The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village

Volume 7, Chapter 7: Jinnai Shinobu@Total War, Break Through the Center Part 1-5

Part 1

It all came down to an instant.

“Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier. Appear in the form we desire to grant what we desire to the extent we desire. …Appear, Tsuerika Nyorai. It is time to begin your work.”

Yes.

This was the moment when the Aoandon Group felt most victorious. They had passed the greatest turning point, the thread of tension had relaxed, they were filled with excitement despite knowing how dangerous it was, pleasure and relief exploded in their minds, and they could not help but lower their guard.

When you knew it was coming, it was easy to take advantage of it.

So…

“Aoandon!!!!!”

As if tearing through space itself, I broke through the barrier of time with the Kaeshigami by my side. I immediately rushed right up to the Aoandon.

“Wha-…?”

I didn’t wait for her voice of surprise. Hyakki Yakou’s Hafuri was confronting her, but she didn’t matter either. We couldn’t win in an all-out fight with the Aoandon, so I attacked when her guard was down. I attacked just when she had gathered all of her cards to form an unbeatable hand.

I rushed straight in like threading a needle.

The Aburatori and I no longer needed words to communicate. All I did was swing my right arm horizontally and the Kaeshigami released a metal skewer with a synchronized motion.

The single skewer stabbed deep into the center of the Aoandon’s chest.

The blue Oni’s eyes opened wider than I thought possible. Time seemed to have frozen as I grabbed the skewer embedded in her chest and pulled back with all my might. With a sticky sound, a fist-sized pale blue cube came out. It was a collection of straight lines, a symbol of artificiality. It looked like a jewel, rather than an internal organ.

It may not have actually physically existed.

It may have been that the Aburatori’s ability to remove internal organs had given physical form to something like program code intentionally written inside her.

It didn’t really matter.

Not as long as I could take away the core that made the Aoandon special!

“…”

My eyes met the Aoandon’s from fifty centimeters away.

Bluish-white phosphorescence glowed from the tip of the horn on her forehead.

A moment later, a deafening sound much like clashing swords rang out. Neither the Aburatori-turned-Kaeshigami nor I could keep up physically or mentally with what had happened.

A dull sensation passed through the center of my body near my spine.

The Aoandon’s right hand had pierced through my stomach.

“Boy!!”

The Kaeshigami tried to rush in, but the Aoandon knocked him to the side with her left hand.

She had erased her smile to form an entirely blank expression.

“Have you forgotten?”

I coughed out the blood welling up from my throat, dyeing her cheeks red.

“I am that which exists beyond the one hundred gathered fears. Without Saiki Kazu and Matsukai Hiroshi’s equation, I can no longer create an infinite number of derivate stories, but I still have one hundred times the power of a deadly Youkai.”

“Ha ha. Is that so?”

She was also talkative.

I somehow managed to hold my right hand out horizontally even with her arm piercing my body. I held it toward some other place, toward the greatest evil that Saiki Kazu had summoned somewhere in this rural landscape.

“…ng. …w……ed…, …f… ……….ri…, …b………, ……s…… …h………, …..gh… …s… ……e……”

I already know how to defeat you.

That archdemon severed the bonds between people, destroyed those connections, and prevented any kind of cooperation. Without that, the battle between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon’s group would not grow quite so hellish.

“For the aforementioned reasons, the veil of ignorance may become the key to the door of the unknown. I name the soul of Marguerite Steinhols as a new demon and command her to pass through the door in that vessel of flesh!”

I was the only one that knew any of that, so I had to do something about it.

Listen, Tselika.

I may have had to cheat and jump back in time a little.

But an enemy I’ve already defeated once is hardly going to be a real threat! You small fry!!

“Return, Marguerite Steinhols!! Cast aside your old self and take hold of your new self. Like a snake shedding its skin, cast aside the name of Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier and fill yourself with a bright new soul!!”

A gust of wind blew through a distant area.

Tselika herself probably had no idea what had happened.

In this timeline, not even fifteen seconds had passed since her appearance, so she might have just thought the summoning had failed.

But the Aoandon would have noticed since she was right in front of me.

That had been no coincidence and no accident. She had drawn her cards from the deck and prepared the most powerful hand, but it had been stolen from her by a kid on the verge of death.

“What did you dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!?”

I ignored her.

Was that so much of a shock that you’ve forgotten what you need to do, Aoandon? Your priority should be getting this thing back.

A smile formed on my bloody lips as I grabbed the pale cube I had removed with the Aburatori’s skewer.

Then I stuck it in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

“You… How do you keep doing this!?”

