Volume 7, Chapter 5: Jinnai Tselika, Opening

Part 1 (3rd person)

It was a tranquil rural scene.

As evening fell on the Intellectual Village, harvested paddies covered the ground and the mountains surrounding the village were visible far in the distance. The woods remaining here and there may have been to hold small shrines or just to make it look that way.

At six o’clock, that rural scene had been transformed into a battlefield of countless horrors thanks to the armies of Hyakki Yakou and the Aoandon’s group. The battle had split into three large sections.

One was in one of the small wooded areas where Hyakki Yakou Leader Hafuri used the remote assistance of the Top 5 to directly clash with the Aoandon.

Another was on the golden earth left after the paddies had been harvested where the Top 5 were spread out with the members of the Aoandon’s group collapsing at their feet.

The last was at the intersection of two farm roads between the paddy fields where Saiki Kazu had easily summoned Archdemon Tselika who had stolen the body of Australian Witch Marguerite Steinhols.

Jinnai Shinobu was with the Succubus, the Lantern Obake, and the Umbrella Obake when he saw the Saiki Kazu and Tselika scene play out.

Long, wavy blonde hair was tied back with a sky-blue ribbon and blindingly white skin caught his attention. Something that looked like rough gray concrete or reptilian scales covered sexy curves and yet seemed to intentionally leave the cleavage and navel exposed.

Two horns swept backwards from the forehead, bat-like wings extended from the back, and a thick tail swayed from just above the butt.

The woman had transformed into a stereotypical demon and she roared into the heavens.

That was all that happened, but it was enough for Jinnai Shinobu’s entire world to be dyed crimson.

“..Ah..gwah..!!!???”

“Master!!”

The Succubus was right next to him, but her voice sounded hopelessly distant. Just as the world burned and the color red seemed to swallow up the entire village, Shinobu was hit by a sharp headache like a thin wire connecting his temples was being pulled taut.

Only afterwards did he realize it was not the world that had been dyed. Tselika was not interfering with the laws of physics.

(Is it my eyes that are messed up!? Is the evening sunlight overpowering everything else I can see like a video camera with the brightness set wrong!?)

The images people saw were not actually produced by the eyes. The information received by the eyeballs was processed in the brain to create the three-dimensional images.

In that case, what was the source of the red Tselika was creating?

Using Marguerite’s borrowed..no, stolen body, Tselika turned her head to look at Shinobu.

She had noticed him, observed him, locked onto him.

The previous headache vanished.

Then that demonic ruler filed her serpentine eyes with seduction, slowly licked her enchanting lips with the tip of her tongue, and spoke to this fresh human soul with a sweet aroma hanging around her.

“Oh, oh! If it isn’t Jinnai Shinobu. You have my thanks for helping me obtain freedom by offering me this vessel of flesh.”

Surprisingly, she spoke with the indifferent voice of a young girl.

When a short burst of gunfire interfered, the Illness Magic User glared in that direction. The Illness Magic he produced had the power and accuracy to corrode the bullets into dust even as they tore through the air. Even if those bullets contained a bizarre paranormal power.

As such, he was less interested in the actual gunfire than he was in who had caused it.

“Nh!!”

More gunfire followed. And this time, it slipped through the gaps in his mist of Illness Magic. Unlike before, he was force to hold out an arm to cover his vitals. After several dull impacts, a significant amount of blood flowed from his arm. He disintegrated the bullets inside his arm before their paranormal power could bare its fangs.

The man’s expression did not change in the slightest.

He simply stared at and spoke to the attacker.

“What do you think you’re doing, Venom Clairvoyant?”

She was another of Hyakki Yakou’s Top 5.

The clear sound of bells followed.

His opponent was within twenty meters. She was a shrine maiden with long black hair and a red cloth covering her eyes. Poking out from her sleeves were old German handguns with wooden grips and fixed magazines. A decorative thread and bell were attached to the bottom of the grips and those bells would give a light jingle each time she danced with the firearms in hand.

Her violence took the form of a Kagura dance. The threads dangling from the gun grips and her almost divinely thin coat closed with a decorative clasp of St. John's wort drew circular paths as they decorated the stage known as the battlefield.

This woman was the only person with enough skill to accurately perceive the ever-flowing Illness Magic and fire through the gaps like threading a needle.

She was essentially shooting the Illness Magic User in the back as he worked to eliminate the Aoandon’s group, but what meaning did that action hold?

He focused on his armband. He had thought he would ever again be allowed to bear that symbol of Hyakki Yakou and he could not allow any action that would disgrace that family emblem.

