of who she had once been.

She was a partner who had been with me since before my birth. She had that long black hair and youthful skin. She had been close enough that I hadn’t had an issue with taking baths with her or sleeping in the same futon as her.

But...

“Apparently, I love you.”

The words spilled out.

If Nagisa had heard me, she might have chopped me to pieces, but I couldn’t stop.

“You could have just told me, you know? You could have told me the whole ‘Nee-chan’ thing was an illusion and you’re really just a girl. You could have told me I could love you like normal. If you had, I’m sure I would have gone for it a lot sooner. I mean, you’re beautiful. Your looks are perfect, you’ve got giant tits, and your hips and butt are sexy too. Why wouldn’t I jump at the chance? Plus, you don’t age or decline. We’ve been together since before I was born, so we know everything about each other’s habits and preferences and we almost seem to know what the other one’s thinking. We’ve already seen every last good and bad thing about each other, so we know we won’t be disappointed or get bored with each other. What is there to complain about that? ...Honestly. What have I been doing all this time? I feel like an idiot for actually heading out to find a girlfriend. Why didn’t I realize it until you’d turned into a zombie!?”

When surrounded by hell, I had found what it was I wanted to keep with me even if it meant abandoning all else.

Only after seeing that did I finally realize it.

I had realized I cared more about that Good-for-Nothing Youkai’s smile than I did my own life. This wasn’t based in pseudo-familial love. It came from a much more direct emotion.

I could not allow anyone else to harm her no matter what.

I wanted to place her above all else.

I wouldn’t let anyone else touch her.

She was mine.

Not everything that came to mind was exactly pure. In fact, more of it was impure than pure. A lot of it would make me want to die from embarrassment if I said it aloud. But I couldn’t lie to myself about what I thought. When you think about it, there’s only one reason a teenage boy would have such muddled feelings toward such an attractive girl.

This would be why none of my other attempts at love or romance had lasted very long.

This would be why Nagisa had snapped and chased after me with a machete in middle school.

“Hey.” I slowly got up from the ground. “It’s pretty cheap and unfair of me to make a promise with you when you’re like this.”

I faced the beast’s cage and took a step toward the bars.

“But if we do end this zombie outbreak caused by Majina’s group...”

I stood in front of it.

The trap was made to capture a bear, so the bars were spaced wide apart. The Zashiki Warashi could reach her hands out, so approaching was dangerous.

Even so, I took another step.

I moved into the danger zone.

“If the people who turned into zombies return to normal and we can return home together...”

I placed my own palms over the hands grasping the bars. I wrapped my hands around them and gently squeezed.

It was like the preparation to push a girl back onto the bed.

I held her hands and brought my face in close.

If she bit me, I would die. I would become a zombie. I knew the risk, but I still spoke from close up.

“Then can I call you Yukari? If I have that dream to look forward to, I think I can fight even the greatest monster.”

Part 10 (3rd person)

Majina was the old leader of Hyakki Yakou. No, under their bloodline rules, he was most likely still their true master.

He was a young man with long hair and a monocle. The Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi he had traded an eyeball with stood alongside him and the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu was held in his arm. They all waited at the deepest part of Mikuchi-sama.

Lava bubbled up.

They were surrounded by intense heat and a strong smell of hydrogen sulfide. A normal person’s mind would have grown muddy after only twenty minutes in that scorching hell, but he did not have a single bead of sweat on him.

That was how inhuman he had become.

His eyes were aimed toward unseen above rather than the nearby lava.

He seemed to be waiting for someone to arrive from beyond the true darkness of that abyss.

“What are you going to do?”

“About what, Ohatsu-san?”

“The kid named Jinnai Shinobu is here. He has made it to the depths not even the current Hyakki Yakou’s greatest force could reach. You know what that means, don’t you?”

“Well, those who are meant to arrive will arrive when they are meant to. I have Mei with me, so I can only accept that destiny is a thing.”

“...”

“Also, this pleases me.”

“That the boy who walks with the Ver. 39 has taken a different path from you and the Ver. 40?”

Ohatsu’s question was followed by silence from Majina.

But it was not that he could not answer. He was taking time to think on her words.

“In the end, I couldn’t make Mei into the ideal Zashiki Warashi.”

He smiled thinly and glanced over at the Ver. 40 that did not react in the slightest.

“Whether you call it her traits, instincts, or characteristics as a Zashiki Warashi, I wanted to free her from all the rules that leave her at the mercy of her family’s fortune and misfortune. I simply wanted her to be with me, without being torn apart by the bonds of species. But after everything that happened, I ended up heading down the exact opposite path.”

