Volume 6, Chapter 16: The Demon-G.o.d War, Part 3, Part 1
While I had managed to find her, the actual attacks from [True G.o.d Tokyo] were both sporadic and irritating.
“[Spear of Darkness]…!”
“[He…lp…me!]”
As my power collided with that of [True G.o.d Tokyo] and disappeared, its shockwave rocked the city of Tokyo.
For some reason, I feel like [True G.o.d Tokyo] is doing more damage to the city than I am.
Still, even though I was being pushed back earlier, this time I was able to cancel it out…… Maybe, its [Power]decreases with each human in Tokyo that feels powerless?
That is to say, if I annihilated every inhabitant of Tokyo, I might be able to easily disable the [True G.o.d Tokyo], but I"m not interested in that.
Ah, Matsuri is about to make her escape. It can"t be helped, I have to just give her an offhand blow. She shouldn"t die that easily right?
“[The light that shines through…… Sacred Bow]!”
“What"s going on — Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!?”
As Matsuri ran out of one of the temples in Tokyo, a number of light arrows flew down from the sky, blowing away the temple building.
“Matsuri-sama!”
“*cough* Ahhh, what is it!?”
“Quickly, this way”
The [Shrine Maidens], who the [True G.o.d Tokyo] could communicate to, were limited to young girls with special souls.
The reason why it was limited to girls was because they were said to have a childlike character that was similar to that of [True G.o.d Tokyo], and gave it a sense of familiarity, and the only reason why they were limited to children was that [True G.o.d Tokyo] was afraid of adults and so refused.
Matsuri, despite being grown-up, was able to hear the voice of [True G.o.d Tokyo] for some reason.
Was it because Matsuri"s spirit was young…… or rather, that it went beyond childish, and Matsuri who never matured specialized in only using nefarious methods, taking up a position to manage the younger shrine maidens, she twisted the words from [True G.o.d Tokyo] for her own convenience and told them to the monks, all for the sake of satisfying her own desires.
“The building suddenly collapsed and people were blown away! What exactly is going on?!”
As Matsuri threw a temper tantrum at the teenager who had been chosen for his appearance alone, he looked up anxiously toward the dark sky.
“I-I can"t tell! It"s probably because the seal on that [Evil] was released, but let"s hurry over to the other shrine maidens as soon as possible.”
“……… U-understood”
In fact, Matsuri could not see the spectacle in the sky.
Matsuri, who could only hear the voice and had neither special power nor ability, who had lived until now with just her beauty and her scheming, she had not trained any of its power even though the remains of the power had acc.u.mulated in her soul.
“Hey…… [The Evil Presence] … is called, uhh…… Yuzu, isn"t it? What happened with her? Wasn"t she defeated a long time ago, how in the world did she revive!”
“I don"t know how……… They probably failed.”
“Are you saying I was wrong!”
“N-no……”
“Really, why is the world always trying to disrupt me!”
In the end, Matsuri was unable to start the "events" for either Kouki nor Handsome Prince.
She thought that Yuzu had done something, but even killing Yuzu didn"t solve it, since even after destroying the evidence, it seems that what Matsuri had done had been told to them, and as a result she could only be hated.
“Someday, I will make you kneel…… Aah, that"s right! You! Prepare the car quickly and bring some of the monks along with it.”
“Y-yes”
Watching the young monk who ran away in a hurry, Matsuri threw off the thin kimono that had become dirtied in the bombing, and an unpleasant smile floated onto her face.
“…… If Yuzu is going to get in my way again, I have an idea”
“[Please wait, Onzada. I feel a lingering miasma over there.]”
“Lord Rinne? The temple that way though, you know?”
Onzada, who was travelling in a light truck with a black cat on his shoulder, quietly responded to Rinne"s words. Although he didn"t know how it understood what Onzada was saying, but he was really quick to pick up and accept the existence of the weird.
“[If it"s a temple then there aren"t any corpses. Because it"s a temple, everything should be kept clean and bounded.]”
“……Certainly. But Lord, there are those guys inside of the temple?”
“[If their powers are lessened, even with the number of humans, it won"t be a problem. Drive through!]”
“Really……… This minitruck is still on its loan payments!”
While saying that, Onzada stepped on the accelerator and rammed into the temple from the front.
“W-who are you!?”
“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You"re the younger brother of Emishima!”
There were several monks in plain clothes, not in their robes. However, from what they said, it was very likely that they were monks from [Oyama].
And as if proving it, the monks began to manipulate their "ki".
“There"s no use discussing!”
“[I said that it wasn"t going to be a problem.]”
*CRASH*
Rinne broke through the front gla.s.s of the light truck easily, and Onzada, who still had loan payments left on the truck, turned blue.
“[GraAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]”
As the monks were left confused over the carnivorous roar coming from the small black cat, Rinne cut them down where they stood.
“[Onzada, I"m going to eat all of this miasma…… what are you doing?]”
“…… No, it"s nothing.”
As Onzada looked at the light truck that had suddenly become riddled with holes, he sat on the ground and immediately took a sip of the holy wine, his eyes staring into the distance as he muttered to himself.
“[Are you still alive back there? Did you hear me?]”
“Y-yeah.”
Most of the monks had already died despite their light injuries.
“…… This… is a Demon?”
As Onzada saw the state of affairs, he swallowed hard. Perhaps their souls had been devoured.
However, Yuzu had told him: "Demon are a part of this world too."
Onzada had thought that she had been saying "abandon your narrow perspective." Thinking of herbivorous animals that were hunted in the food chain, he had been denying to himself that humans ate animals and plants.