Meanwhile, the Venom Clairvoyant asked the same question of him with some tension woven into her calm aura.

“I believe you are the one that needs to explain what you are doing.”

“?”

Even with her eyes covered, the young shrine maiden accurately pointed a handgun at the Illness Magic User’s right hand.

When he looked to that hand, he realized what she meant.

A skull was decaying in his hand, but based on the body, clothing, and equipment attached to it via a neck, this had been one of Hyakki Yakou’s combat members, not part of the Aoandon’s group.

(What!?)

He had not been shown any kind of illusion, but at some point his aim had shifted.

He was left speechless, so the Venom Clairvoyant slowly re-aimed her two handguns.

“I have called out to you several times already, but you apparently do not intend to listen. And all of those you returned to the soil were those who had chased after you because they looked up to you.”

“..”

“I can no longer trust you. Are you actually part of the Aoandon’s group? Or are you being subconsciously controlled? Either way, you must be defeated.”

“In that case,” cut in the Illness Magic User. “What do you have to say about the people scattered at your feet?”

“Eh?”

She froze in place as if she had only just noticed.

Splattered blood and fallen corpses covered the ground around her, but not even one of them belonged to the Aoandon’s group. They were all fellow Hyakki Yakou members.

“It would seem I wasn’t the only one being deceived,” said the Illness Magic User in a bitter voice.

If the same thing was occurring across the entire battlefield, it would truly be a scene of pandemonium. No matter how powerful Hyakki Yakou was – no, because of how powerful Hyakki Yakou was – no one would be able to stop this tragedy.

Something had severed the bonds between people.

Something had erased the distinction between enemy and ally.

And with that in mind, one primary issue came to mind.

“I can’t trust you anymore.”

“I can no longer trust you.”

Because they normally trusted the other’s strength enough to fight alongside them, these monsters knew just how dangerous they would be as enemies.

“Oh, now it’s really getting started.”

The Aoandon seemed to be enjoying herself all alone in the woods.

Annoyance filled Hyakki Yakou Leader Hafuri’s voice as the false image of her as an adult stood by her side.

“Did you use something to drive people mad and break the bonds connecting them?”

These enemies were white and black. The Aoandon wore the white kimono of a bride and Hafuri wore the deep black kimono of mourning.

“Tselika is known as an archdemon that didn’t quite get a spot as one of the seven deadly sins, but that isn’t because she was lacking in power.”

The Aoandon placed her index finger on her lips as if she were revealing a special secret. She showed no concern for Hafuri or the mourning clothes dyed with a family emblem.

“For one thing, there was no real reason to have exactly seven deadly sins. Some important person decided it should be seven, so the number and contents were reorganized. Any concept with the threat of harming the god they place their faith in was a candidate for being a deadly sin.”

“..”

“Yes! That’s right, that’s right! Tselika is far too powerful and controls far too many negative concepts to fit into that seven-sin framework!! Suspicion, hatred, crazed love, lies, and really anything else you might want. She controls everything that corrupts otherwise upstanding people! She has free control over all of those things that cause one to betray god!!”

No matter how powerful and solid an organization Hyakki Yakou was, its loyalty was still directed toward a person. Tselika had the power to make people reject god, so the bonds of that group were no guarantee.

“Do you really think something like that is enough to defeat us? Do you really think we’re going to hand over the Japanese DNA Standard and sit idly by while you overwrite the definition of all the Japanese?”

“Ha ha. Young lady, what do you think you can even do?”

A dark smile appeared on the Aoandon’s face.

historical

“All of your power is supplied remotely by your Top 5, isn’t it? That might give you a spare adult body, accurate precognition, superhuman combat skills, and a rapidly cultivated sword, but Hyakki Yakou has broken apart. Your Top 5 are no exception, so you have lost that special power.”

A moment later, the doll standing next to the young Hafuri crumbled with the sound of squashed mud. The Japanese sword fell with a solid sound and it had lost its dreadful shine. Like waking from a dream, the girl returned to being a mere girl.

“What do you want so badly?” Hafuri merely narrowed her eyes a little. “You destroyed infrastructure across Japan, you illegally accessed the server hidden at Nagatacho Station, and you’re trying to steal the Japanese DNA Standard. ..Your methods are over-the-top, but I can’t tell what your overall objective is. What change do you want to make to the Japanese using that?”

“Ah ha ha. And if I told you I didn’t want to do anything?”

“..”

“Don’t give me that look. What I want is simple.”

The Aoandon giggled with a bluish-white phosphorescence burning at the tip of her single horn.

“I want to give a single command: Erase the Japanese.”

A terribly cold wind blew between the two of them.

