ese?

I had initially thought the fall from the road had done it, but I was wrong. Their necks and chests had been torn into in one centimeter wide bands. A blunt injury would not cause that. They had been ripped and torn almost to the throat.

“Watch..”

A groaning young police officer tried to tell me something while looking me in the eye.

I brought my face close to hear his fading voice.

“Watch..out. Behind you!!”

I immediately turned around, but it was too late.

Ranzono Sachi charged toward me like a carnivorous beast and leaped toward my windpipe.

Fresh blood sprayed out.

I had immediately sacrificed my right arm. I heard an unusual tearing sound while I used a charm and Illness Magic to shut down the pain. I swung my arm and her small form flew like a ball, but she skillfully flipped around in midair, regained her balance, and carefully landed on the unstable mountain rocks.

I heard a growl that shook the blood gathered deep in her throat.

She had to have originally been a simple young girl.

She looked quite different from the picture in the documents I had seen, but even children wore makeup these days. If I peeled it all away, I would probably find the face I had seen.

But..

Even that had been blotted out by an animalistic expression.

The girl lowered her hips and let her arms dangle down like a predator crawling on all fours.

Had Ranzono Sachi done this?

It did make sense. The police officers’ injuries had looked like they were torn with human fingernails.

Then had the vehicle crashed because she had gone on a rampage inside? I could see she had broken her handcuffs, despite her slender frame. The bizarre silver bracelets shined dully on her wrists.

That was when the answer hit me.

“The Byouki.”

A Byouki was a cat Youkai from the continent that was created in a Kodoku ritual, a powerful curse made by placing countless poisonous insects in a single jar and having them kill each other. Its primary power was to apply a variety of diseases to whoever it possessed.

Or it drove them insane and made them kill indiscriminately.

The term “Toori-Ma” was used to describe normal criminals in modern times, but it originally referred to a paranormal phenomenon. A Toori-Ma was believed to possess people and cause them to commit unthinkable crimes.

Also, the Byouki user belonged to Shinshou Hitsubatsu, an organization that dealt with criminals who ended up not being convicted of their original crime because of the Youkai involvement.

“So that’s it.”

They would possess the criminal and have them commit another crime. They would send the criminal back to court until they finally received the death penalty. They were causing more crimes to punish criminals and they were using the very Youkai that made punishment so difficult, but it was obvious that they viewed themselves as an exception. They would probably claim they were making a noble sacrifice while letting civilians die at the hands of their Toori-Ma.

So what was I to do?

Ranzono Sachi was not the sort of Toori-Ma talked about in tabloids. Her power and desire to destroy had been amplified by a paranormal being known as a Byouki. The fact that her appearance and physical strength did not match was obvious enough from the cruel gashes in the police officers and the handcuffs broken with her bare hands.

I could of course settle this by sending out my Illness Magic.

However, I had no guarantee that her young body could withstand any further burden. I was not aware of any clinical studies to determine what happened to the human body when both a Byouki and Illness Magic were placed inside it.

That meant I could try holding back.

But that only worked if I was alone. I glanced at the barely-breathing police officers lying on the ground. Could I really hold back while also covering for all of them?

They were on the verge of death, but they were not dead yet.

Ranzono Sachi could still escape this without becoming a murderer. ..Even if this would be the end of her short life.

“What will you do?”

She only growled back at me.

I narrowed my eyes and decided to question her as much as I could.

“How do you want this to end?”

I did not get a second chance.

The beast approached with a tremendous noise. She held her bloody claws and fangs at the ready, so her hostility was clear. My top priority was dealing with the Byouki user, crushing Shinshou Hitsubatsu, and removing this thorn in Hyakki Yakou’s side. Ranzono Sachi herself was only a detour.

Part of me did wonder if that was the right way to think about this.

And that hesitation would allow Ranzono Sachi’s crimes to continue and sully her soul even further.

So I made up my mind, pulled out a charm, and prepared to release the Illness Magic.

But before I could, the mountain split open as an Oomukade charged out and acted as a shield against Ranzono Sachi’s violence.

With a metallic sound, her claws were deflected backwards. I kept my Illness Magic on standby, narrowed my eyes, and asked a question.

“A centipede, huh? You were in that restaurant and on the bank with the courier, weren’t you? Your size was a fair bit different, though.”

“Will you leave Sachi to me?”

“Explain.”

“I checked around the area inside the earth. The actual user will be here soon. Defeating them is what you-..”

