smile and return to our normal lives.

The Zashiki Warashi and the Succubus hadn’t rescued me to bring about this kind of cruelty!

“Phew..”

Tselika let out a sweet breath from so close it caused my spine to shudder.

“Can you hear it, Shinobu? Thanks to this, my nights have been far from boring. And it was all thanks to you providing me with the witch named Marguerite Steinhols, so make sure you enjoy it too.”

“..”

“Now, then. My choice of background music is over, so let’s get back to talking about your reward. Paying you back with my body would probably fry your brain, so would you accept being given the perfect front-row seat?”

A strange sweat seemed to pour from my brain itself and my tongue had gone numb, so I couldn’t speak properly.

Still, I somehow managed to voice the question in my mind. All the while, I felt a vague fear that being unable to ask this would mean I was no longer human.

“Front..row..seat?”

“Indeed. ..A front-row seat to what I call the Hyakki Yakou and Aoandon Group Mutual Destruction Show!! How about that? Gets your spine tingling, doesn’t it?”

I couldn’t believe it.

This went beyond Marguerite. To this demon, were human blood, fear, and death no different from the events of a movie or drama? Could she line up the corpses in the same way movies advertised themselves as having cost tens of billions of yen to produce?

“Good. I can feel it in your wavelength of desire. You were angry seeing your hometown overrun by such overwhelming and unreasonable violence, were you not? You wanted these crass outsiders to leave, did you not? But you had no way of making it happen. Not to worry, though. I will supply you with one. Think of this reward as just one drop in the bucket of infinite thanks I owe you.”

Looking only at the result, this may have been in line with what I had wanted.

I had indeed wanted to drive these strangers from Noukotsu Village.

But her method had a definitive difference from what I had wanted.

I had wanted peace. I had wanted my normal life back. I had wanted to be manipulated by the Zashiki Warashi, Yuki Onna and the others, to have stupid discussions with Madoka and Nagisa at school, and to have my normal home and school in their normal places. That would have been enough for me.

So why was that desire causing it all to sink into a swamp of madness and joy?

I didn’t need any of that icy entertainment found in seeing slaves and lions fight to death at the Colosseum or in seeing a criminal decapitated at the public square. Even if it was still a means of “ending this conflict”, this path and my own path would never, ever coincide. Tselika was so overwhelmingly insane that I was absolutely certain of that fact.

So I managed to squeeze out some meaningless words.

“..To hell..with that..”

In truth, what could I have even done there?

This monster was making fools of Hyakki Yakou as a whole. Packages were one thing, but what could a mere high school boy even do in a direct fight against any kind of Youkai, demon, or paranormal existence? Shooting them or stabbing them was useless. Imprisonment was meaningless when they had no lifespan and there was no way to execute them, so no laws could be made to punish them. What could a human do against Tselika?

Meanwhile, Tselika narrowed her serpentine eyes from close range while using Marguerite’s seductive body. The concrete-like gray scales that did not bother actually covering her skin wriggled so freely I started to suspect they were her true form.

And she spoke.

“..Oh?”

A moment later, a tremendous roar rang deep in my head. My senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch were all blown away. The overwhelming explosion of my senses made me think my brain had been kneaded like clay. This time, the entire world was so filled with crimson that I couldn’t even see Tselika’s face a few centimeters away.

There was no pain.

But something was so cloyingly sweet that it shot past all my limits and made me sense death. A cold sweat poured down my face as I seriously wondered when my rampaging heart was going to burst.

“Bfwah!? Fwah!! Gwah! Oeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“I would recommend not angering me too much, Shinobu.”

I felt like a bundle of pathways had been severed in my head.

The world around me was buried, but Tselika’s voice alone remained oddly clear.

This was not an issue with my ears or eardrums. She might have been messing with my brain directly.

“The master is rewarding her loyal servant. Refusing that reward is no different from disgracing and shaming that master’s reputation. Well, it is true times have changed, so you would not have had a chance to learn such etiquette. With that in mind, I will be kind and forgive you just this once. Do you understand what that means, Shinobu?”

“Pant, pant..!! Kwah!?”

With Tselika’s exasperated comment, the world finally returned.

I could not breathe properly and my mouth opened and closed with only groans escaping, but Tselika thoroughly wiped off my face with her fingers and palms.

“Oh, how pitiful. I know you must be brimming with joy, but you don’t have to let it pour from your eyes and ears as well as your nose and mouth. Hee hee. Stay still and I will clean you up.”