It sounded like a joke, but when the Japanese DNA Standard was combined with the paranormal powers of the Aoandon and her group, the possibility was all too real. Just as injuring a straw doll would injure a human body, that would affect every single person in the category of “Japanese”.

“I was not asking ‘how’; I was asking ‘why’.”

“I am the being that exists beyond the collection of one hundred fears, so you could say I am a collection of the people’s desires. What I want is what everyone wants.”

“Everyone wants..to erase the Japanese..?”

“Well, yeah. Who needs Japan?” The Aoandon made it sound simple. “I don’t know if you’re supposed to call it ‘Nihon’ or ‘Nippon’, but let’s be honest, who needs it? And I’m not talking about this from the point of view of America or China. I’m saying even your fellow Japanese don’t want Japan anymore☆”

“..”

“I mean, it’s rotten to the core, isn’t it? It only looks nice and bright on the surface, but peel back that top layer and you’re in for a surprise. Do you really think people want to keep protecting this rotten tree to the end? Do you really think they all feel that way? Japan’s GDP recovered and it’s second in the world now? But all that wealth goes to the Intellectual Villages and the people in the cities keep seeing their standard of living drop. You’ve set up United Hive to gather all the best patents from the small town workshops so you can negotiate on equal footing with international corporations? But that means you can’t do business on your own and will dry up without the cooperation of that giant corporation. You reversed the low birthrate? But now the population is up to 150 million! You’ve had to set up systems for people to abandon others like those Ubasute Apartments. All you have is more people who do nothing but suck your taxes dry. Think about it rationally, and they’re just a financial burden. In fact, your national debt keeps rising as time passes, but you keep making up new words to throw them into random categories that only make it look like you solved the problem. Japanese pride? Japanese technology? Services only the Japanese can provide? You’re all just sitting in front of the TV getting turned on thinking about it! But what can you actually do while you’re sprawled out in your living rooms? Not a damn thing, right? That’s why you can’t get into an Intellectual Village and are stuck in your apartments that are more like honeycombs than rabbit hutches! Even if you tried at an apprenticeship for some luxury brand, they’d kick you out for being completely useless! Besides, there are tons of craftsmen and artisans outside of Japan. Their skills are world class too; you just haven’t been told about them! And this gap between the idea and reality – between your pride and your skill – goes beyond an individual level. The Nihon on TV and the Nippon in reality keep moving further and further apart. Isn’t that scary? You keep stretching that rubber band, but you will eventually pass the point of no return and it’ll snap. That ‘proud Japan’ will be stripped from you and you’ll be nothing but a group of incompetents who held vicarious pride in what others did. Not many people can still sit around unconcerned as they see that rubber band stretching so tight. They’re all afraid. They really are. They have enough sense leftover to be afraid. So can you at least understand why they might subconsciously want a nice clean reset of it all☆”

Each and every piece of that explanation may have been something one could find in the cities. This may have only been a collection of all those opinions.

But the actual actions and conclusion she reached simply did not follow.

“Is that what you..what your group wants? The humans working with you are Japanese too. If you complete your plan, they’ll be ‘erased’ too. They know that and they still-..?”

“Of course not,” nonchalantly replied the Aoandon. “They all have their own desires. They might want to be with their friends, they might want to exterminate ‘good’ for being too weak and create a powerful ‘justice’ to replace it, they might just want money, or they might want a group to belong to. They have a variety of reasons.”

“Then-..”

“But.” The Aoandon drowned out Hafuri’s words to continue. “All of those various desires have their basis in dissatisfaction, right? That simplifies matters. The fastest method to fulfill those desires and remove that dissatisfaction is to erase all of the people who hold them. With that one simple move, all of the dissatisfaction in their hearts will be gone. Simple, right?”

She was insane.

She was completely insane.

Humans and Youkai may have looked similar, but they were entirely different lifeforms. That would create a different basis of thought, but this was different yet again. Hafuri had met people who used paranormal powers that could easily slay those Youkai, but even she had been unable to peer a single millimeter inside the Aoandon’s chest.

The monster laughed.

“Are you about ready now?”

“Do you think using your archdemon to sever Hyakki Yakou’s bonds is enough to defeat us?”

“Heh heh. There’s no need to act tough, young lady. Tsuerika Nyorai’s rank would be the same as Rahu or Mara, so she’s a legit demon lord. If Tamamo or Daji would be enough to give you trouble, you don’t stand a chance against this enemy.”

But..

“That is not what I was talking about.”

“?”

“What is that in your right hand?”

The Aoandon looked down at her hand.