My vision seemed to shatter.

The program code built for a Youkai must not have agreed with the human body. All of my senses vanished in bluish-white sparks as if a high-voltage current had bene sent straight down my spine.

“You idiot! That’s based on my traits! You won’t gain my powers if you swallow it!!”

“Maybe…not…”

I wouldn’t have still been standing if the Aoandon’s arm hadn’t been stabbed through my stomach.

I had lost the ability to know what was happening to my body.

“But I took it from you…both Archdemon Tselika and the secret behind your irregularity. And now that you’re nothing more than an amazing Youkai, do you and your companions really have the strength left to take on Hyakki Yakou and their Top 5?”

“…”

The Aoandon immediately replied with an incredibly simple action.

My sparking senses rapidly returned. They were all focused on a feeling of extreme pain. The Aoandon had bitten at my throat. This was nothing as kind as sucking my blood. She began biting and chewing through both flesh and bone.

Yes, I had a feeling you’d do this.

She had no way of knowing what change would come over the program code while it was inside my body, so it made sense that she would try to retrieve it before the damage could progress any further.

But…

“You were created from the completion of one hundred ghost stories…”

Have you still not realized what’s right in front of you?

I said an enemy I’ve already defeated once is hardly going to be a real threat…but that doesn’t just apply to Tselika.

“Then what about 110? Or how about 120? As the number leaves that perfect framework of 100, the golden ratio holding your body together will crumble.”

“Eh…?”

The Aoandon looked like her thoughts had ground to a halt.

Yes, those were the same words I had said on the empty tour bus running through the blue birth canal at the end of the Zenmetsu Village incident.

When she removed her mouth from my throat, she seemed to catch on.

Her mouth was covered in something dark red. In her haste to retrieve the stolen program code, she had left the “data port” open and let in the foreign object known as Jinnai Shinobu.

“…Ah…gh. Ahhh…”

“Take it,” I said with a thin smile. “Extract the data in the flesh and blood you’ve eaten and commit it to memory. …I didn’t have time to check through the detailed conditions and logic behind it, but if I’m right, my memories should be implanted inside your head.”

“Gh…”

“My data will be treated as a foreign object inside you and I’ve been through countless incidents involving Youkai. I’ve got plenty of ‘ghost stories’ stored in there. You were created from precisely one hundred stories, so can you really endure having that number changed?”

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

A moment later, she lashed out in anger.

Her small mouth opened as wide as possible and bit through flabby things that I’m hesitant to describe. Strangely, it seemed I could no longer feel pain.

It was too late to turn back.

She could not stop the bug in her code, so she focused on retrieving the program code as initially planned. She was betting on the possibility that such a slight malfunction could be suppressed by that great power.

“Why…?” asked the entirely red-stained Oni as she curled up and worked at chewing. “Why would you go this far!? All you’re trying to do is defeat me, so why would you choose to be eaten alive!?”

“Well…”

For some reason, she had left my face untouched.

I somehow managed to move my sluggish lips and force out the words.

“Because if you eat me, you’ll take my data inside you…”

“…”

A wet dripping sound continued for a while.

The Aoandon had briefly stopped chewing.

“That’s my point.”

“?”

“What is this!? Am I taking in corrupted data!? How…how could you possibly produce these kinds of feelings in such an extreme environment!?”

Oh, I get it now.

She only experienced the one timeline without traveling through time, so this answer looked a little sudden to her.

“…This was an impossible situation from the beginning.”

“What?”

I had traveled through time and returned, so there were now two Jinnai Shinobus here. One had lived through the single timeline and the other had returned via time travel. I didn’t know if I was a physical being or just a soul at the moment, but I knew this was a dangerous situation. There had to only be one Jinnai Shinobu.

But that aside…

“I can’t kill you.”

I had seen something in that room in the past.

I had seen that sloppy drawing on construction paper. Humans and Youkai were all holding hands and smiling with the message “We’re All Friends” at the top. I was never supposed to have forgotten that.

Once I looked at it from that viewpoint, it hadn’t been hard to see the truth of the Aoandon.

I knew what this most powerful of enemies really was.

“After all, you’re like my child, born from that Zenmetsu Village project.”

“————”

“I only ever showed you this sort of thing, so it’s my responsibility that you turned out this way. It was all the fear, despair, and carnage I showed you in Zenmetsu Village that turned you into an incomprehensible monster. …So I’m not supposed to punch you. I’m supposed to rub your head and teach you that there’s more to life than this.”

Just one of the Aoandon’s cheeks twitched to a disturbing extent.

“…This was my conclusion.”

“Was it?”