“No,” I cut in. “I wasn’t asking why I should leave. I want to know why you would put yourself in danger here.”

The Oomukade seemed to briefly hesitate but finally gave a clear answer.

“Sachi ended up like this because she committed a crime to protect me. She stepped out of line because I tried to protect her.”

“..”

“She is my friend, so I simply cannot allow this to be how it ends! And I made a promise with the others who stopped her crimes. I promised I would return Sachi to that place. I was hopeful that she would have a future with those people who accepted her!!”

“Then do as you wish,” I spat out.

I turned my back on Ranzono Sachi.

She was not my real enemy. I had someone else to deal with.

“I’ll deal with the insignificant Byouki. You can have the starring role this time.”

I jumped and leaped from the rocky area to the hairpin curve above and utilized my sense of smell. They were nearby and approaching. I glanced around, stopped my eyes on one point, and ran in that direction.

I left the poorly-maintained road and entered the dark, dark forest.

The users of Illness Magic and a Byouki faced each other in the corrosion and decomposition of nature.

I heard a giggling sound.

She looked thirteen or fourteen. She was not as slender as Ranzono Sachi who had been turned into a Toori-Ma, but she was still only a small girl. Her black hair was shoulder length and she had white skin with a healthy flush to it. However, she looked somehow sickly with an eyepatch over one eye and several bandages wrapped around her in places. She wore a short yellow China dress that had enough fabric removed to see her navel. On top of that, she wore a cat ear decoration and a blue jacket. She controlled a Youkai from the continent, so she was the barrier containing the paranormal creature. In other words, she was the jar used to create the Kodoku venom. The blue represented darkness and the yellow the warning color of a venomous insect. ..No, she may not have been thinking too much about the symbolism. I couldn’t explain the long sock on just one leg or the comical bandages plastered all over the other leg.

“How cool.”

She sounded just like a little girl.

It was a pure and unconcerned comment like a child watching a superhero on TV.

“You really are cool. Ha ha. I’m not even being ironic, mister. Our industry is full of powers that break the rules, so it’s super cool that you can live there like some kind of samurai! I could never pull it off.”

“..”

“I’m hopeless. Completely hopeless. Everything about me is hopeless. I’m trying to do a good job and I have the best possible plan in my head, but it never works out. It all crumbles away in the end. So, y’see..”

She placed her slender index finger on her soft pink lips and laughed.

“Ha ha. So I can’t hold back here☆ I won’t be safe unless I kill you.”

A great roar burst out.

Dark shadows swept out in every direction from the Byouki user’s feet. They instantly swallowed up the entire surface of the ground, transforming the entire forest into her territory. The trees began to rustle like the mountain itself was talking about me behind my back.

“I hate when things get all bogged down, so I’ll explain everything from the get-go, mister.”

As the entire world throbbed and pulsed eerily, the Byouki user kept her sparkling eyes on me and opened her mouth.

“My Byouki is pretty smartly made. Simply put, even if I don’t manually set it up, it’ll find its own targets. It will search for whoever I consider my enemy and automatically produce the quantity and quality of Byouki needed to defeat them.”

With a sound like slurping mud, shadows, shadows, shadows, and more shadows rose up all around me. Masses of illness that looked just like the girl filled the world in no time at all. There were so many that numbers like one hundred or two hundred were useless.

“So it doesn’t matter how hard you work, mister. The cleverer you get, the more Byouki there will be and they’ll wear you down with their numbers. The Byouki will multiply endlessly until they’ve torn you to pieces with their long claws. Do you understand the rules now?”

“..”

I of course had no intention of sitting idly by and letting her kill me.

I scattered charms around. Inside the storm of paper of my own creation, I raised the index and middle fingers of my injured right hand and thrust them forward like I was holding a sword.

The Illness Magic gathered together like a storm and became a pitch black sword.

“Cursed Sword – Michizane.”

“Oh, c’mon. Didn’t I tell you getting serious would only create more Byouki?”

“Self-destruct. ..Transform as a lesson to all disease.”

“?”

The Byouki user gave a puzzled frown when she saw the sword burst from within.

I continued regardless.

“Holy Sword – Tenjin. Cast aside your form as a tool of Sugawara’s vengeful spirit and release your divinity.”

Pure-white light surged out.

In the instant of its manifestation, it erased even the concept of sound.

A glowing sword erupted from my fingertips with double the previous force. This was a portion of the noble power that had begun as a vengeful spirit with a grudge against Kyoto and had eventually been worshipped into godhood. Just like a serum could be made from a toxin, I could transform my great knowledge of negative power into this positive power. This was the archenemy of illnesses like us.