It sounded like a joke, but Tselika’s hands were already stained red. It was my own blood and it was flowing from my mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. I could still smell the sweet aroma that was reminiscent of a melted mixture of sugar, condensed milk, and honey, but how much of that lethal concoction had I been exposed to?

I could not win.

The source of it all stood right in front of me and I could easily reach out and touch her. If I did not stop the intense fighting surrounding me, the bloodshed and tragedy would spread without end. This had likely left the carefully-laid plans of the Aoandon’s group, so it would continue on to the final station without any hope of being stopped.

I knew all that, yet I had not the slightest clue where to even begin.

What could I possibly do against a monster like this!?

Part 3 (3rd person)

A slender young man stood in the rural scenery wearing a black butler’s uniform and glasses. He held a riding crop as he faced a girl in a greenish-brown twelve-layered kimono. She covered her mouth with a fan, but that was not enough to hide the embers escaping her mouth and blowing in the wind.

They were the Supernatural Trainer and the Passionate Predator.

They bore the same family emblem on their tiepin and spread fan.

They were both one of Hyakki Yakou’s Top 5, but they were currently split into individuals who were devouring each other.

It began with the kimono-wearing Passionate Predator.

Each time her body swayed to the left and right, the black hair behind her would wriggle like a living creature. It almost looked like a large serpent thinking about how to torment its prey.

“Ahh, ahh!! I can feel the throbbing.. Ahh, once this happens, ahh, ahh, I can’t hold back, ahh!!”

“Tch. The perverted professional stalker is already writhing from her phantom pregnancy.”

“Ahh, say whatever you like!! You know perfectly well, ahh, ahh, this is how I become a precision guided weapon that can hunt down any target with 100% accuracy!!”

The girl took in an exceptionally large breath, but she was not preparing to yell.

Fire burst from her mouth like a flamethrower.

In the blink of an eye, a straight line was burned through the harvested paddy field. The scattered wave of heat transformed the dirt into glass. That flame of passion slithered like a snake, branched out, and flew toward the butler like a cluster of missiles.

But that target vanished in an instant.

He had moved over ten meters in a single bound. The Passionate Predator continued breathing fire regardless, so the Supernatural Trainer made leap after leap to reach safety before the flames enveloped him.

The kimono girl cried out at the light movements.

“Ahh, ahh! Is that the Hassou-Tobi!?”

“Ushiwakamaru learned the technique from the Tengu, so did you really think I would be unable to reproduce it with my mastery of training techniques?”

“Ahh, but, ahh!!”

She breathed out the flames with more than twice the previous intensity. Failing to capture him and being ignored only caused her passion to grow.

“The more what I want escapes and the more I fail to reach them, the more violent my flames grow!! Just as intense passion transformed a woman’s body into a giant serpent and she burned down a divinely protected temple to get at the priest who had cast her aside!!”

In other words, if he did not flee, the flames would surround him, but the more he fled, the more the flames would grow. They would grow without end until they finally caught up and burned him to death.

(Now, what should I do?)

The Illness Magic and Heirloom had lost their senses too. While taking extreme evasive actions to escape the girl’s flames which had grown into a small scale volcanic eruption, the Supernatural Trainer thought sarcastically to himself.

(If only there was a Youkai that taught how to handle women. Why do they only ever teach serious academics and martial arts!?)

Elsewhere, the other group was also devouring itself.

The ten year old girl named Ranzono Sachi and the Oomukade were not up against their enemies in Hyakki Yakou. It was the Byouki User, another member of the Aoandon’s group. She was a girl wearing a yellow mini-China dress, a blue cat-ears coat, and bandages on her face and leg. The character-adorned bandages and the knee sock on just one leg seemed more creepy than cute.

“Ah ha! Ah ha ha!! Heyyy, you came here to show off all your friends, didn’t you? You wanted to make fun of me for being all alone, didn’t you? Hee hee. That’s fine. That just means I have to make this a night to remember. How about I have all your limbs rot off so you have to crawl around like a worm!?”

“It would seem there is no convincing her. Sachi, stay back! Her Byouki is nowhere near as lethal as my venom!!”

The Oomukade was nervous, but he thought he was looking in the same direction as Ranzono Sachi.

But he was wrong.

He was completely wrong.

Her eyes moved in a disturbingly jerky way as they silently viewed the Oomukade. Coloration, optical illusions, and makeup had been used to transform the girl’s face beyond recognition, but the violence below the surface could not be hidden.

