Volume 2, 4: ??? @ The One Who Covers Up a God(3/5)
Her methods were similar to Houjou’s as he sealed power within Youkai art. It was said that kanji had been originally created by simplifying pictures, so this was not too surprising.
She had created hundreds of Youkai curses which were now robbing Hishigami Mai of control of her body.
The blood splattered on Hishigami Mai’s body symbolized how far she had fallen.
That was the blood of those who had once been her companions or family.
This further confirmed what the emails and the Jorougumo glove had said.
She had shown no mercy.
She had slaughtered all of them and returned to Saijou Ai.
Saijou’s commands were absolute.
No matter how much of an expert Hishigami Mai was, she could not escape this curse.
Saijou waved at her.
“Are you done?”
“...Are you?”
“I swiped them while you were having your fun, Mai-chan.”
Something banged on the inside of the Hitman Tuxedo’s trunk. Two Youkai that had been living in Noukotsu Village were contained inside.
“An Umbrella Obake and a Lantern Obake. ...I doubt many people in Japan know just how important these Youkai are, but Youkai that have no set purpose are quite rare and are quite valuable.”
There was a Youkai known as Nurarihyon.
This Youkai was known as the leader of every Youkai in Japan. However, that characteristic had mostly been created by humans.
It had originally been a type of ocean Youkai, but no one had known what it did.
And it could be freely remade into almost anything because its role was not decided.
In other words...
Depending on the situation, the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake could be remade in the same way.
They could be remade into a controller that could command any Youkai in Japan.
“And on top of that, the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake are Tsukumogami. They are the type of Youkai that gain power the longer they are kept as possessions. That means I can make them change in convenient ways if I arrange their surrounding environment correctly. You could view it like a storehouse for wine or cheese.”
The Hitman Tuxedo’s trunk had already been remodeled for that purpose. The Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake stored within would likely become Youkai controllers in about half a year.
Once a single trivial problem was dealt with, that is.
“Mai-chan, may I ask one last task of you?”
“Ask me anything.”
“A child named Yonesaki Hiro lives in this Intellectual Village. Kill him. The Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake only have value as neutral Youkai that hold no purpose, but it seems they have taken on the role of protecting their family. The purity of the final product should rise if that is completely destroyed before the assembly begins.”
“Understood,” she easily and readily replied.
Her killing techniques were valuable enough for Hyakki Yakou to frequently hire her. If she obeyed this command and used those techniques to their fullest, it was obvious what would become of Yonesaki Hiro.
Once Yonesaki Hiro was killed by Hishigami Mai and they escaped from Noukotsu Village with the Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake, Saijou’s objective would be complete.
The ultimate objective of Akki Rasetsu – which was now only Saijou Ai – was to perfectly fuse a human and a Youkai. She wished to obtain a physical body that was not bound by a lifespan and could ignore the laws and systems of the human world. However, she needed to create a controller to safely and surely gather plenty of sample Youkai. It was the bare minimum to ensure she was not killed by her own prey.
“I will be going then.”
“Finish this quickly.”
“Of course.”
Saijou Ai did not make a habit of seeing puppets off.
She turned away from the pathetic loser and began thinking about her upcoming path to success.
And then...
Hishigami Mai’s slender arm mercilessly stabbed into Saijou Ai’s side.
Part 10 (Hishigami Mai)
“...Hh...Gh...?”
I heard an odd voice.
What was it she found so confusing? The fact that a giant hole had just been opened in her side or the fact that the slender arm of a lady could do that?
Or was it that I, Hishigami Mai, was not under her control?
“B-bghh!? Cough cough!! Wh-why!? Ngh...bheh!?”
Disgusting.
You don’t even hear noises like that when cleaning bath pipes.
“Saijou-chan, was it? Y’see, I thought there was something beyond Houjou in Kyoto. I figured I would hear plenty of information if I purposefully let myself be taken into the enemy ranks. I’m disappointed at how little depth I found. A controller for all Youkai? Transplanting an Umbrella Obake and Lantern Obake into the Nurarihyon method? That’s much too shallow. If this is all that’s left of Akki Rasetsu, I feel sorry for the old leaders you went to the trouble of purging.”
I had of course made sure to tie up the loose ends before enacting this plan. I had sent the Sunekosuri to tell the Illness Magic User to help the Amemura family move to a new home.
“Hh...bh?”