Mei still did not react to his words.

The Zashiki Warashi in a white yukata was too perfect as a Zashiki Warashi. She had wished for that and Majina had provided the actual technique.

“So...”

“The way that the Ver. 39 and Jinnai Shinobu could simply smile together shined too brightly for you to bear?”

“It goes beyond just the Zashiki Warashi. I even urged on Mishima-kun when he was still green and wanted to use the police to rescue the Youkai who are neither bound by nor protected by the law. I said all sorts of idealistic things, but in the end, I was forced to rely on the organization. To me, that boy’s desire to negotiate with the Youkai until they could all smile together in a circle is a path I tried but failed to achieve.”

He slowly closed his eyes as if picturing something in his mind.

Was it a vision of a young boy smiling with so many Youkai ten years before? Or was it the back of the older boy who was now working to protect a Zashiki Warashi without abandoning her, even in this extreme hell?

“Have you caught on yet, Jinnai Shinobu-kun? ...I controlled Japan’s most powerful organization, I restored the lost Zashiki Warashi techniques, and I can bend the world’s destiny to my will, but I only traveled so far in my desire to be someone like you.”

Wanting to be something was not enough to be it.

It was because he could not achieve it that he dreamed of it every single night.

Majina had mastered the path of the “curse” his name meant, but now the Sunekosuri named Ohatsu spoke to him.

“Don’t forget.”

“Forget what?”

“It is true you weren’t able to acquire everything, but there were some who followed you as you continued forward even as that path wore you down.”

Majina smiled at those almost sulking words.

Then something happened.

The Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi had been as silent as a mere object, but she suddenly raised her head.

“I know, Mei.”

Majina also looked back.

He could see someone beyond the curtain of extremely hot steam filled with toxic hydrogen sulfide.

The person did not hide anywhere, did not hold any kind of cheap weapon, and did not take refuge behind a Youkai.

The boy stood there all on his own.

He had chosen a reckless option that Majina never could have due to his extensive knowledge of paranormal techniques.

“Welcome, Shinobu-kun. But this is the end.”

Majina spoke gently.

As he did, he placed two raised fingers on Ohatsu’s forehead.

The high school boy with hair dyed blonde opened his mouth to respond.

“Th-...”

Before he could even begin, Majina’s attack burst straight through Jinnai Shinobu’s chest.

A Sunekosuri’s existence was based in the vague fear of something lurking at one’s feet while walking along a path late at night.

Majina had taken Ohatsu’s small canine form and returned her to that original darkness, transforming her into “something that gives off a sense of death”. He rearranged that into something like a tornado or a giant fang and used it to stab through Jinnai Shinobu’s body.

This was the same technique once used on the Ver. 39 Zashiki Warashi. The Youkai was stripped of their flesh, mind, personality, and dignity. They were reduced to a mere phenomenon to alter them more easily.

He despised such a technique more than anything, yet he entrusted his life to it as it was the most logical and efficient option.

That was Majina.

That was the true master of Hyakki Yakou.

It did not matter if his opponent was an amateur, a baby, or the embodiment of the ideal he had longed after for many long years. His overly clever mind would not hesitate to kill them if that was the logical and efficient thing to do. He would not let them speak and he did not need to warm up or test their strength. He would use his greatest power from the very, very beginning to exterminate his target.

It was not that this was the only thing he could do.

Nor was he looking down on his opponent and holding back.

He had simply made the optimal choice for killing Jinnai Shinobu out of the billions or trillions of deadly techniques available to him.

And that was why his target was killed instantly.

There was no room for argument. Hyakki Yakou did not allow for that sort of naiveté. That single attack tore a hole the size of a volleyball, taking Jinnai Shinobu’s heart and one of his lungs with it.

So...

And yet...

Jinnai Shinobu seemed to ignore his death as he ran forward like a bullet.

“What?”

It was not that Majina had taken Jinnai Shinobu lightly. In fact, the man was truly unable to feel such an emotion. He would use his greatest strength to exterminate any opponent. He would logically and efficiently end their life with 100% certainty. That was why he bore the name Majina and that was why he had ruled at the top of Hyakki Yakou.

Nothing had gone wrong as far as ending the boy’s life was concerned.

The problem had to do with what happened after ending the boy’s life.

If some change had slowly occurred only once some time passed after the boy’s death, Majina would not have been caught off guard, but this was different.