It was stabbed into the center of someone’s chest.

The person was the young woman behind the Ubasute Apartments that the Aoandon had picked up because she seemed interesting. Her name was Yamame and she had a large scar on her mouth, but she was dead now that her heart had been utterly crushed.

The Aoandon had done that, but when had she done so?

“It may be true that this Tselika you summoned is powerful. Her power might easily exceed that of Shuten Douji or the Kurama Tengu.”

The blue female oni remained motionless as Hafuri gave her cool-headed explanation.

“But can you really control her? If not, we will not be the only ones to fall in the face of this disaster.”

Part 2

I was caught off guard.

I had forgotten how to describe it.

A hellish scene of mutual destruction filled the harvested rice paddies around me. This was true bloodshed and all distinctions between enemy and ally had been lost.

One side seemed to be Hyakki Yakou.

The other side was less recognizable, but I could see the Aoandon a ways away.

“You damn lantern! You’re ripping off my one-eyed look!!”

“How dare you!? And Hiro-sama only needs one Obake by his side!!”

The Lantern and Umbrella began a scuffle that sounded like two paper fans being beaten together. Seeing that change come over those two friendly Youkai was what clued me in to what was happening here.

Tselika had roared, my vision had been dyed red, and something had directly set to work in my brain and heart.

Was she the cause of this madness?

With a man in a dark suit by her side, the bewitching archdemon narrowed her serpentine eyes and used the witch’s slender fingertip to slowly beckon me over.

“I said you have my thanks, did I not? Do not worry, Shinobu. Come closer. I truly feel like rewarding you.”

That was all she said, but my body ignored my will and began walking forward like I was being pulled by countless fishing hooks stabbed into my brain. With each step closer, the red in my vision grew deeper.

There was no pain. In fact, my senses were vanishing, which was much more frightening.

“Master!!”

“Good, good. There is nothing to be afraid of. Now I have you. Hm, you try to act tough, but you have the soul of baby. Lovely, lovely.”

The next thing I knew, Tselika had her hands on my cheeks. Instead of pressing her palms against me, she smoothly brought her fingertips in close like just those fingers were being sucked into the sides of my face. At the same time, I could tell my knees were growing weak and about to give out.

But not from fear.

“Hmm, there is no need to be so stiff. Here, I will show you a sign of my affection.”

In the middle of that pandemonium of mutual destruction, Tselika almost jokingly wrapped her hands around my neck and gently embraced me. She was borrowing Marguerite’s body, so this stuck my face between her ample breasts.

More than the warmth and softness, it was the sweet aroma that soaked deep into my brain.

Something burst deep inside my nose.

At first, I thought I had a runny nose or something, but I was wrong.

I wiped at my nose and found a red liquid on the back of my hand.

“..You’re..kidding.”

I thought getting a bloody nose from porn only happened on TV.

If it’s actually happening, doesn’t that mean some kind of circuit in my head broke!? Is my body being invaded by something that bad!? Just from this sweet aroma that smells like an extreme concentration of sugar, condensed milk, and honey!?

“Oh, dear. Oh, dear. It’s been so long I forgot how to control myself. Please forgive me. Hm, I thought thanking you with my body would be the demonic thing to do, but it would seem that would be a little too toxic for you. Now, what should I do instead?”

“Tsuerika Nyorai.”

The man in a dark suit cut in with a gloomy voice.

He was most likely on the Aoandon’s side.

“You can play around after fulfilling your contract. For one thing, that is an enemy of the Aoandon. If you do not intend to finish him off, then I would like to provide him his last rites myself.”

“Hm.” Tselika hardly seemed to care as she continued to hold my paralyzed body close. “Your name is Saiki Kazu, correct?”

“Yes.”

“I was summoned via a contract with you, so I am perfectly willing to help you defeat this Hyakki Yakou group just as you desire. Keep that in mind first and foremost.”

Her words flowed on.

“But that contract requested that I defeat your enemy. It said nothing about protecting you.”

She seemed to overturn everything.

“So I see no reason to worry about your lives.”

“!?”

Before Saiki Kazu could react, Tselika breathed a sweet breath from between her seductive lips.

That was all she did.

“To be honest, you are an eyesore. Perhaps I should reheat that cooled mind of yours.”

A great sound rang out.

It was the sound of Saiki Kazu using every last ounce of strength in his left hand to restrain his right hand which attempted to point two fingers at his temple like a gun.

“My deadly sins cause people to betray even god, so having them betray themselves could not be simpler. For one thing, the violence and fear you wield are nothing but tools to produce but one of the emotions that lead people to betray god. You are essentially showing off your brand-new chess set without even understanding the rules, so do you really think you could outdo a master chess player such as myself?”