She looked like a beast watching its prey.

The white rose corsage on the side of her head swayed as unreliably as a withered flower.

“..............................................................................................................................”

“Sachi? Sachi!! Damn, has it gotten to her too!?”

Even as he shouted that, his thoughts led him to a different answer.

(No, can I even say it isn’t affecting me? Being this cautious about Sachi might be part of the illusion making me view her as an enemy.)

What was true and what was false? Who was an ally and who was an enemy? He had to question even that in this world of oozing and messy chaos.

And in that world, a small girl spoke.

“Come.”

The ground exploded.

Dirt burst into the air and several creatures climbed up to the surface: a spider measuring several meters across, a serpent easily over ten meters long, and a giant frog with horns growing from its head. None of them would be found in an encyclopedia of animals. They were true Youkai, just like the Oomukade.

“A Tsuchigumo, Uwabami, and Gama? Did Sachi summon them!?”

Children and Youkai had always been compatible. There were a lot of Youkai that could only be seen by children or that only targeted children because they would the other to them. To the Oomukade, that trait seemed stronger in Ranzono Sachi than normal.

But this was the first time he had seen her use it so intentionally.

She had nearly become a summoner. Even if she had no power herself, she would be a serious threat if she could continue summoning nearby Youkai without end. It would be too much for a single Oomukade to handle.

He had completely lost sight of the situation.

And just as he realized that, an even greater impact reached him.

A deluge of black Illness Magic surged in between Ranzono Sachi and the Byouki User.

A large gloomy man wearing the special black combat outfit of a SWAT member stood alongside the Oomukade.

“You seem to have remained saner than the rest here. To be honest, it makes me wonder why you would have joined the Aoandon.”

“I have no excuse. That blue oni stole Sachi’s heart, but I..”

He trailed off and fell silent.

He had two reasons. First, the deluge of Illness Magic had been torn apart from within and the Byouki User stood beyond it with a dark smile on her lips.

Second, the seemingly composed Illness Magic User asked a certain question.

“Which way am I facing right now?”

“What?”

“I am not confident I can remain on anyone’s side for long. Even if I infect my own brain with Illness Magic to keep myself fighting semi-automatically.”

With the clear sound of bells, a young blindfolded shrine maiden arrived from a different direction. The man faced those two formidable foes, the Byouki User and the Venom Clairvoyant, and he made a blunt statement.

“I do not know when I will betray someone, so if you want to survive, do not trust me. Think of it as using me.”

The battle had spread beyond the surface.

Six strategic stealth bombers and an airborne warning and control aircraft that should not have existed in Japan flew in the sky above Noukotsu Village. A formation of defense fighters flew with them to protect them.

A commotion had broken out among them, as if someone had poked the hornet’s nest.

Supposedly allied military aircraft and even the humans inside the same aircraft began fighting one another. The ugly conflict was gradually accelerating.

Finally, the catastrophe crossed a certain line.

One of the bombers seemed to lose its balance and then flew in a straight line toward the surface. No, it had lost control and was falling. The pilots were fighting each other and had completely forgotten something as basic as righting their own aircraft, so it had essentially become a giant bomb in and of itself.

Part 4

“Whoops.”

Tselika was entirely carefree, but I was anything but.

A V-shaped flying wing crashed into the paddy fields with a deafening noise. It slid along, tearing into the ground for several hundred meters, and it finally exploded. Tselika stood tall all the while, but I was blasted into the air. By the time I realized landing was going to hurt, my back collided with the ground and I had trouble breathing.

“Bah..ahh!! Aghh..gh!!”

My consciousness wavered, but that was not just due to the damage.

An airplane had crashed inside the village. The perfectly maintained Intellectual Village scenery had been destroyed. Jet fuel and other harmful substances had been scattered across the dirt.

What would happen to the village?

What would happen to the Intellectual Village brand name!?

“Master, are you okay?”

The Succubus whispered from nearby.

She lifted me up and wrapped her arms around my neck to embrace me. The red scenery of amplified twilight that Tselika had created – or perhaps that a malfunction in my brain had created – was receding somewhat. The oppressive feminine aroma and the gentle warmth that threatened to drag me into eternal darkness had both been swapped out for a different sensation.

“Heh hah hah hah hah!! Good, good, Henrietta. Did you remove his pain by overwriting his desire with a different desire? That’s much better than trying to use some scriptures filled with sickening ideals. What you did is more like watering down tequila with beer. It’s so wonderfully degenerate.”