“Don’t...tell me...”

“Majina!! Get ready!! He’s coming!!”

“Don’t tell me you had yourself bitten to turn yourself into a zombie!”

Now it was Jinnai Shinobu’s turn.

The zombie’s mouth assaulted Majina’s shoulder before the man could recover.

Part 11

I knew I would be killed, so I had to think about what was the best way to be killed.

When it came to that, the answer was obvious.

To be blunt, it was probably the worst possible option. I started to understand the final moment between Nagisa and the St. Bernard.

But not how Nagisa felt as she sent the St. Bernard to his grave.

I understood how the St. Bernard felt being killed at the hands of the one it cared for most.

“It was one hell of a kiss, Majina!!”

An unpleasant sensation reached my jaw. The smell of rusted metal filled my mouth and I heard a fibrous tearing sound as I felt something soft being ripped from Majina’s shoulder. The intense urge to vomit rose from the depths of my gut. Instead of fighting it, I turned to the side and spat the substance in my mouth to the ground.

“But after being bit by a zombie...no, after receiving a fatal injury or dying, there had to be a few minutes of ‘turning into’ a zombie. During that time, my physical abilities would be improved yet I keep my own thoughts. Yes, it was the same with Nakisuna. When your hair is dyed, it’s hard to tell the hair is losing color. And during that time, even a mere high school boy can outdo you!! I just had to accept being killed!!”

“You let...the Zashiki Warashi bite you...?”

“If the alternative’s being killed by you, of course I’d choose being killed by her.”

That was the limit.

A black tornado burst out from Majina. It was nearly an explosion and my zombie strength no longer mattered. I was knocked backwards, blown through the air, and slammed into the hard bedrock with a large hole in my chest.

I slowly slid down, like a piece of raw meat thrown against the wall.

There was nothing more I could do.

I heard an unpleasant sound flowing from the hole in my chest. Even as a zombie, I had no strength left and my mind was growing hazy. I looked down and saw red and purple stains on my hands. My thoughts were breaking down.

However, I had managed to accomplish something.

Still collapsed by the wall, I looked over.

“Gh...gh.”

Majina had a large chunk of flesh missing from his right shoulder to his neck. His collarbone was broken, his neck’s artery was torn, and a frightening amount of fresh blood was spurting out.

“Stop the Kasha Package, Majina.”

I somehow managed to provide a final notification despite my inarticulate tongue.

“You tried to fill Japan with ‘rational zombies’, but you didn’t want to become one yourself, did you? And if you die at this early stage, you’ll be one of the ‘irrational zombies’. You won’t be able to continue with your plans, whatever those might be.”

He could not have had much time with that veritable fountain of blood coming from him.

At most, he would have lasted a few minutes.

His long hair was already growing pale.

“...Heh.”

But he laughed.

And as he laughed, the darkness took form. The black tornado wriggled like a living creature and took aim at me like a great cobra with head raised.

“Hey, Jinnai Shinobu-kun. Did you really think my goal was myself?”

“...?”

“Did you never think I might have something I prioritize above myself, just as you wished to restore that Zashiki Warashi even at the cost of your own life? We do both have a Zashiki Warashi, after all.”

“You...don’t mean...”

Before I could finish...no, before I could even begin, the pitch black serpent prepared to swallow me head-first.

But before it could, a mass of steel weighing more than ten tons dropped down directly above Majina.

The massive and all-purpose darkness changed directions. It easily deflected the great weight threatening to crush Majina.

The darkness instead crushed what turned out to be a yellow-painted bulldozer.

But Majina was more focused on the bulldozer itself than the fact it had attacked him.

“How could this happen...? So that’s it!”

“That’s right. We both have something we can’t compromise on. I will return that Zashiki Warashi to normal whatever it takes. I’ll do anything for that Good-for-Nothing Youkai I know so well, that’s been my Nee-chan for as long as I can remember, and that I’ve fallen in love with! If you had ended the Kasha Package, I wouldn’t have needed to go this far!!”

I smiled.

I smiled?

Was I really smiling?

“The Kasha was sealed at the bottom of the coffin by the Sword of Protection placed directly above. And what else could stand in for a blade with Mikuchi-sama!? It would have to be the excavation equipment used to expand the cave!!”

Of course I wouldn’t approach him all on my own without a good reason.

We had split up into two groups from the beginning.

One held Majina’s group in place to buy some time while the other moved the ten ton Sword of Protection to damage the Kasha Package.