“This was the optimal answer I derived!! It was not… It had nothing to do with your influence!!”

“You’re only a baby, so don’t get so full of yourself.”

I had been wrong to raise that baby in that dark red room of blood and gore. I had been wrong to throw her out into the world without teaching her about common kindness and other basic things.

So I would correct my mistakes.

I would use the first and only chance I had here!

“I don’t think I’ve lived a life worthy of praise.”

Yes, me.

Will you be able to smile?

I promised you on that day long ago that I could get along with any Youkai.

“But if you look through that data you took from me, can’t you find just one thing? Just one thing that makes you rethink destroying this country, this village, and this family?”

“You will die.”

“Yes, most likely. If I wasn’t willing to go that far, my feelings never would have reached you.”

“You’ll lose your place in the world you’ve tried so hard to protect! You understand that, don’t you!?”

“God, what a pain. Just take a look at the data already.”

I would die here.

I had broken through the barrier of time to find this truth, but it was looking like I wouldn’t be able to pass it on to the other Jinnai Shinobu.

But if it came to that…

You tell that ignorant Jinnai Shinobu, Aoandon.

This is your father’s final request. Surely my only daughter can do this much for me.

This too was communicated through the data.

Aoandon, you are “listening”, aren’t you? I don’t think I have the strength left to move my mouth…so can I only…leave the rest…to luck…?

Part 2

“Bwah!”

I held my mouth on a farm road near a dry paddy field.

“Uwehh!! Cough, cough!! Cough! Cough, cough!!”

My internal organs crawled and convulsed as if they had all malfunctioned at once. An intense shock ran through the center of my heart as if someone had pressed a gun to my chest and pulled the trigger.

I felt like my skin was being tugged at.

I shuddered at an intense feeling that something was out of place. It felt like someone else’s damage was pouring into my body or like I was being chopped to pieces by mistake. Was this oozing pain in my skin or my organs? Taking a trip to the hospital once this was over seemed like a good idea.

“Master! What’s the matter!?”

The micro-bikini Succubus sounded confused.

“Is it due to that archdemon? It looked like the summoning failed, but did the miasma of the exorcism reach you?”

“No, it isn’t that,” I groaned while placing my thumb in my mouth.

I didn’t know why, but I knew I had to do that.

I used my canine tooth to bite into my thumb. The flavor of rusty iron oozed out onto my tongue. I sensed death while also receiving a torrent of data I shouldn’t have known.

“Tselika’s summoning succeeded,” I said while holding my reeling head.

These were not my memories. At the very least, they weren’t inside my own head. It seemed to be using some kind of external storage. The data that should have been erased when Jinnai Shinobu died had been unable to disperse because another Jinnai Shinobu was still alive. Unable to remain in this world or continue on to the next world, it had wandered through this space. It was almost like a ghost and I was simply accessing it through the flavor of blood.

But it didn’t matter what it was as long as I could use it as a weapon.

Whether it was external data or corrupted data floating to the surface, it told me the correct answer even if it did not feel real to me.

“More importantly, where’s the Aburatori? He turned into a Kaeshigami after traveling through time, so I doubt he would’ve been killed that easily.”

“Master…?”

The Succubus was clearly confused, but I didn’t have time to explain.

What was going on? I used the flavor of my thumb’s blood to access the data. If this version of me could grasp this data, did that meant that Jinnai Shinobu’s data remained inside the Aoandon after she devoured him?

Had it been moved or copied?

Depending on what had happened to the files, the Aoandon could still be moving at full power. Defeating Tselika was an MVP-level accomplishment, but that alone wasn’t enough. I had to drive Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon’s group from the village and retrieve my normal life!

“…”

The young man in a dark suit…was his name Saiki Kazu? Anyway, he had tried to summon Tselika and had in fact succeeded, but that Jinnai Shinobu had immediately defeated the archdemon.

The witch named Marguerite Steinhols lay naked (Wow!) at his feet and he was glaring at me from over ten meters away.

He spoke while barely moving his lips, almost like a ventriloquist.

“When is your soul from?”

“I’m me,” I replied with a thin smile. “I’ve just cheated a little to take a small step outside the norm.”

His power was an unknown, but he didn’t seem to have given up his humanity like Hishigami Mai or the Illness Magic User had. Even if he had cut Archdemon Tselika away from himself to have her stand at his side.

But once that archdemon was sealed away, he was no more than a normal human.

Meanwhile, I had a paranormal Succubus on my side. That demon couldn’t breathe fire or tear through a metal panel with her claws, but she was immune to purely physical attacks like a blade or a bullet.