Henrietta? Oh, is that the Succubus’s real name?

I could see the Succubus biting her lip nearby. I had no idea what exactly it meant for a demon to have her name revealed, especially if it was carelessly revealed by a third party.

“But I’m jealous. Of course, that’s another type of desire, so it too is pleasant. If I was as weak as you, I could have reveled in the freedom to-..hm?”

Tselika frowned and her serpentine eyes looked to her feet.

A small canine Youkai was rubbing up against her long, slender leg. The Youkai looked intoxicated and about ready to pass out, but it seemed to be a Sunekosuri.

Wait. A Sunekosuri?

If he’s here..!

“(Yes, it means I’m here too.)”

A voice whispered to me from behind.

Hishigami..Mai!?

I just about turned around, but both the Succubus and Mai pinched my butt. Mai then used her index finger to write on my back.

“Don’t turn around. She’ll notice.”

“What’s the matter?”

Tselika looked puzzled, but she did not seem to have noticed Mai’s presence.

At first I thought she was hidden by my body, but that couldn’t possibly be.

Mai did not hesitate to stand up and walk right past me.

And yet..

“It’s..nothing. I just have a killer headache.”

“I see. It’s interesting that seduction can be too powerful.”

Nothing was hiding Mai, so it seemed Tselika simply couldn’t see her. It went beyond merely hiding one’s presence. What did one have to do to reach this level? Mai may have been afraid of my eyes giving away the location of what Tselika could not see for herself.

Having so thoroughly erased her presence, Mai boldly but silently walked right up next to Tselika. She circled around the archdemon as if admiring a sculpture.

If she could do that, she could launch whatever surprise attack she liked.

That woman was a true monster. I finally started seeing some hope, but then the Succubus wrote on my back with her fingertip.

“We have no trump card.”

“..”

You’re kidding, right?

She could freely approach within a centimeter of the enemy. She could freely attack her from any angle. She could stab through her eyeball, split her head open, or pierce her heart. She had whatever opportunity she wanted.

But was even Mai helpless in this situation?

Could that monster not harm Tselika?

“Shinobu, you seem to have recovered, so come closer. Marguerite’s screams were nice, but my swollen soul is aching for a man’s wavelength.”

When she seductively beckoned me over, I seriously think I nearly suffered a stroke or a subarachnoid hemorrhage. I gulped, slowly freed myself from the Succubus’s arms, and walked unsteadily toward Tselika.

“By the way.”

That was when she giggled and asked me a question.

“Shinobu, you are hiding something from me, are you not?”

—————

Is it over already? Is the hope I saw vanishing, can we not hide Mai’s presence, and is it all falling apart!?

“I can tell from your soul’s wavelength that you have latched onto some kind of hope. But what exactly is it? What made you start thinking you have a chance of defeating me? Heh heh. Good, Shinobu. Just how much are you going to let me enjoy this? Keh heh heh.”

More than suspicion or hatred, she expressed the joy of a child trying to understand a magic trick or solve a riddle.

Mai had circled behind me and her finger raced across my back: “We don’t have time.”

Then she added a few more words.

..!?

I suppose if you look at it like that..

“Oh, your soul just leapt again. Just what is stimulating your desire?”

This isn’t good. She’ll find out at this rate.

I had to take action before that happened. What did I need? Something to write with, Tselika’s trust, and one other thing. It didn’t help that our knowledge of Eastern Youkai was not much help with Western demons. Not even the Succubus knew how to defeat Tselika who was clearly at a higher level.

But there was one plan that would weaken Archdemon Tselika.

I could not imagine how far her deadly sin had spread. It was even possible the Youkai hiding in the thatch roof house’s ice room were fighting. If so, what would happen to my unconscious family? If I didn’t try to take advantage of this one-shot opportunity, it was possible I would never get my small world back.

Mai had said we did not have time.

I agreed, so I would do whatever I could to deal with this quickly.

“Shinobu, how about you tell me now? What is this hope of defeating me that you have found?”

And so, I gave an intentionally provocative response.

“Try to think for yourself.”

“You do not get a second chance. I thought I already told you that.”

That awful sweetness assaulted me again and my brain felt like it was being kneaded like clay.

Part 5

My vision..no, all five of my sense had gone red.

My inner ear didn’t seem to be working, so I had no sense of front, back, left, right, up, or down.