This was not how it was meant to be used, so I could feel it tearing at me from within.

But I ignored that, aimed the tip of the blade, and stared straight at my enemy’s face.

“Ha.. Ha ha☆”

“Here I go. Prepare yourself.”

“Wow! Wow, wow! How can you do things like that!? Illness users are supposed to be creepy, dirty people who live surrounded by scorn and disgust, so how can you transform that into such a refreshing lifestyle!? You’re amazing! You’re so mature!!”

The Byouki user rejoiced as if she were truly, truly impressed by something.

“But,” she added. “Didn’t I tell you? I’ll still wear you down with numbers.”

With an army of thousands..no, tens of thousands at her beck and call, the girl transformed from soldier to commander.

She claimed to be supplied with exactly the fighting force she needed. If that was true, there was no way for me to win. No matter how much strength I mustered, I was destined to fall to my knees here.

But that would only mean my defeat.

It would not mean Hyakki Yakou’s defeat. My defeat was sure to reveal the enemy’s system and provide a starting point toward defeating it. And if the Oomukade could bring Ranzono Sachi back to her senses, the girl would have a chance to disappear. As long as she did not rely on a vehicle, the search system using the robot brake system was useless.

Oh.

So even if I lose, I’ll still win.

“Ready to surrender?”

“I have no reason to. Not a single one.”

“Ha ha. Mister, you really are cool, so tell me your name. You’re making my womb throb, so I want to call your name at least once.”

My name.

That was an obvious request, but I almost laughed.

“I no longer have a flag to raise or a home to return to.”

I prepared my glowing sword of light as I answered.

So..

“You can call me a nameless soldier.”

That was all I said.

And immediately afterwards, Illness Magic and Byouki clashed head-on.

Part 11 (3rd person)

The unchanged Oomukade confronted the utterly changed Ranzono Sachi in the mountain rocks.

Words would no longer reach the girl. The slightest mistake would allow her to tear into the barely-breathing police officers and place the definitive crime of murder on her shoulders. But if he carelessly struck her slender form, he could easily kill her.

Legend had it the Oomukade’s shell was hard enough to deflect an attack from any weapon.

However, he could not rely on that either.

After all..

“Grr..grr..gwaaah!”

Each time the girl growled, drool flowed from her mouth like a starving animal.

The Byouki, a type of Toori-Ma, would possess people and reveal their violent side.

Ranzono Sachi had received the most suffering not from the changes to her outer appearance forced on her by Kasane_12 or by the personality-altering seminar meant to transform her into a genius girl. The greatest wound had been realizing no one knew who she really was.

And the Oomukade himself had rejected her criminal plan and tried to stop her.

The Oomukade believed he had been right in doing so, but she had to have wondered why he did not understand.

So..

The destructive desires forcibly dragged out of her had turned toward the Oomukade.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“Sachi!!”

The girl’s speed completely outdid the Youkai’s.

Ranzono Sachi moved entirely outside his field of vision and approached from his blind spot. She charged at his long body and bit down into his repulsive body.

That was his one weakness.

According to legend, an Oomukade had been killed by an arrowhead with saliva on it, but the most primitive saliva-covered weapon was of course the human teeth.

No matter how large a centipede grew, it could not escape its position as a victim on the food chain.

The Oomukade heard a tremendous tearing sound as his outer shell was torn apart. A sticky sound followed and the non-red fluid characteristic of bugs poured out.

From the beginning, it had been impossible for him to attack Ranzono Sachi.

It was not an issue of strength. On a more fundamental level, it was simply impossible for him.

So he had been prepared for her to devour him like this.

But..

“Have you forgotten, Sachi?”

Even as he was consumed, he relaxed his entire body and spoke.

“The centipede became a Youkai for more than its many legs and disturbing appearance. It was believed to have a powerful enough venom to act as the catalyst for a curse. It was that collection of fear that created a Youkai like me.”

In other words..

“If you wish to eat me..cough..then eat as much as you want. But remember one thing: that venom will reach your body first of all, Sachi!!”

The short girl began convulsing. As if a switch had been thrown, she collapsed to the ground without putting up the slightest resistance. This was a neurotoxin. It swiftly sealed her movements without taking her life.

Afterwards, only her shadow stretched unnaturally out from her.

No, it was the Byouki that had possessed her in the form of a shadow.