“Out of the way.”

So I grew bold.

“I want to know what happened to the Aoandon…to that baby. I don’t have time to deal with you. Get lost if you know what’s good for you.”

“I see.”

Saiki Kazu silently turned his head and stared coldly into the distance.

He was most likely looking to the small woods where the Aoandon and Hyakki Yakou’s Hafuri were confronting each other.

“The equation has fallen apart. …No, it may be more accurate to say the Aoandon’s structure has changed. Perhaps I should say the software remains unchanged, the base OS has been forcibly updated so many times that the software is no longer compatible.”

“…”

“Did you change the number of stories forming her? Not bad for such a short time. This may be an abnormality created by the constant contact with Youkai in an Intellectual Village.”

“Enough talk.”

I knew I was relying on outside help, but I would utilize this chance. I couldn’t defeat both Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon’s group, so I needed to attack the Aoandon’s group while they were rattled. If I could quickly defeat one side, there would be no more reason to continue fighting in this village.

“Will you willingly let me through or will I have to punch you first? It’s your choice.”

“Now, I have a question for you and your unwitting expertise.”

Saiki Kazu slowly raised both hands and continued speaking without moving his lips.

“You analyze the structure of Youkai and attack their weaknesses. Or you reveal the Youkai built into a criminal Package and find a loophole. In that case…”

His emotionless eyes pierced through me, the master of a (low-ranked) paranormal demon.

“Will that usual skill be of any use if you ran across a Youkai not found in any old tome or any database? Wouldn’t that make for an interesting test?”

Part 3 (3rd person)

Darkness covered everything.

The Aoandon had been thrown out into darkness too deep to distinguish one direction from another.

This was not a real or physical phenomenon, but it took her a few seconds to realize the excess data taken in from Jinnai Shinobu had directed her mind inward rather than outward.

Once she was aware of it, she saw countless bluish-white lines running through that darkness. It was a sea of data. It was her very essence and also the life-giving womb that had created her.

There was something there which clearly did not belong.

She did not know if distance meant anything here, but it appeared to be about five meters in front of her.

The biological lifeform known as Jinnai Shinobu stood in the sea of data.

“…Dh…”

She groaned while holding a hand to her shaking head.

A mass of incomprehensible data was tormenting her sense of self. She had taken in the human data of Jinnai Shinobu as much as possible. Words could lie, but data could not. The path the boy had walked filled her mind.

It could not all be summed up with some lofty ideals.

He had met several Youkai, encountered filthy Packages using those Youkai, and gotten involved in countless incidents.

When he had faced those incidents to resolve them, he had not always been driven by a sense of justice, ethics, or morals. Oftentimes, he simply wanted to live and for that reason doubted the friends and family around him.

But the Aoandon did not understand.

She understood why he would doubt those close to him. She did not understand why he was so attached to this ugly world.

She felt she understood just how ugly the world was.

She had been born from the incident in Zenmetsu Village. When she had searched from there, as if branching out her knowledge, she had learned just how cruel a reality this was and just how many people spread irresponsible rumors without facing that reality. It was not confined to Zenmetsu Village or that corporate prison. When she had searched for similar Package-related incidents, she had found the screams of people being similarly crushed and others taking irresponsible revenge on each other.

The world was full of blood and gore, red and black.

Why would he want to remain here?

In the sea of data, she did not need to speak her question aloud. The Jinnai Shinobu (technically, just his data) standing before her held out his right hand. His index finger seemed to be pointing right in front of her nose.

No, that was not it.

He was actually pointing at something directly behind her.

What was that something?

Driven by that simple question, she slowly looked back over her shoulder.

Something happened a moment later.

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

The next thing she knew, the sea of data had left.

Her mind had shifted from inward to outward. The smell of humus tickling at her nose and the rusty iron flavor in her mouth forced physical reality back onto her.

She was sitting on the ground and her eyes dropped to her bloody hands.

Her fingertips were trembling.

She had eaten human flesh. She had ripped open his gut, pulled out his entrails, used her white teeth to bite through them, and swallowed them.

Youkai that sucked blood or ate organs were not uncommon. Most of the deadly Youkai that did not curse their victims used such methods.

She had gathered the fears of one hundred ghost stories, so she too had that ability. It was not to the point that she needed to eat people to survive, but if she switched over to the proper mode, she could eat a human body without hesitation.

And yet…

“Why…am I trembling…?”

The worst and greatest Youkai was dumbfounded.

The rusty smell stabbed deep into her nose, a strange warmth was caught between her teeth, the sensation of her chewing her meal lingered in her teeth and jaw, a stickiness remained on her tongue, and some hair was caught deep in her throat.

