e. However, the paper is so damaged I can only read bits and pieces.”

“Just tell me what you can read.”

“The village’s source of income came from gold dust collected in a river at the bottom of a ravine. There must have been a gold mine somewhere, but they did not have the technology to search for it or mine it.”

“...I was wondering how that man bought that portable stove and gas cylinder.”

“However, the amount of gold dust they could get was unstable. During years in which they found less, they did not earn enough to live off of which affected the stability of the village’s entire society. They had a common ritual they would use to resolve their worries.”

“A ritual?”

“You could call it ‘thinning the herd’ or ‘leaving fewer mouths to feed’. The ritual was performed by taking any baby born during one of those difficult years and drowning it in the spring in that cave. ...Simply put, they would leave fewer people to help resolve the lack of food.”

Silence fell.

This was not a problem with the signal.

Shinobu did not know how to respond to this information that went well beyond what he had expected.

“From the format of this writing, this is something that happened over 100 years ago,” pointed out the Zashiki Warashi.

“Not necessarily,” groaned Shinobu. “There were two graveyards in the village. That’s probably because they had one for the normal villagers and one for the babies that had been killed in the ritual. Thirty years ago was the age of color television!”

No matter what anyone said or how they tried to deny it, what had happened would not change.

Occasionally, that village that seemed frozen in time would not have enough food.

To resolve that, they had continued to drown babies as if it was perfectly normal.

Even as televisions moved from black and white to color, even as bullet trains rushed around Japan, and even as air conditioners became a part of the standard household, it had continued. As if insisting that remaining unchanged was a virtue, they had continued to drown babies.

And if someone had not annihilated everyone living there, it would likely still be happening.

The victims of the incident had been human.

But there was no guarantee that they were all “perfectly innocent”.

“This is the last one. The Japanese paper you found next to a broken jar. ...Hm. This must be the snake Youkai you saw in the village.”

“What is it?”

If it was a giant serpent symbolizing rivers, it would be the Orochi or the Uwabami.

But that was not it.

The Zashiki Warashi replied as if teaching a young child how to read a difficult kanji.

“Toubyou. It is a possessing spirit that comes as a set of 75 small snakes.”

Part 27 (Hishigami Mai)

Yamada Ken, Sakai Haruka, Kurumaya Nozomi, Tanishita Hajime, Suzukawa Izumi, and Gogan Sakura.

“There. That’s the one,” I spat out as I swung my arm forcefully down.

I aimed for the culprit’s head.

But I missed.

My right hand smashed into the parking lot asphalt up to the wrist. The culprit who had been pretending to be dead had rolled to the side to avoid my arm.

“Tch. You idiot!!”

What the hell!? Why did my hand pierce the asphalt so easily!?

My body was specialized for anti-Youkai combat. If I forced myself to take on a metal panel or asphalt, I would smash my own flesh to pieces.

“Ah...ah...”

As the Sunekosuri let out a dumbfounded voice, I pulled my arm out of the smashed asphalt.

It seemed my attack had not been completely wasted.

A torn-off ear hung down from my index finger.

“How...? But...she was...she was dead just a moment ago!”

“You dumbass. This wasn’t like Yamada-kun’s split head with the brains leaking out or Sakai-chan’s gut that ruptured like a water balloon. If you had paid attention, it should have been obvious.”

I threw away the ear as the figure stared at me and slowly stood up.

The piece of flesh struck the culprit in the chest where it slid down in accordance with gravity.

“Having so many snakes coming from your mouth that your jaw dislocates isn’t enough to kill you. If the snakes were only in your mouth and had not entered your throat or organs, you could continue breathing through your nose,” I said to the culprit. “Isn’t that right, Suzukawa Izumi-chan?”

She was about high school age. As one of the prisoners in the corporate prison, she had been forced to wear unrefined workwear. Or so it had seemed.

However, the Sunekosuri was trembling and said, “Wh-what is that?”

“Don’t ask me.”

“Why is that girl’s skin peeling off to reveal an old woman’s face!? Who is she!?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” I replied offhandedly before smiling. “But the kind of person that disguises themselves as a beautiful girl tends not to be a decent person in reality.”

Suzukawa Izumi, or the old woman wearing her skin, spoke in a hoarse voice with her face half destroyed.

“...Is that so?”