“I had expected you to easily believe I had been defeated as long as I released my precious Deadly Dragon Princess to help out...but to be honest, this was too easy. If you’re going to control my body, at least test it out with some sexual harassment.”
C’mon, I’m going to the effort of explaining it to you.
Don’t pass out yet. You have to hear me out.
“B-bfhh!! Cough cough!! Gygybh!! Hhy? Why? Y-you were...byhbh!? My Kosode no Te...were perfect...!!”
“Yes, yes. The Kosode no Te. That’s a kimono Youkai that curses the wearer, right? Even if curses are difficult to avoid or defend against, it is relatively easy to deflect them into a different direction. Surely you know that the foundation of curse countermeasures is to deflect them back at the user, right? I was so covered in this Japanese paper that I was able to send the curses at each other, causing them to cancel out each other’s effects.”
“Jhbbh!?”
“So of course, I was never obeying your orders from the beginning. Yes, I stopped Jinnai Shinobu-kun’s heart. The same with the detective and my sister. ...But I resuscitated them after exactly 20 seconds. The Jorougumo Package excludes anyone who dies. And it does not track what happens to people who have been excluded.”
Thank you for falling for this so wonderfully.
But you can never survive in this world if that is all you have.
“If you really want to kill me, you either have to place the routes of the curses so I cannot calculate them or send in an overwhelming amount of curses like the Illness Magic User does. Get it now?”
“Bshbh!? Grgrh!! Gbhghchghrhbhjfbhfhjbhchbhrhfjdhcyehfhgyfjchhdfy!!!???”
“Those were some horrible curses and they have been running nonstop this whole time. The excess power has been building up like a bowstring being drawn. Let’s just say it won’t even leave behind a corpse.”
I began removing the cheap magic charms attached to my body while paying no heed to Saijou-chan who had been sucked up down to the last drop of blood.
Wait, this is bad. If I take these off, I’ll be naked. Um...Let’s see. Oh. There’s a blanket in the backseat of this ugly car. A gun too.
Now then...
It’s Hishigami Mai-san’s turn now.
My job would have been so much easier if defeating a smalltime villain like her was enough to bring an end to this incident.
Part 11 (Hishigami Mai)
I retrieved the Deadly Dragon Princess Shikigami I had released as decoy information needed to convince the enemy I had really lost. I then returned her to her “original world”.
Hmm, I did a nice job of destroying her. I need to make sure to fix her later.
From what I had caught a glimpse of while pretending to be controlled, it seemed that Shikigami had taken a liking to that detective. I had commanded her to stick with him, but she had gone farther than that. It was possible he had lured her in with her favorite food.
I had already resuscitated the detective, my sister, and Jinnai Shinobu-kun, so their lives were not in danger.
They arrived wanting an explanation, but I still had other things to do. I opened the trunk to Saijou-chan’s ugly foreign car.
Inside I found...
Ohh, what’s this!? They’re so cute!!
“Bwahh!! Wh-what is going on!? Why would you suddenly lock us in here!?”
“It is too hot in here! Especially with this Umbrella in here too!! ...Wait. Who are you? Wh-why are your eyes glittering as you stare at us!?”
The Umbrella and Lantern who each had a single comical eye were shouting about something or other.
Oh, how wonderful.
It’s the same as with that Sunekosuri. It scares me how I lose all self control when I see these cute harmless Youkai.
As I watched the Umbrella and Lantern hurry back to their home, I said, “Now then. Time for the real problem.”
“What? I thought you defeated the person behind this. Did they get away???”
People sometimes made that mistake when I did not even leave a corpse behind.
But that was not the issue here.
“I pretended to have my body controlled to enter the organization named Akki Rasetsu. From what I saw and heard, it seems they were being supported by someone.”
“You mean like a patron?” asked my sister.
“No, nothing so well-defined. More like someone who was observing Saijou from afar and secretly eliminated any dangerous elements that might have gotten in Akki Rasetsu’s way. Akki Rasetsu probably had no idea this was happening.”
I doubted a group too dimwitted to notice the threat I posed could have detected “them”.
The detective frowned and said, “What does this ‘someone’ want to do?”
“I don’t know, but they definitely thought Akki Rasetsu’s project would benefit them. They snuck in this far for some clear objective, so they are not going to remain silent now. To be blunt, they will likely attack this Intellectual Village in place of Akki Rasetsu.” I glanced around the area. “Northeast, west, and south-southwest. Somewhere between 700 and 1000 meters away. I sense a few people watching us.”