And altogether…

“I find it…disgusting? I…I’m the monster that exists beyond the one hundred fears. Why would I be feeling this human sensibility?”

“So you have lost your will to fight?”

A metallic sound rang out.

While sitting on the ground like a mere girl, the Aoandon turned toward the source of the sound and found the adult and child Hafuris glaring at her with the same family emblem on their clothing. The adult one held an eerily glittering Japanese sword.

“Would that be accurate?”

“What…are you…?”

“Hyakki Yakou is the greatest paranormal organization in the country…no, the world. As their leader, I should probably hold my tongue here, but to be honest, I do not have an accurate grasp of the situation either. That is why I am asking you.”

“…”

“Are you still a being that will bring harm to mankind?”

“Don’t…joke. I don’t need a reason. I’m doing this because everyone wants me to. Not even Jinnai Shinobu could do anything. He didn’t affect me in the slightest.”

“Yes, a mere high school boy could not do a thing,” bluntly admitted Hafuri. “And isn’t that why you’re so shocked that you did not receive anything from him?”

“Wha-…?”

“Jinnai Shinobu may have been trying to give you some kindness. He may have been trying to stop you with that. But it did not reach you. He bet his life on it and was literally devoured, and yet he was of no use whatsoever. …But you find that regrettable. He taught you the meaning of sorrow. In a way, doesn’t that make this his victory?”

The Aoandon was a deadly Youkai created from the combination of one hundred ghost stories, one hundred rumors.

That made her very interested in listening to what people had to say, regardless of whether it was good or evil. Even if it was a stranger or her enemy, she was not opposed to accepting data.

But she had been unable to do so.

She had not received any of what he had bet his life on telling her.

What if that had been the dying words of the individual she could call her father?

“No…”

The word escaped her trembling lips.

For some reason, her lips were trembling against her will.

“I am the being that exists beyond the one hundred fears. I would never hold that kind of normal, worthless, and pointless-…”

She trailed off when she realized the truth.

She could not gather any strength in her body. Some of her curses only required a glance or a thought without any actual movement, but not even they would target properly.

“This does not seem to be a problem with your bodily structure,” calmly analyzed Hafuri. “It takes an unimaginable level of resolve for a human to intentionally kill another human. Of course, such feelings do not always show themselves between human and Youkai.”

“Ah…ah…”

“But what if a Youkai were given the same sensibilities as a human, even by some underhanded means? Even if you have one hundred deadly powers and even if you use them to produce unlimited possibilities, it seems your finger stops before pulling the trigger. We had only ever thought of killing, so this is a truly fascinating method for Hyakki Yakou.”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The Aoandon screamed as if to reject it all.

She used explosive muscular strength unimaginable from her slender frame to instantly stand up and charge toward Hafuri like an artillery shell. Her claws could easily slice through the surrounding tree trunks and they flew toward Hafuri’s neck.

But…

“I knew it.”

Hafuri did not even blink.

The Aoandon’s fingertips stopped unnaturally just before reaching their target.

“With these new sensibilities of yours, you seem unable to kill a defenseless ten-year-old girl.”

“…”

“There is no need to be afraid. In the earliest stages of education, the child copies their parents and builds up their sensibilities from that. But as they are not psychic, they cannot perfectly glean their parents’ feelings. Everyone makes their own interpretations just as you did and continues forward assuming they understand.” Hafuri narrowed her eyes a little. “Personally, I think you should reflect on the honest joy of having this perfectly normal opportunity. You had a father who was willing to go this far to get something through to you.”

This girl called the opportunity perfectly normal, yet she had not been given the same opportunity.

She had been forced to lead Hyakki Yakou at the tender age of ten.

She had lost both her parents to assassins within their own organization.

“Don’t…joke…”

The Aoandon’s sharp claws were only a few centimeters away, but they only trembled without managing to touch the girl’s slender neck.

“I can’t curse anyone, harm anyone, or kill anyone… How am I supposed to maintain my existence as an Aoandon like this!?”

“Children grow up by observing their parents, but they need not be bound by those parents’ lives.”

Once again, that was something Hafuri had been unable to do.

She had only been able to protect the world by following in her unseen parents’ footsteps, but that was why she could speak of this ideal here.

“You must choose for yourself what life you will live. But of course, that is only after you have paid for everything you have done.”

“…”

The Aoandon remained silent for a while.

She had countless means of brutally killing this girl, but they only existed as a function or ability. She could not actually use them. Jinnai Shinobu had created these new sensibilities within her by risking his life. He had placed a bizarre safety device to lock her weapons away.