Those who could say that, were only those who had never touched anything but milk and fruits since birth.
Even liquor and fermented foods, you would be killing the bacteria in your mouth.
Onzada was by no means arrogant enough to try to compel others to do so.
“……… uU…”
“Oh, are you out of breath? Our luck is turning, but we only wear those clothes in an emergency, where are you going? Are you escaping?”
“Are you an idiot! We are different from you. We are following Matsuri-sama"s instructions…”
Although the monk who was in plainclothes succ.u.mbed to temptation and answered, he regained his calm and threw that out.
“……Oi, what the h.e.l.l did that girl spew!”
As Onzada heard Matsuri being mentioned, he picked up the monk by the nape with a serious expression on his face.
“…u…… It"s already too late…… that"s what Matsuri-sama said”
“…… Say it.”
“*cough*”
Onzada shot out the "ki" that he had gathered in a moment into the internal organs of the monk, hurting them.
“If all of your organs get crushed, I"ll just ask someone else. …… Now, speak quickly.”
After that, after one of them had collapsed from having his organs crushed, the other surviving monks talked, and Matsuri"s plans became known.
“This is just like a joke…… Lord, come back! We need to move right now.”
“Kyaa, …… another earthquake?”
“”kyaa”, you say…… you sure have some guts.”
“Did you say something?”
“I-I didn"t say anything!”
With a man who has hardly aged at all since he was young, and a woman who could only be said to be in her thirties, a comedy sketch started up again, as another girl in her twenties turned around, calling out to them.
“Kotone-nee-chan, Dad-chan, cut it out. This is a hospital room.”
“Ah, sorry, Mischan.”
“Hey, stop calling me Dad-chan, Misa.”
“Dad-chan, Dad-chan”
A little girl ran around the legs of the trio as she said such things.
“Look, now even Karin is calling me Dad-chan. I wanted to be called "Papa"……”
“……Fufu……”
At this scene, an old man lying in a single room smiled gently.
“Ah, Grandfather, were you awake?”
“…… Aah, it seems like you"ve grown a little more……”
“What are you talking about……? Dad and the rest are coming soon, then we can talk again.”
“……Ah, that"s right……”
Kotone"s grandfather from the Toukaki side was on the cusp of death. He hadn"t contracted anything. His internal organs were weakening, and his life span was almost at an end.
Long ago, thanks to his granddaughter Yuzu, he was able to face his family again.
At some point, Yuzu had pa.s.sed away after being stabbed by a phantom killer, but the grandfather still occasionally saw a chain extending from his breast and knew that she had not disappeared completely.
He didn"t fear death.
Because he knew that when he died, his soul would return to his granddaughter"s side.
*konkon*…… the door was being knocked on.
“Come in.”
When Misa stood and opened the door, there were several doctor-like people wearing white coats, and a few well-built male nurses. And…… there was a nurse with awfully thick make-up.
“How is he doing?”
“Yes…… He woke up earlier.”
She did not know what this doctor, who wasn"t the doctor in charge, had come to do, but as Misa turned back to look at old man Toukaki, the doctors and nurses swooped into the sickroom.
“Wh-what?”
“Annoying…… You guys! Silence them!”
“””Yes”””
As Kotone voiced her dissent, that nurse gave her orders, and the male nurses tried to detain them all.
“What are you guys doing?”
“Shut up!”
“If you don"t keep quiet, do you know what will happen to that child~?”
“What are you trying to say……?”
Matsuri, who had only seen nurse cosplay, looked down upon those who had been restrained and began to cackle.
“You all will become hostages for me to use against Yuzu. Isn"t that a perfect role for a mob character?”
“……Yuzu… wait, what are you even saying!? That child is already-”
“Yes yes, she"s dead yadda yadda, I"m sure of it because I was the one who stabbed her, but I won"t find out what happened even if speak to a mob character anyway.”
“…… The criminal was never caught……”
“Fufufu.”
Old man Toukaki, because he was about to die, had been moved to another ward, and there were few people in this ward.
Although the nurses would come if the call b.u.t.ton was pressed, but it had been cut when the fake doctors came.
“This brat…… I"ve seen you before”
“Hii”
As Matsuri looked at her face, Kotone"s daughter Karin let out a frightened wail.
“Stop it! Don"t touch Karin!”
“Huuuh…… so she"s called Karin.”
Karin looked very similar to Kotone"s grandmother with her eyes, probably because of her atavism. That is to say, both she and Yuzu had similar eyes.
“…… that face makes me angry.”
Matsuri muttered as she reached out for Karin, and then.
“[To go that far, huh.]”
*GASHAN*! (gla.s.s shattering SFX)
Breaking through the gla.s.s window of the hospital ward, a black-masked person wielding a great sword rushed in.
“Ah!”
Misa who realized who that was leaked her voice for a moment, but hurriedly covered her mouth with her hand at Yuuki"s gaze.
“Who is that!?”
“Matsuri-sama! That is the black-masked person who has been obstructing us for years.”
“I see.”
Yuuki had come so far to protect Misa, and it seems that he was able to arrive at a good pace, although he was still quite a distance away from Matsuri.
He was thinking of cutting them down, but since the young Karin was watching, he put away his sword, and Yuuki fought the monks with his bare hands.
“As expected, you can"t use that large sword in such a confined s.p.a.ce!”
“That"s right.”
However, their physical capacities were too different.
He may be the young shopkeeper of a ramen shop now, but Yuuki had been the ultimate weapon of the human nation.
A [Hero].
Author"s Notes:
It was slightly longer than usual, but I chose not to divide it.