With a wet sound, it walked through the flames. Its eyeballs had almost started to boil and its vision was as foggy as looking through frosted glass, but it still searched for a single target.

That being a harmless Youkai.

The Sunekosuri.

That Youkai had apparently not escaped unscathed, but he was better off than her. His lighter weight may have allowed the explosion to throw him outside the scorching hell.

She could not accept that.

She could not accept that his injuries were lighter than hers, that he was in a better position than her, that he was desperately crawling through this hellish scene to save some normal people, or that he had achieved victory despite being infected by the kind noise.

In short, she could not accept any of it.

(I’ll kill him.)

The girl tried to mutter under her breath, but her melted lips had fused together and she could not even do that.

(I’ll kill him! Crush him!! Ruin it all for him!!!! I have to do that if I’m going to get back on my feet. Whether it turns that damn Youkai into a corpse or a pile of flesh, I’ll thoroughly smash him to pieces!!)

She moved her melted body toward the Sunekosuri.

She would first smash the canine Youkai to pieces, show him to those old people, and then ask them to eat him. Any who refused, she would kill right then and there. Any who did eat him, she would line up and kill at the very end. Either way, she would slaughter them all.

But as soon as she made those plans, she heard what sounded more like an explosion than a gunshot and a fist-sized hole opened in her chest.

“Ah?”

What had once been a girl looked down to her own chest.

The flesh, blood, bone, and organs were all missing. She had been pierced straight through and what had been there was the most important of the human organs: the heart. It had vanished like a magic trick that stole the hearts of anyone who saw it.

It had been done so skillfully that she forgot to die.

It was just like a fish prepared and served while still alive. And her melted ears heard a dull electronic tone. A cellphone was ringing. The remains of what had been a skirt were stuck to the waist of that roasted anatomy model. She grabbed the device that had transformed into something like cheese melted on toast and she answered it.

The connection was so clear it seemed like some kind of an illusion.

She forcibly ripped her fused lips apart and finally managed to speak.

“Hishigami…Mai…”

“That’s right. You’re the one behind all this, aren’t you? Do you know what I did☆?”

“An anti-materiel rifle?

“Nope. Wrong. It was a.50 caliber heavy machinegun. But there are some crazy people who use them for sharpshooting from 2000 meters away. The rounds are the same after all.”

“No…the sound of the shot and the hit…were almost simultaneous. This is just like thunder and lightning… You have to be nearby. Where…are you? I was waiting here…to capture you. But you…had that Youkai…hound me. Get…out here. I’ll kill you…with my own hands.”

“Ha ha ha! I had the Sunekosuri hound you? Are you sure you want your dying words to be a pun!? And sorry, but I’m not about to take you head-on when you can still move around after all that. And I don’t think he was wrong when he said a normal method would kill you, so just die already. …Besides, I’ve 80% lost when I rely on a gun, so this definitely isn’t a fight I want a part of.”

“…”

The anatomy model briefly fell silent but finally spoke again.

“Why are…you here? To save the residents…of the old folks home? Or to…save that Sunekosuri?”

“Sorry, but I’m a professional who knows where to draw the line. I know all too well how frightening the kind noise can be. I’m not foolish enough to risk my life for something like that.”

“Then…”

Why had she attacked now?

Whether it was the Sunekosuri or the old people, the best time to take the shot would have been the instant the girl-turned-anatomy-model had killed her target and let her guard down.

“To be honest, my plan was to stir up the Sunekosuri, have him run off to where you were waiting, and then shoot you once you showed up because you were irritated with the eyesore of a Youkai running around.”

“…”

“But he did better than I had expected. He actually pulled off that absurd fairy tale of his. He didn’t quite finish the job, but dragging out your secret was quite valuable indeed. …That’s right. Momotarou did not have special power because of a legendary weapon or undergoing some amazing training. His very birth included the symbolism of the peach, a fruit believed to ward off evil. So you’re an evil-destroying cyborg given a boost by the scented wood placed inside your body. If I hadn’t noticed, I might have taken you too lightly and made a mistake.”

That terribly arrogant woman was saying her life had been saved by that stuffed animal of a Youkai.

“In that case, this is an agreement between professionals. Now that the Sunekosuri has achieved his goal of saving those old people and has also found your weakness for me, I should finish my own job. I’ll kill you, take care of the Aburatori, and bring this incident to an end. That dirty work is my part to play.”

She sounded almost jealous.

This tone was one she would never use in front of the Sunekosuri.

It was like she had seen something she had once possessed but had thrown away in order to survive.

And most likely, she was not really speaking to the anatomy model that had been their enemy.

Head, gut, waist, limbs, etc. Before thoroughly destroying every part of that girl’s body with.50 caliber bullets which were the size of hammerheads, Hishigami Mai muttered one last sentence.

“You were really cool, baby☆”

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