“You aren’t going to kill me?”

“After everything you have done, it would be hard to find a convincing reason not to kill you.” Hafuri let out a troubled sigh. “But this possibility that Jinnai Shinobu has demonstrated is promising enough to warrant taking on this difficult challenge. Simply put, it would be a shame to kill you here and lose this process of neutralizing a deadly Youkai. Of course, it is hardly a viable method if it requires having someone eaten alive, but if we can analyze it and reconstruct it in a harmless way, it could revolutionize this small field of ours.”

“I can’t believe this,” muttered the Aoandon while her vision went dark.

This conclusion was positioned as far from fear and despair as possible.

It was bright.

Had that boy handed his body over to her with this in mind? From what she could see of his data inside her, there were no traces of having calculated it out that far. But that was not the heart of the issue. Even if he hadn’t calculated out every last part of it, he had known someone else would fill in the gaps. The bonds between people had brought this farther than anyone had predicted. It may have been incomplete and unfinished, but he had done everything he could to resolve this as quickly as possible and reduce the damage as much as possible.

Did that mean even this series of coincidences could be attributed to Jinnai Shinobu?

Like in the Straw Millionaire, this was the unseen power that joined people together. That was what he had presented for the Aoandon to process as a single system.

It had only taken him a little over a minute.

He had eliminated Archdemon Tselika, neutralized the Aoandon, and created enough of a power gap between Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon’s group that she would have a chance to surrender. …And on top of it all, he had given her a small bargaining chip to prevent her entire group from simply being slaughtered. Afterwards, he had vanished.

With all that in mind, the corners of the Aoandon’s lips silently twisted.

“No.”

“…?”

“This isn’t over yet. We still have him.”

As soon as she said that, dense tension seemed to solidify the atmosphere, like thin threads twisting together to form a solid rope.

There was something there, but it was not Archdemon Tselika and it was not the Aoandon of the one hundred fears.

Hafuri could think of only one other option.

(That man in the Illness Magic’s report who shot down our mobile fortress. He most likely trained his own body akin to Kodoku by killing the majority of those gathered for their group.)

“Aoandon!! If you don’t want to waste the seeds Jinnai Shinobu has sown, then stop-…!!”

She started to shout, but then she stopped.

She had noticed the strange expression on the Aoandon’s face. It could not be classified into any of the usual emotions.

It looked like someone who had secretly prepared a birthday party for herself, only to have all of those plans destroyed on the day of the party.

It also looked like someone who had no one show up to celebrate her birthday, only to have her friends show up to surprise her at the very last moment.

It was an utter contradiction.

It looked like not even she knew how to handle the data inside her.

“My words aren’t enough to stop him. Nothing anyone in my group says will stop him.”

After all…

“In a way, Saiki Kazu uses an even more twisted paranormal power than me.”

Part 4

A black wind raged.

It took me far too long to realize Saiki Kazu, that ventriloquist-like man in a dark suit, had physically “moved”.

His claws slashed through the air right in front of me and tore the chest of my jacket open.

It wasn’t my own power that saved me.

First, the Succubus had grabbed my shoulders and leaped backwards with all her might.

Second, Marguerite must have felt a debt for being freed from Tselika because she reached out a hand from the ground and did something.

That was a demon and a witch.

With the help of two Western paranormal beings, I only managed to avoid the attack by a few millimeters.

There was more to him than just Tselika. Was he drawing on some other paranormal power? Was he drawing on the power of some Youkai?

“A fascinating ability.”

Saiki Kazu emotionlessly spoke as the Succubus and I only managed to move two or three steps back.

“Normally, my killer intent would have kept you glued to the spot. Is this the power that neutralizes the fear and creates a bond, giving you such a great affinity with any Youkai?”

“?”

“It is similar to Ranzono Sachi’s ability, but it is more indiscriminate and covers a wider range. If you were able to consciously wield it, you would have individually been able to recreate the phenomenon known as Hyakki Yakou.”

Something unpleasant spiraled through his words.

I bit my thumb and tasted the blood for a specific answer.

An avalanche of Youkai had responded to young Shinobu’s cry and chased down the Aburatori. No one had been in the wrong, but that had been the trigger to a definite tragedy.

I gained the knowledge through the external access, so I spat out my emotional answer.

“To hell with that.”

“I see. It may be your ability to speak back like this that leads the world’s paranormal beings to take your side.”

Acting tough was one thing, but I also had to figure out what to do.

First of all, what Youkai was Saiki Kazu using? Without knowing that, I couldn’t find an opening. And buying time in a head-on battle was probably going to be difficult.