“Tsuerika!!”

“Oh? Are you sure you should focus on me? You are but one piece of entertainment here.”

As if to supply an additional blow against the shouting man in a dark suit, a flamethrower-like attack blasted in from a completely different direction. All cooperation was gone, a complete free-for-all had broken out, and it had descended into a chaotic hell, but all of that chaos seemed to obey Tselika’s will. Just like iron sand following a line of magnetism. Pursued by this new attacker, Saiki Kazu was forced to leave us and run off into the battlefield.

This was on an entirely different level.

I had run across plenty of monsters in the past, but a greater quantity or quality of the paranormal had been enough to wash them away. Just like Hyakki Yakou would do. However, Tselika was fundamentally different. Even if she was faced one million or one billion people, she could drive them all mad and lead them to destruction. Superior numbers meant nothing to this archdemon.

She had to be defeated in an individual battle.

But was there any individual who could even hope to defeat this kind of monster?

“Good, good. Shinobu, your soul is giving off a wavelength of desire. I can sense your desire to outdo me and – if possible – harm me.”

“..!!!???”

My throat instantly went dry, but Tselika simply laughed.

The demon pressed her forehead against mine like a mother checking on her child’s temperature.

“I said ‘good’, did I not? This too is entertaining. Human desire is a truly pleasant thing and it has pulled me from a sea of boredom. Good, Shinobu. You will serve me well.”

That was wrong.

That was completely wrong, but I was on the way to boarding those rails.

Even the faintest breath from this close was enough to nearly smash my thoughts to pieces.

I felt like I had been thrown into an ocean of aphrodisiac, so I desperately tried to escape that feminine smell and warmth to free myself from that depravity.

“What happened..to Marguerite..to the Australian witch..?”

“Oh, oh! Leave it to my loyal servant to know where the true fun lies!! That woman you offered up to me has not gone to waste. Her vessel of flesh has helped free me as you can plainly see, but her soul has provided truly delectable and enjoyable entertainment.”

As she spoke, Tselika pulled her forehead back from mine.

From the overwhelming distance of only a few centimeters, she snapped her fingers with the look of someone revealing the present they had hidden behind their back.

Immediately, pitch black scenery appeared to the side. And I don’t mean that figuratively. I could only imagine space itself had been torn open.

From inside, I heard a disturbing sound that resembled a quiet whistling or a chilly wind blowing through a gap in some rocks.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhahhhh..”

Or so I thought at first.

But before long, I realized it was a voice, not a mere sound.

As soon as I realized that, my understanding was turned on its head and blown away like the worst kind of trick art.

“Help me, help me, help me, help me, help me!! Please, I beg you! Give me back my body! How can you keep me as a bare soul!? It’s cold, dark, cramped, and scary.. Where even am I? What is that crawling around here!? My soul is rotting.. It’s rotting, rotting, rotting, rotting!! It really is directly rotting!! Sob, sob. Don’t you know this is even crueler than grabbing my organs with filthy, germ-ridden hands!? Please forgive me. Please just forgive me already!! When will it end? When will you finally kill me? How many days, months, or years has it been? ..It’s been five hundred years hasn’t it? No, it’s probably been five thousand years, hasn’t it!? Sob, sob. It’s painful, pitiful, and pathetic. I can’t stand to see myself begging and trying to please you in the off chance you’ll forgive me if I’m a good girl. And that’s what I’m supposed to hate that more than anything!! It’s disgusting and my color is changing.. Hey, the color of my soul is seeping out, but what does that actually mean!? It hurts.. Help me, mommy!! Sob, sob. Is someone there? Are you watching me? Why won’t you kill me? Don’t you have a conscience? Are my questions so meaningless they amuse you? I can’t stand anymore of this!! Yes, I worshiped the devil! Yes, I went to Japan for selfish reasons! Yes, I transformed the Furutsubaki! Yes, I stole the Succubus! And yes, I tried to kill an innocent high school boy! But!! Do I really deserve this!? Just kill me! Give me the death penalty or whatever else! Just stop stealing the color of my soul.. I don’t have anything else left, so please don’t take any more of that away from me!! My soul really, really will crumble away!!”

She was not speaking Japanese, but it was not Australian English either.

The voice simply permeated my mind.

..What the hell is this?

It was true we had been lost in the moment when that Australian witch had attacked.

Even if it had been part of the plan, the Succubus had stabbed me, so I hadn’t had room to focus on anything else.

So we had set a trap and desperately grasped at victory.

It had all been so we could-->>

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