“There was a rumor of a free pass in the corporate prison and alcohol would occasionally find its way in. Whether the person using the free pass was a prisoner or a jailer, they were part of a group that wanted to destroy the corporate prison and they were using the alcohol as currency to negotiate and make deals with people. That way they could gather the items they needed for a Youkai or Package. ...That was our theory so far, but it looks like the situation was actually a bit different.”

“Eh? ...Oh, I get it! If that old woman could disguise herself as Suzukawa Izumi...!!”

“She could disguise herself as other people too. A single person was using the free pass the entire time. By periodically faking her death and taking over someone else’s face, she could continue taking action while escaping suspicion.”

“...”

“I don’t know how many people are cooperating with her outside the factory, but if she wanted to periodically leave, she must have had some equipment to make periodic contact. Maybe a server that uses a satellite to communicate. And it would of course work on a band that gets past the jammers.”

The old woman said nothing more.

In the very next moment, a great number of small snakes unnaturally slithered out from within the fog.

Dozens of them appeared only a few centimeters from my face. I instinctually took a step back and gravity dragged the snakes down to the parking lot asphalt.

The old woman looked confused.

“Is it that surprising?” I asked with a scornful laugh. “The snakes all came from within the others’ bodies and wounds. The medium is likely the fog. When the victim breathes it in, you can call the snakes into their body to kill them.”

“...Then there should be no way for you to avoid it.”

“How na?ve. You shouldn’t think of me as having the same standards as the other creatures we call humans. I am extraordinarily powerful against Youkai and the like. I even have the ability to bite off Youkai flesh and digest it in my stomach. Once they’re inside my body, there’s nothing they can do. I can even purify all of this fog that reeks of Youkai.” And I did not stop there. “A normal human cannot kill a normal Youkai, but the same cannot be said when it is Youkai versus Youkai. That is why people in my business like to use Shikigami. Sunekosuri! If you don’t want to die, bite apart all of the snakes appearing in your mouth!!”

Unpleasant noises began coming from the Sunekosuri’s mouth.

A Sunekosuri was a Youkai without a violent side. All it could do was rub its head up against travelers’ legs.

However, these snake Youkai were only as thick as a little finger and thirty centimeters long.

Speaking purely about size and ignoring their strength and special characteristics, they were like slightly hard sausages. That meant a small dog’s teeth were enough to tear them apart.

“Ueh, uehhh!! Peh, peh! I-I hate creatures without legs! Woof woof!! Ubh!? Gehhhh!! Ow!! What is this ring!? Why is there metal mixed in with them!?”

He seemed to be having it tough since more snakes would appear every time he breathed in the fog.

He was continually biting them and spitting them out, so he did not seem in danger of having his stomach burst. I decided I could safely focus on the old woman.

“Since this was a snake Youkai related to the water in the fog, I assumed it was an Orochi or Uwabami, but it seems I was a bit off.” I got to the heart of the issue as I glanced over at the gold ring-like objects the teary-eyed Sunekosuri was spitting out. “The Toubyou. If I recall, it is a Youkai raised in a jar or pot that comes in a set of 75. In exchange for periodically giving them sake or a rice ball, they allow the master of the home to prosper by stealing gold, silver, and treasure from other houses. They are a stereotypical possessing spirit. ...That must have been the characteristic used to make the 8000 people from the corporate prison vanish...no, to make the few of us here go missing. This Package automatically “steals” the people needed for the master’s objective. That produces this spirited away effect.”

“...You do not understand.”

“What don’t I understand?”

“The Youkai I wanted to use was not a possessing spirit!!”

She must have learned she could not directly target me from within, so the arrangement of the Toubyou changed.

Dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of snakes rained down around the old woman. They coiled around each other, bit into each other, became strongly intertwined, and branched off complexly. All together, they created a giant serpentine silhouette.

Wait. Wait just a second.

“You mixed in the characteristics of the Orochi!? Dammit. I should have investigated the abandoned village!!”

“This is closer to the form of the Youkai that should have been in the village. But your regrets are meaningless. My shrine was destroyed long ago. There is nothing left.”

“So ‘Suzukawa Izumi’ was the survivor of Zenmetsu Village rumored to exist within the corporate prison.”

“How long ago do you think I am a survivor from?” spoke the old woman in a whisper with her back to the giant branching snake. “Would you believe me if I said I have been this old woman for over 100 years?”

“I see no reason not to. I have remade and swapped out everything from my fingertips to my internal organs, so it doesn’t surprise me you can alter yourself like that. I don’t really see the point, though.”