“Would you like a hint?”

Saiki Kazu made a shocking suggestion.

The Succubus whispered in my ear while staring at the man standing entirely still with his arms gently spread.

“(Master.)”

“(Yeah, unless he’s just bragging, he’s clearly trying to confuse us. But does that mean he has some kind of identity or weakness we would notice if he didn’t hide it?)”

He did not wait for us to finish our discussion.

He spoke his own words as if drawing power directly from the text.

“One: Saiki Kazu can move too quickly to be seen.”

The black wind roared again.

This time, the Succubus moved behind me. She passed her arms below mine and placed her fingers on my chest to hold me in place like a roller coaster’s safety bar and then she flew high into the sky.

“Nhh!”

“Kyah!?”

Just before we took flight, I barely managed to grab the Umbrella and Lantern.

By the time I heard the Succubus’s flapping wings, we were already twenty meters from the ground.

Tengu, Kasha, Keizoubou-Gitsune, Kamaitachi, Yamanba, Aburatori, the Nopperabou that surprises anyone who sees it twice. Is it a fast Youkai that can get ahead of its opponent?

“Two: Saiki Kazu can crush his target remotely.”

The black wind came to a stop and became the dark suited figure once more.

The stopped man formed a gun with his right hand, like a child playing around, and aimed at the orange-dyed sky. In other words, at us.

First, the Succubus and I were knocked to the side.

Next, the region of space we had just been floating in was entirely compressed. A fist-sized glowing orange ball floated at the center. As if it had suddenly remembered gravity existed, it fell straight down. Once I realized it was the air’s dust and dirt after it was compressed and heated, a chill ran down my spine. If we had been caught in that, we would have been immediately turned to mincemeat!

“That first impact was Marguerite’s help, but I doubt she can save us every time. Not to mention that she doesn’t have a contract with anyone at the moment and that man is far too skilled!!”

“I know that!!”

Makuragaeshi, Yamanba, Inugami, Killing Stone, Tsuchigumo, Nue, Furutsubaki, Zashiki Warashi, Oshira-sama. There are plenty of Youkai that use formless curses, but that doesn’t fit with the earlier high-speed movement. The only overlap is the Yamanba.

“Three: Saiki Kazu can predict his target’s future position.”

This time, I thought my vision had gone dark, like the power had gone out.

The dark suited man made only a small movement. While standing in the dry paddy field with his gun gesture aimed upwards, he simply shook that hand a little. However, it was a decisive movement. I could tell he was accurately pursuing the Succubus and me through the orange sky.

“Master!!”

“Not yet! Dammit. What Youkai is he using!?”

Kudan, Shaberi-Ishi, Zashiki Warashi, fox… Oh, damn. That rules out the Yamanba!! The more hints I have, the closer I should get to his identity and weakness, but this is only confusing me further. At this rate, he’s going to shoot us down before I can figure out-

“No, you don’t need to figure out what he’s using.”

A new voice cut in.

At the same time, a dull sound burst from the center of Saiki Kazu’s chest. A woman’s arm had forcefully pierced through his back and out the front.

I only knew one person who could do that.

With that woman, I could believe the idea that simply meeting her was deadly.

“Hishigami…Mai…?”

“I only need to know you’re relying in some kind of paranormal power. I can kill all such things, so there’s no need to analyze every little thing like my sister and her murder mysteries.”

Even then, the dark suited man’s expression remained unchanged.

Except, that is, for the single trail of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

And…

“Four.”

Unbelievably, he continued speaking.

His heart had been torn out, so he should have been done for as a living creature.

“The concept of numbers does not apply to Saiki Kazu.”

I heard a quiet footstep.

I heard more and more of them until they covered the entire area around us.

Because the Succubus and I were flying through the orange sky, we noticed the bizarre scene before anyone else.

It was a group of identical men in dark suits.

At least one hundred copies of the unemotional man named Saiki Kazu stood across the paddy fields.

“What…is this?”

I did not even have time to feel a chill anymore.

“What kind of Youkai power is he using!?”

Part 5 (3rd person)

Saiki Kazu watched Hishigami Mai racing across the dry paddy field.

The woman had used Jinnai Shinobu’s neutralization of fear to kill one of him and that told her he was not an insurmountable obstacle. That may have been the only reason she could continue moving without being crushed by the intense killer intent.

Still, he did not view this as much of a problem.

There was no concept of a “center” to his hundred or more bodies, so their senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch were all gathered together. He was aware of all those many senses, just like an insect’s brain processed the images from its compound eyes, but he could also shift his consciousness from one body to another. The sensation may have been something no human with just the one point of view could understand.