If the Zashiki Warashi remained a zombie after a set amount of time, I had instructed the group above to attack this area down below since my negotiations had clearly failed.

This was basically a giant boiler and the Sword of Protection was the safety valve meant to manage the power of the steam. If we forcibly moved it, changed its position, and sent it down to the bottom of the abyss, wouldn’t they lose control of the internal pressure, causing an explosion?

“You mean...you sacrificed your own life to become an undignified zombie, and yet...even after that, you chose the path of an expendable tool!?”

“I had no other choice. It was the only part I could play. Even as a zombie, I can’t knock a bulldozer or power shovel down here.”

That was why I left that job to a Shikigami like the Deadly Dragon Princess and the RC-mode zombie Zashiki Warashi being guided by the Sunekosuri.

And instead...

“I had them give me the honors of getting an attack in on the guy who hurt the girl I’ve fallen for! Why would I complain about that!?”

Meanwhile, more and more pieces of heavy equipment were thrown down. They were not accurately targeting Majina or the Ver. 40. In fact, it probably would have been easier for him to intercept them if they were.

But something else frightened him much more.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He roared.

The black serpent that was Ohatsu split apart into seemingly infinite numbers and shot down the falling machinery, but he had to know that action was essentially meaningless. We were only tearing off the ultra high power boiler’s safety valves and throwing them away. Whether he shot them down or not, the damage to the Kasha Package was already done by the time they were torn off.

And to clinch it, a tunnel boring machine with heavy machinery arms slipped through the gaps in the nearly infinite black snakes and fell into the lava-covered depths of hell.

The wind blew in a different way from before.

“The Sword of Protection isn’t meant to close the coffin like a lid. It’s supposed to sit next to the dead to drive away the Kasha.”

The bottom of Mikuchi-sama was the crucible of death where countless dead had been thrown to ferment over centuries.

The modern Sword of Protection known as excavation machinery stabbed down right next to it.

“The area overhead is wide open and the Sword of Protection has been stabbed into the depths of the earth. There’s no way your Kasha will stay put now!!”

I saw a flash of light.

It appeared in the twenty meter wide hole at the bottom of Mikuchi-sama, but it was not an explosion of orange lava.

This went well beyond that.

The pure white light covered everything. Something forced down there had been freed. It was powerful, like a bowstring being released after being drawn beyond its limit.

I finally learned what the Kasha was.

It was said to be a cat Youkai enveloped in flames or the chariot that dragged criminals’ souls to hell.

But I was now certain its original form had not been on the side of evil. It had not even been a Youkai.

It was the judge of human souls.

It was in fact close to being a god that crushed people’s sins.

As soon as the great light pierced the heavens like a beam weapon, the destruction arrived. It felt something like an intense gust of wind. The Kasha used wind to blow open the lid of the coffin. The bedrock crumbled, the shacks along the side of Mikuchi-sama crumbled, and even the ground below my feet grew unsteady. Just as I felt a shaking, my footing crumbled away like a landslide and it all moved toward the boiling orange volcanic crater.

“...!?”

I grabbed Majina’s arm as he was nearly thrown in first.

Fresh red blood flowed back out of my mouth.

We were both dyed purple.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Releasing the Kasha destroyed the Package. The zombie outbreak is over, but there’s still more I want to ask you.”

“Even if the zombies become human once more, that hole in your chest will not be healed. You too will simply remember that you should be dead.”

“Then at least let me die satisfied.”

Majina smiled as he dangled down by one arm.

“What do you want to know?”

“Why did you do all this? Why did you develop the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi, overthrow Hyakki Yakou, and try to strengthen Japan’s population with this zombie outbreak? The Sunekosuri said you were afraid of something. I can only assume you’re looking to something you can’t defeat without forcing everyone to work together. This was all meant to fight whatever it is, but what is it!?”

“It is not an enjoyable story.”

“Tell me. This is the end for us both anyway.”

“You have already seen this greatest evil that will lead to the end of the world.”

...?

I didn’t know what he meant, so he continued.

“Listen, Shinobu-kun. There are many different kinds of Zashiki Warashi. Based on their origin, there are those that come from the children killed during famines and there are those that are Kappa or Badger Youkai that took on human form to live in people’s houses. The most important point when it comes to that is the color of their clothing.”

“What...?”