“You are the version of Kodoku from the continent, aren’t you?”

“..”

The shadow did not move. It could no longer control the girl now that she was paralyzed and it could not move as a shadow alone. It needed to control something that cast a shadow in order to move.

“In other words, you are a Youkai created by sealing poisonous insects and dangerous beasts inside a jar and letting them kill each other. To put it another way, another poisonous insect or dangerous beast should be able to devour you.”

The Oomukade gathered all of his strength and snapped his jaws.

He would protect Ranzono Sachi. And to keep that vow, he had already offered up his own entrails.

“So let’s try this, why don’t we? Let’s see which one of us prevails and which one of us is consumed!!”

Part 12 (Illness Magic User)

I cut.

I cut and sliced and chopped.

I cut and sliced and chopped and severed and bisected.

The only sound was the constant one of my blade beheading my enemies. I had already cut down more than five hundred Byouki, but the user remained unfazed. She giggled and spun around on the spot. Something like black smoke erupted in every direction from her feet and double the number of enemies I had defeated appeared.

I was being worn down, I was being surrounded, and they were gradually closing in on me.

“Ha ha. This is just like a zombie movie, mister.”

An unnaturally impressed voice stabbed into my ears.

“That’s what makes this so amazing. Normally, you run away when zombies swarm you. You put your negative emotions on full display, shove everyone else out of the way, slam the door in their face, and lock it. So how can you keep acting like a samurai!? It’s amazing!! You have my respect!!”

She had said her praise was not ironic.

She had said she could not live this lifestyle.

The life she had lived had to have been a hopeless one. No matter how powerful she was – no, because of how powerful she was – she could not obtain anything she wanted and had been constantly rejected by everything around her. She had been treated like an infected corpse being carried to the incinerator. I could see that misguided life in my mind’s eye.

I pitied her, but the situation did not let me sympathize with her.

Working with Shinshou Hitsubatsu to kill Youkai-related criminals would not bring her life back on track. She had not targeted Ranzono Sachi because she wanted to help anyone. The Byouki was created by letting poisonous insects and dangerous beasts kill each other in a jar, so she had no pressing reason to attack Ranzono Sachi’s community that had gathered an Oomukade and Tsuchigumo in one place.

She had decided some other people were less important than her and wanted to believe she could prove her superiority by attacking them. Shinshou Hitsubatsu’s claimed to have a lofty goal, but they were essentially securing a target for bullying in order to create a place for themselves. They were no different from the horrible people who knew they would be targeted next, so they offered up someone even weaker so they could join the delinquent group themselves.

But this may have been the perfect ending for me.

I had betrayed my master, wandered in search of a place to die, and continued living an aimless life, so it would have been absurd for me to wish for a proper death. If I was to be killed, it would be by a horrible person, for no good reason, and at a meaningless time and place. That was the appropriate end for a fallen warrior.

Or so I had thought.

A moment later, a giant mass of metal fell toward the Byouki user.

“!?”

For the first time, she gave a look of surprise and swung her arms. A mass of blackness immediately wriggled upwards and tore apart the blunt object that would have crushed her.

Then she realized what it was.

“An aerial bomb!? But from where!?”

Both of us looked into the blue sky far overhead. A group of flying wing aircraft and some escort fighters flew leisurely above the clouds.

Then..

Is that..!?

My cellphone rang. I answered it while swinging Holy Sword – Tenjin in one hand and heard the Hishigami woman laughing.

“Ah hah hah!! Surprised, Illness Magic-chan? Hyakki Yakou’s young lady said it would be a shame to lose you, so she flew out here without thinking about the danger!! So are you still going to pretend to be a fallen warrior, hm!?”

“..!!”

It pissed me off to hear her telling me about Hyakki Yakou.

Still, this was a too much of an honor. There was simply nothing I could say.

“That’s also why the bomb had the fuse removed. But don’t worry. I’m supporting them from the surface using laser guidance. We won’t accidently drop one on your head, so keep at it.”

The Byouki user hesitantly looked my way.

She had looked impressed before, but..

“Amazing..”

Now she looked twice as impressed.

“My Byouki scans for a target or hostile element and automatically supplies the appropriate fighting force, so all I have to do is stand here.”

“But your scan has a range,” said the Hishigami woman. “It can’t reach ten thousand meters up in the air. ..So Illness Magic-chan, the Byouki equation has fallen apart. You’d better live up to the young lady’s expectations.”

I once more stood before the Byouki user with my glowing sword in hand.