Supposedly, if someone was blindfolded, given ear plugs, placed on a soft bed, had their arms and legs covered in metal tubes, and otherwise had all stimulation dropped to a minimum, their sense of self would not last long. This red world was precisely that. Nothing even had to happen. Simply by being there, I felt like I would suffer Gestaltzerfall.

——Hey, Shinobu.

A voice came from an unknown direction. My senses had been thoroughly worn down, so it permeated my body like a drop of water found after wandering through the desert.

——Answer me truthfully and surrender to me, and I will reward you. I will provide you with whatever reward you wish. Now, how about it?

“Reward me?”

I didn’t want anything like that. But if I did not cling to those words, the stimulation would vanish and I would be unable to maintain my sanity. The words escaped my lips as a purely defensive reaction.

——Yes. If you only build up a resistance, I will let you do with my body as you wish. My superiority will of course be maintained, but I will still give you access to my body whenever you want. A thrilling proposal, is it not?

The very premise of the idea is insane. You’re worse than a drug. You aren’t something I can endure with enough effort or practice. I can’t do it on a fundamental biological level.

——Hm. Then how about I use my power to let you seduce other girls? Surely there are some members of the opposite sex who are out of reach to you no matter how close they might seem.

The scenery grew distorted.

The red coloration was swept away and I was at school for some reason.

I stood alone in the empty classroom and someone called out to me from behind.

“Sorry I’m so late when I was the one that called you here. But I’m glad you waited.”

“..Madoka?”

My problem classmate pressed her index fingers together in front of her chest, blushed, and fidgeted.

“Um, uh, you probably had a pretty good guess what this was about when I sent that email calling you here, but this kind of thing is best said face to face, right? Ahh! I’m just too nervous!! But wait! I can’t give up before I’ve even begun! I haven’t even gotten serious yet!!”

By this point, I could tell what this scene was.

And if I surrendered to Tselika and borrowed her power, it could become reality.

However..

“Madoka, what’s that?”

“Eh? What’s what?”

“That around your neck.”

“What? Don’t tell me there’s something there? And during one of the most important scenes of my life too. Ah ha ha. It would happen now, wouldn’t it?”

She hadn’t noticed the thick and villainous collar around her neck. A chain was attached to it and that chain stretched out so far into the distance that I could not tell who was holding the other end.

But Madoka could not see it and happiness filled her face.

Was this the true form of the glory I would gain with Tselika’s power?

Yes.

Was a dream given to you by another (and thus could be taken away by that person at any time) really this cruel a thing?

“I can’t..”

“?”

“I can’t do this!! How can I accept anything in such a twisted way!?”

——Why can’t you? I’m giving you exactly what you want.

The stage changed. I moved from the classroom to the schoolyard. Nagisa stood before me and she too wore a thick collar with a never-ending chain attached to it.

Akechi was supposedly her current boyfriend, but he too had a collar and chain.

He had a beaming smile on his face, he grabbed Nagisa’s shoulders from behind, and he pushed her toward me.

“Nagisa was saying she likes you more. And I think she’s right. So we broke up. You can have her, so be happy together, okay?”

What is this?

“Eh heh heh. Yeah, it seems you’re #1 to me, Shinobu-chan. I’ve dated a lot of different people, but now that I think about it, I think I was always chasing after your shadow.”

Was this what I wanted?

Did I want a girl I had broken up with long ago to be returned to me like a forgotten textbook?

——Can you honestly say you have no regrets at all? Part of you wants to get back together with her, right? With my power, that is entirely possible. And her violent side can of course be contained.

The stage changed again.

I was now at my thatch roof home.

“Stop..”

Pain shot through my head. I was rejecting this one before it even began.

The front door opened and my feet moved against my will. I stepped inside and walked down the long hallway that had several chains running down it.

I didn’t want to see this.

It was possible this desire did exist inside me. It was possible I had felt this in some deep part of my heart. But I had known her almost from the moment I was born. If “she” began flirting with me like a scene from silly porn video, something inside me would break. I could tell before it had even begun.

The door opened.

A large room appeared before my eyes.

A warm, gentle, and convenient hell awaited me. They all turned their heads my way: the Furutsubaki, the Yuki Onna, and the Zashiki Warashi. They all had collars around their necks. Their own thoughts had been completely erased and they looked like they had been injected with pure happiness. They all opened their mouths at once and-

“Stop!!!!!”

Shouting was enough to make me feel dizzy.

I could tell just how much that simple exchange had taken from me.

——Oh? Do you feel guilty when it’s someone you know? Then how about a celebrity far removed from your own life? Yes, why not take all s-->>

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