“Normally, a Zashiki Warashi will prefer to wear a white kimono. That is a standard Zashiki Warashi that brings prosperity to its family. But that is not the only legend concerning them. There are also more disconcerting stories about them predicting a fire or about the entire family dying of food poisoning just as they leave the house.”

A normal Zashiki Warashi would wear a white kimono.

But wait.

The Zashiki Warashi I knew didn’t. It partially had to do with my grandma using her as a dress-up doll, but there was one color she always preferred!

“Yes, the red kimono. ...The Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi is an ill omen. When it leaves the family or predicts that family’s destruction, it always wears red.”

And...

“That Zashiki Warashi is not just any Zashiki Warashi. She is the Ver. 39. She once had her power thoroughly increased using insane ideas implemented with definite techniques, so she can go beyond manipulating the world’s destiny and actually create that destiny out of nothing. So what if she was ‘red’? How far would the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi’s power reach? She would not bring about the downfall of a single family. There is a chance her influence would surpass the framework of Japan and bring about the downfall of all mankind.”

“You’re kidding...”

I felt dizzy, but not because my death was approaching.

“How am I supposed to believe that!?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

“When she...when that Good-for-Nothing Youkai used her Ver. 39 in that past incident, it was only ten years ago. She’s been living in that house for over a century, so the world should’ve been destroyed far sooner!”

“That just shows how prosperous the Jinnai Brewery was. It was enough to force back the destructive power of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. You can be proud of that, but it will not last forever. The end is inevitable.”

Majina smiled with his purple-dyed face.

“I have the Ver. 40 Zashiki Warashi. Why do you think we didn’t use that power to put you in checkmate? Because we needed the full power of the Ver. 40 to oppose the ruinous destiny brought by the Ver. 39. If she had used up the Ver. 39 to stop the zombie outbreak, Mei’s Ver. 40 could have contained it. But I never expected her to become a zombie herself and lose her rational mind. This was not malice on Yukari’s part. We should view it as just how cruel the Ver. 39’s ruinous destiny is.”

I had assumed Majina’s group had started down this strange path because my changes to the past had allowed them to escape their assassination.

“In theory, we should have won, but it didn’t work. This power is great enough to overturn reason and drive back logic. While the Ver. 39 is unstable, that very instability allows it, for brief moments, to surpass the power of the fully stabilized Ver. 40. That is why we could not fully suppress the ruin she brings. That is why we lost.”

But that wasn’t all that happened.

I had resolved that past incident so the Ver. 39, that Good-for-Nothing Youkai, didn’t have to lose her power. That meant the power of the Ver. 39 remained. If her bodily structure had been destroyed and she could no longer use her power as a Zashiki Warashi, the world might have stabilized.

Majina had quickly realized that fact, so he had hidden for a decade, remade his beloved Mei into the Ver. 40, and done whatever it took to resist the ruin approaching the world.

It had all been to face that one threat.

It had all been to protect both humans and Youkai from the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi.

“You won and we lost. That may be due to our failure to suppress the Ver. 39’s ruinous power, but the result is the same. So accept this. Accept that you have released the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi. Accept the true ruin that will bring.”

“I’m going to die here and this is the truth I find at the very, very end!?”

“That is why I will play one last piece of mischief.”

A small light appeared near Majina’s chest.

Was it was some kind of paranormal power? Since it was intentional, perhaps it was best called a paranormal technique.

“Our original destiny was to die and this incident was the result of us fooling history for ten years. To put it another way, correcting history to its proper form will erase the tragedy we created. It isn’t actually that simple, but my technique can forcibly twist it in that direction. Of course, it will be a joint effort borrowing my wife’s power.”

“Majina...?”

“You returned yourself to human with your own power and your human wounds will be healed by the historical corrections brought by my disappearance. This way you can survive to see the world of the Bloodstained Zashiki Warashi.”

“Wait. But then what happens to all of you!?”

“Ohatsu-san and my wife Mei are both Youkai. They were always paranormal beings, so they have some resistance to interference from history and destiny. Shikimi-san is probably 50/50, but she was always something of a living legend and it’s worth seeing if she can escape her destiny to die. The most unnatural one here is me, a ‘mere human’ who has continued to live in defiance of destiny. So once the distortion of history has concentrated at that weakest point, I will intentionally correct that distortion. That will leave me as the only sacrifice. No one else will be affected.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about!!”

“I feel bad making a comparison here, but not even Mishima-kun from the NPA stands a chance. Nor does Hafuri. Neither of them can solve this. You are the only one. I am certain that only you can stop the Bloodstaine-->>

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