“Ha ha☆”

The enemy laughed.

It was a broken laugh with a somehow lonely look in the eyes.

“Amazing! You’re simply amazing!! You’re a disease, an illness, and an epidemic just like me.. You’re so much like me, but you have so many friends!! And yet I..I couldn’t make a single one!!”

“Enough.”

I was no one special.

Just as Ranzono Sachi had the Oomukade, I had just happened to have Hyakki Yakou.

If this girl had had even one thing like that, she would not have ended up like this.

So..

“Once I settle all of this, you stand back up on your own two feet. I’ll be that special something for you.”

I raced through that world whose perfect equation had fallen apart.

The white curve surged out and sliced through the black disease.

Part 13 (3rd person)

An unpleasant sticky sound continued.

A sticky purple liquid dripped from the Oomukade’s great maw to prove it had devoured the formless Byouki.

With that variety of Toori-Ma gone, Ranzono Sachi changed. She was still unconscious from the Oomukade’s venom and her brow was covered with a feverish sweat, but the harsh nightmarish look on her face had relaxed somewhat.

The Oomukade took a slow breath, but it was not over yet.

An ominous sound came from his body where the girl’s mouth had torn into him. The wound was not growing. Quite the opposite. He had been attacked by his greatest weakness – a blade covered in saliva aka a predator’s teeth – but the wound was already bubbling ominously and slowly shrinking. Left alone, it would soon close.

He had eaten the Byouki.

He had done so as a part of the heretical Kodoku ritual that set poisonous insects and dangerous beasts against each other in a jar and gathered their strength in the lone survivor.

It had been necessary to protect Ranzono Sachi, but the effects were already beginning to eat into his body.

“Sachi..”

Even so, the Youkai was satisfied.

If he was given this choice one hundred times, he believed he would give the same answer each and every time.

However..

He heard someone rudely walk up through the underbrush.

Then someone’s face poked out from behind the broken guardrail.

“Hi, hi! I knew something interesting had to be going on here. I was right to delay our plan until the last second.”

“Who are you?”

“Hi there. I’m the Aoandon. It might surprise you, but I’m the final boss. Nice to meet you☆”

The female oni wore a white kimono, had long bluish hair, and a single knife-like horn on her forehead. The Oomukade had heard the legends of her appearing at the end of the Hyakumonogatari.

She casually snapped her fingers.

That was all it took for Ranzono Sachi to wake up from the Oomukade’s neurotoxin.

This did not please the Oomukade.

It felt like this other Youkai held a switch or remote control for the girl.

“Now, now. Don’t you worry. I’m the being found only after bringing together one hundred different fears. You need more than your fingers to count the number of paranormal powers I can use. Removing the poison from her body is a piece of cake.”

“What do you want with us?”

“I want to give you an invitation.”

The Aoandon grinned as she replied.

A bluish-white phosphorescent light burned at the tip of her horn all the while.

“I was thinking of destroying Japan a little, so if you like, would you join my team? It looks like you two have an interesting enough reason to do so.”

“Wha-..?”

“I’m the ally of anyone who wants change, so I respect Sachi-chan’s decision to create an equally repulsive world for the Oomukade, Tsuchigumo, Nue, and any other Youkai called creepy or disgusting. I’m willing to chip away at my own body to help you fulfill that. So what’ll you do?”

“You can’t. You can’t, Sachi!! You must not listen to what she says! You came to your sense in Noukotsu Village, didn’t you!? Remember what the people there said!!”

But the Oomukade’s words did not reach her.

But that was not because Ranzono Sachi had become so fixated on one thing that she lost sight of all else.

“I..I can..help all my friends..”

“Sachi!! ..No, wait. What is this!?”

The Oomukade glared at the Aoandon, but the female oni was still smiling with her horn emitting its phosphorescence.

“Eh? Oh, c’mon. All I did was open the door to Sachi-chan’s heart. I’m not writing anything extra in there.”

“That bewitching flame on your forehead.. It doesn’t affect Youkai, but it does something to the human heart, doesn’t it!? You’re using that to deceive Sachi!!”

“It’s apparently a type of hypnotism. But you can let this much slide, can’t you? The Hyakumonogatari ritual I was made by involves lanterns or candles in a dark room. You wouldn’t believe how many fools have tried to write me off as brainwashing, suggestion, or mass hysteria. That’s a problem for me, so what’s wrong with making up for it by using those methods for myself?”

Even as we spoke, Ranzono Sachi began to move.

-->>

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