“The Four Mountains village was created over 100 years ago as a treatment facility for those suffering from spiritual injuries or other serious harm related to Youkai. Although in reality, it was mostly a quarantine area people were abandoned in.”

“Is there any need to explain this?”

“My objective was to enter the Four Mountains village, intentionally split the group so two powerful families were created, and maintain a constant state of internal conflict. Essentially, I was a spy meant to control Four Mountains. By taking the hatred pointed outwards and turning it inwards, the residents would not try to breach the walls of the village. If all went well, they would be satisfied with their extremely small cycle and extremely small society.”

“...Was that really necessary?”

“But the gold dust in the river gave them the foreign currency they need to contact the outside world. Then when the possessing spirits were brought in, they decided to spiritually arm themselves. That was 30 years ago. This caused the Kuroyama Electronics Group to view them as dangerous. The child drowning going on at the time left the underground water impure, so it was banned for anyone to drink it. Due to the timing, this intensified their opposition of the corporation that wished to use that underground water for the semiconductor factory.”

It happened as I tried to make a surprise attack during a pause in the conversation.

“That was why the Kuroyama Electronics Group planned to take the initiative and annihilate the Four Mountains village.”

The old woman’s hand moved.

“They had yet to complete the Toubyou Package that covered the entire Four Mountains area. It was left behind unfinished.”

She held a container filled with water, sake, or some other liquid. She buried that hand in the branching Orochi behind her.

“That is why I overwrote the Toubyou Package with the Youkai and ritual that village was originally meant to have.”

And she pulled her hand back out.

As if that were their cue, the giant serpent all too easily scattered apart.

“Originally, the serpent was nothing more than the scabbard.”

The old woman held a sword in her hand.

Instead of a single-edged katana, it was a double-edged sword from an older era.

The old woman spoke quietly as she casually lowered that sword that emitted a brilliant light as if it were shining in the sun.

“Its true nature is the production of a sword. The name of the sword that appeared after the defeat of a serpent branching into eight was Kusanagi.”

...Not good!!!

She seriously has the ability to illegally access and forcefully draw out the power of one of the Three Sacred Treasures by following the diagram of defeating Yamata no Orochi!? This has gone well outside the realm of anti-Youkai!!

By the time I realized I had completely misinterpreted how much distance I needed from her, the situation had already begun to move.

A fearsome slash assaulted me like a flash of lightning.

Part 28 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

As I watched on, Hasebe Michio, a man deeply involved in the past slaughter of Zenmetsu Village, was eaten by a great number of snake Youkai.

The mysteries had only grown, but remaining there would not have helped.

I grabbed the arm of the rag-wearing man who seemed to be a survivor of Zenmetsu Village and urged him to get out of the ravine river and up onto land.

The cliff was only a few meters tall and it was not completely vertical.

There were uneven protrusions sticking out that we could grab or use as footing, so an amateur could easily climb up in exchange for further muddying our clothes.

“Are you okay?” asked the mystery freak once I had crawled up.

I lay collapsed on the ground catching my breath as I answered.

“Hasebe was devoured by snakes.”

“I can only imagine that is a figurative description, so could you be more specific?”

“I mean it literally! They were in the rental car’s hood too, remember? It was those small snake Youkai. A group of them suddenly attacked Hasebe!!”

“It shouldn’t have happened,” muttered the other man blankly. His entire body was trembling. “Those Youkai aren’t dangerous like that! They don’t indiscriminately attack people and cause them to vanish like a Tengu does...”

“We don’t even know your name!” I said to cut him off. “Who are you!? You didn’t call out to Hasebe or me. You called out to those snake Youkai. You told them to stop. Do you know something about them!?”

“Those are...” The rag-wearing man trailed off, but nervously continued. “They are a possessing spirit known as a Toubyou. In the past, the more influential members of the village bought them from a merchant in the Shikoku area... We managed somehow by gathering gold dust, but this small village was so cut off from the outside world that it had no stable source of food. It did not even have electricity or phone lines. It was cut off and kept at a distance! And so...”

“You borrowed the power of a possessing spirit Youkai that could steal whatever you needed from others’ houses?” said the mystery freak, finishing the man’s sentence for him.

The man averted his gaze a bit.

“The annihilation befell the village just before the Package was completed. It shouldn’t have been functioning, but it seems a preliminary framework of the Assembly was in place. That is why those snakes will listen to what I say to a certain extent. If I periodically give them rice balls and sake, that is. I just need the pot and stove to cook the rice.”

To a certain extent.