The closest comparison was to call it a system rather than a living being.

It may have been like sitting in a distant security room filled with monitors and switching between countless cameras to search for and follow one’s target.

“Is that all?”

“Is that all?”

“Is that all?”

His right hands formed guns.

More than one hundred index fingers aimed at Hishigami Mai. With Mai at the center, they seemed to form a giant flower or firework.

A single shot had the power of an antiaircraft gun capable of shooting down a strategic bomber ten thousand meters away, but over one hundred of them turned to explosive pressure and shot toward her from every direction.

In addition to the numbers and strength, Saiki Kazu had the power to predict the future. There was not even the slightest chance he would miss.

“Is that all the fragile power of good has to offer, Hyakki Yakou?”

“Is that all the fragile power of good has to offer, Hyakki Yakou?”

“Is that all the fragile power of good has to offer, Hyakki Yakou?”

“Tch!! I’m! A! Freelancer!!”

Hishigami Mai dodged left and right in living, flowing lines, but her efforts were not rewarded.

A portion of the scenery distorted and the very space around her was compressed.

But it was not enough.

She was one of the abominable Hishigami Women.

One second before the direct hit, Mai’s right arm plunged into the chest of a nearby Saiki Kazu and swung him around to use his body as a shield.

“You might be a monster that uses some strange Youkai, but I can restrain your attack using your own power. It’s like the unstoppable force and the immovable object. And amusingly enough, there are more than a hundred of you standing all around here! I can grab as many of you as I want!!”

More and more cursed shots flew her way as she yelled back at him.

Before the Saiki Kazu being used as a shield could lose his basic shape and fall apart, Mai would run to the next Saiki Kazu and acquire her new shield. Then she repeated the process. Using up the shields both secured her own safety and slowly wore down the numbers of her enemy.

It was nightmarish and grotesque, but it was the optimal answer that killed two birds with one stone.

However…

“I see. It would seem the same technique will not work on you forever.”

“I see. It would seem the same technique will not work on you forever.”

“I see. It would seem the same technique will not work on you forever.”

The exact same words came from the countless mouths of the countless Saiki Kazus.

It even came from the unconcerned expression of the one that was falling apart as Mai used him as a shield.

“Then I suppose I should move on to the next one.”

“Then I suppose I should move on to the next one.”

“Then I suppose I should move on to the next one.”

“?”

It happened before she could put her guard up.

“Five: When cornered, Saiki Kazu explodes, spreading a curse.”

“Five: When cornered, Saiki Kazu explodes, spreading a curse.”

“Five: When cornered, Saiki Kazu explodes, spreading a curse.”

“Sh*t!!!???”

Mai swung her right arm as hard as she could. The “shield” slipped off of her arm and flew into a group of several Saiki Kazus like she was bowling. The slender body swelled bloodily out around the chest wound and burst like a water balloon. A red mist spread in every direction, corroding all of the bowling pins.

(I can’t use him as a shield anymore. I guess I’ll have to reduce his numbers by inducing chains of explosions like a puzzle game. If I time the explosions right, I might be able to alter the course of his attacks. But…)

“Six.”

“Six.”

“Six.”

“Dammit! Are you really drawing out the power of a Youkai!? You aren’t just making it up as you go along, are you!?”

Those words seemed to give Mai a sudden realization.

(Wait…)

“Is that it? I can’t tell what Youkai you’re using no matter how much I think about it. Everything you’re doing looks like you’re adding in whatever powers would be convenient at the moment. What you’re doing is fundamentally different from all the Packages and other techniques of our small field. What you’re doing is-…!!”

“Saiki Kazu is a symbol of impurity, so merely touching him will curse you.”

“Saiki Kazu is a symbol of impurity, so merely touching him will curse you.”

“Saiki Kazu is a symbol of impurity, so merely touching him will curse you.”

All direct attacks were off limits.

Mai clicked her tongue, pulled her suppressor-equipped handgun from her boot, and pulled the doll-shaped wooden charm from the pocket of her hot pants. She swung the wooden charm in a vertical line as if passing it through an invisible card reader and space split apart. A Shikigami shaped like a girl in a short kimono stepped out.

This was the Deadly Dragon Princess.

Mai had always said that using this paranormal power meant she had 100% lost.

“Is this all that the fragile good has to offer?”

A single Saiki Kazu seemed to act as the representative and spoke without moving his lips.

As before, he worked to corner his target.

“When will you demonstrate powerful justice, Hyakki Yakou?”