That may have been the payment for leaving the framework abandoned.

Borrowing the Youkai’s power may have been convenient, but it was like crossing a completely unmaintained suspension bridge day in and day out.

It might be fine today.

But what about tomorrow? What about the day after? What about a month from now or a year from now?

Wouldn’t your foot eventually break through a damaged board?

“Toubyou are raised in earthen jars or pots, right?”

“Yes. But getting the Toubyou to take root in Four Mountains would have been all for naught if an outsider who hated us or a traitor among us broke the jar. That is why a larger framework was prepared in addition to the jars underneath the houses.”

“...?”

“Four Mountains itself. In other words, a large area of land that is surrounded by mountains. The assembly of the Package was adjusted so that would function as the ‘jar’ the Toubyou live in. But this project was put together by the rich influential group, so I do not know the details.”

An unpleasant feeling raced up my spine.

That meant the entire basin area functioned as the snakes’ territory.

And the snakes had the ability to steal whatever items their master wished from the world outside that giant “jar”.

It was as if we had been hiding within the beast’s den. No matter how hard we tried to escape, those Youkai would easily capture us. And even if we did escape their den, our safety was not guaranteed. The Toubyou was a Youkai that travelled outside its jar to steal various items.

“Whatever the case, I think we can assume those Toubyou are deeply related to this incident.”

“By the way, detective, what are you going to do about Hasebe Michio? Will the police accept ‘he suddenly disappeared due to a Youkai’s power’ as an answer?”

“My head hurts... Well, we found that bag with a rusted blade and some money in it. I just have to use that to prove Hasebe was involved in the attack on Zenmetsu Village.”

“The Toubyou is also a Youkai that causes illnesses in those obstructing the prosperity of its house,” said the rag-wearing man almost in a groan. “But they are not powerful enough to kill. What was that we saw...? I’ve never seen the Toubyou do that before...”

“At any rate, I want you to come with us. Cases involving Youkai can be difficult to handle, but I need you to write an affidavit.”

Under current law, Youkai could not be judged directly. Or rather, locking them up had little meaning when they had no lifespan, and there was no way to execute them since they could not be killed.

And so...

This man had been built into the Toubyou Package and held the authority to control it, so it was possible he should be viewed as the culprit behind Hasebe’s disappearance (or murder).

However, that man had shouted for the Toubyou to stop while they were devouring Hasebe.

I simply had to hope that would be considered in the courtroom.

“No...”

The man uttered a word of refusal.

The mystery freak frowned and all of my muscles tensed slightly. I slowly sat up from where I had been lying exhausted on the ground.

Is he going to run off in fear of being arrested?

I grew cautious, but the situation went well beyond my expectations.

“It seems I have already reached my limit.”

For an instant, I could not grasp what he meant.

But shortly thereafter...

“Solved it. Solved it. Solved the puzzle.”

That creepy lullaby voice returned.

When I looked back at the rag-wearing man, his expression was crumpled into something that looked like a smile yet also looked like he was crying.

And when I lowered my gaze, I saw what looked like wriggling black ropes mixed in with the dead grass. They had wrapped solidly around both his ankles.

Those aren’t ropes.

They’re snakes!?

“That means you are no longer needed.”

It was as if giant crocodile jaws grew out from the ground and swallowed the man.

A mass made up of dozens if not hundreds of snakes assaulted him.

Part 29 (Hishigami Mai)

A stick-like object spun through the air as it flew in an arc.

It spun and spun.

Yes.

I still felt no pain, but I could tell. That spinning object was my right arm. That spinning arm had been mercilessly severed at the shoulder.

Immediately afterwards, I kicked the Sunekosuri up into the air and caught him in my left hand. I forcefully bit into the right arm spinning through the air to grab ahold of it.

I then recalled the layout of the semiconductor factory and ran with all my might toward its emergency exit.

I heard a great crash.

God dammit!

I seemed to have misjudged my strength due to the tension. I pulled my ankle out from where it had smashed into the parking lot asphalt and then I continued running.

In the meantime...

“...”

The old woman swung Kusanagi three times.

Three meter long slices appeared in the surrounding fog and equal slices appeared in the neatly lined up vehicles. Several explosions soon followed. I swung my upper body around to avoid it while charging with the speed of an artillery shell toward the factory’s emergency exit that I could see clearly through the slices in the fog.

I ran into the steel door shoulder first.

The two hinges and the deadbolt broke simultaneously, the door bent into a V-shape, and I rolled into the factory.

Before I stood back up, I spat the right arm out of my mouth and onto the floor.

“Gh...!! Pant, pant... Dammit. That damn old woman!!”

“A-are you okay!?”

“My body has been thoroughly modified. The wound hasn’t started to rot yet, so I can reconnect it with my kit.”

A cold sweat covered my body.

Dammit. How could a man-made object catch up to my bodily control!?

“But that kit is in the trunk of our car. As long as that old woman is out there, heading out to the parking lot is suicide.”

“C-can’t you run out there while evading like before?”

“Do you really think I was evading that?”

Uuh... This feels terrible.

It’s because monsters like this sometimes appear with no warning that you can’t take this business lightly.

“I’ve been sliced up good. I didn’t dodge even one of them. It’s just that the cuts were so sharp the damage hasn’t caught up yet. If I don’t do anything, my entire body will fall apart into tiny blocks within 10 minutes.”

If that happened, there was no saving me.

To survive, I would need to finish things with the old woman and retrieve my kit from the trunk of the car in the parking lot all within the time limit.

To be honest, the situation was not good.

“Wh-what? Then...is there...anything I can do!?”

“Don’t panic. The situation may be bad, but it isn’t impossible.”

The worst possibility was the old woman hiding. If she simply waited for me to come out into the foggy parking lot, the 10 minute time limit would be over in no time.

But I was certain that would not happen.

My body may have been sliced to pieces, but I had protected the Sunekosuri.

The old woman would actively attack in order to finish off that cute canine Youkai.

However, I left that unsaid as I continued the conversation.

“Well, fortunately this is a cutting edge semiconductor factory.”

“Eh? Oh, I get it! That old woman is using the fog. This factory is perfectly sealed off and sterilized!!”

“Now that she’s drawn out Kusanagi, I don’t think she needs the fog.”

“Then...”

“Just come with me. We’re going further in.”

I grabbed my severed right arm with my bloody left hand and walked further into the factory with the Sunekosuri close behind me. The production line visible beyond thick glass was made up of nothing but conveyer belts and various robot arms. It seemed to truly be an automated factory. It was a bit surreal to see it still pumping out products like normal despite the situation. Even if humanity was wiped out, it would likely continue making electronic parts no one would use.

“To get to the production line, we have to pass through two layers of doors for the sterilization process... Sunekosuri, will a rural-loving Youkai like you be okay surrounded by so much precise machinery?”

“Not really, but I doubt you’ll listen if I complain.”

Good enough.

We entered the sterilization room between the two layers of doors. A warning sign warned of flammability, so it likely used an ethanol spray and ultraviolet light for quick drying.

You were meant to wear a spacesuit-like outfit when entering, but this was no time to worry about that.

I ignored the error message on the control panel and kicked open the second door. I then stepped into the production line area that was so clean that every form of life was killed down to the microscopic level.

“Wh-what are you going to do here?” asked the Sunekosuri.

The area was large, but it had so much production machinery that it felt like a labyrinth.

“That old woman’s Kusanagi sliced right through all of the cars in the parking lot. I doubt anything in this labyrinth will protect us,” he continued.

“I know that. In fact, you shouldn’t even be thinking about standing up to Kusanagi which is linked to Yamata no Orochi. Our power is only effective against Youkai and things derived from Youkai. We can’t defeat an ability that enters the realm of the gods like the Three Sacred Treasures.”

I glanced around the production line and noted the positions of a few thick pipes.

“But even if that old woman primarily uses the Orochi, it’s still affected by the Toubyou. ...And that’s just a Youkai. That power falls within our world, so we can stand up to it.”

“So you are going to fight back using the characteristics of the Toubyou?”

“Exactly.”

I was a Hishigami woman. Thanks to the ridiculous superstition that we invited in misfortune, we were detested by our great Zaibatsu family that was passed down the male family line and was well-known around the world. In other words, the women born to the Hishigami family could not continue on without possessing specialized skills and characteristics that allowed them to battle an entire Zaibatsu on their own. And for me, those skills had been honed in actual battle.

Did you think you were the only special one around, old woman?

“Just like the fox or dog Youkai, the Toubyou is a stereotypical possessing spirit. They will attach to and cause illness in those who get in the way of their house’s prosperity, and they will steal valuables from other houses to help their house prosper. And they will spread to a spouse’s house if you get married.”

“While raised, they are put in earthen pots and jars and are periodically given rice balls and sake. And the one common rule among almost a-->>

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