“What?”
Jinnai Shinobu narrowed his eyes and stared into the distance to answer his question, but that careless action only made me sigh.
“It’s no use trying to see them from here. If you turn such obvious focus in their direction, they will hide. And if you do spot them, they might blow a hole right through the center of your body with a sniper rifle, so be careful.”
“...”
“Do you have any guesses as to who they are?” asked my sister.
“They seem like soldiers to me. From the way the unit is deployed and the way they hide themselves, I would guess SAS. I could narrow it down further if I could intercept their transmissions.”
Jinnai Shinobu looked confused.
“What’s SAS? Some kind of space defense force?”
“They are a British unit. However, they are seen as the standard for special forces, so plenty of other countries emulate them. They even have official lectures for the troops of countries allied with England, so this alone is not enough to know what organization is behind this.”
Of course, this was connected to the occult, so it was unlikely that this SAS-style special forces unit would be our only enemy. My guess was this enemy was on the level of an entire nation and so they could freely use special forces to support their project.
The detective sighed and said, “What are they doing here? If we figure out who they are and learn what they are after, could we use that to fight them off?”
“That is what I’m about to try.”
With that offhanded comment, I pulled out a device that looked like a cross between a cell phone and a radio.
It was my usual satellite phone.
My little sister frowned and said, “Who are you going to contact with that?”
“Hyakki Yakou, of course. They have the most information of this sort.”
Part 12 (???)
Hafuri, the girl of about ten who was the current head of Hyakki Yakou, sighed when she answered the phone. The tearoom in the flying wing cruising at an altitude of 9000 meters was still enough for that slight movement of air to be seen as a definite flow in the room’s atmosphere.
“I had thought it was odd for it to be suggested to destroy the living environment of Noukotsu Village by disseminating hydrogen sulfide and making it look like a volcanic eruption. It seemed too forceful to simply put an end to Akki Rasetsu’s project to take control of any Youkai in Japan. I did not like the idea of slaughtering those innocent villagers when it is our role to protect them.”
“Hmm.”
“That means a few of the 100 officers that took part in the meeting may have realized who is hidden behind this incident.”
“Do you have any guesses who that might be? It should be someone who can freely use SAS-style special forces.”
“A witch most likely,” replied Hafuri.
“That’s what I thought. That is the most likely option for a foreign force. The real question is what type of witch is it?”
“Not a European or American one. They would have no reason to attack Japan. They confiscated most of our documents when we lost the war long ago. With all that detailed information, they would have no reason to sneak in and try to steal any data now.”
“So it’s a witch from somewhere else?”
“Witches have scattered all over the world, but we can narrow it down quite a bit since she is using SAS-style special forces. ...And there just so happens to be one major country not in Europe or America with special forces based on the SAS.”
“I see.”
Hafuri scratched her chin with the same small hand holding the phone receiver. The main problem was that some of the 100 officers knew about this. And that they had brought forward that ridiculous plan to destroy the Intellectual Village in response.
“The 100 officers may have chosen a rather forceful method of eliminating this person behind Akki Rasetsu,” she said.
“No, we need to assume the worst goes much deeper than that.”
“What do you mean?
“Hyakki Yakou’s meetings with the 100 officers are not contained to the flying wing, right? They use the internet and speak without showing their face. That prevents others from influencing their opinion, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is possible some of the real officers have already been killed and replaced with someone else entirely. Perhaps they are the ones behind Akki Rasetsu and they are having Hyakki Yakou take action to ensure their plan progresses smoothly. You lost a lot of the commanders in the confusion of that coup d’etat recently and had to replace them, so it wouldn’t have been that hard to take advantage of the situation.”
“True.” Hafuri gave a slight nod. “We have special software that can remove their anonymous state. The 100 officers do not know about it. We will use it to investigate this.”
“This is a group that uses decoys on top of decoys to hide their identity, so that alone may not be enough.”
“Then what do you say we should do?”
“Lay a much flashier trap. I’ll help you with that.”
“What should we do first?”
“For now, approve the plan to destroy Noukotsu Village. I’ll fill you in on the rest after you do.”
Part 13 (Jinnai Shinobu)
We left the foreign car used by the person from an underground group called Akki Rasetsu and walked back to my thatch-roof house. It seemed the Hishigami sisters intended to use it as their home base for the moment. Mai was only wearing a blanket for some reason, so she borrowed a yukata. The way she wore it still did not leave much to the imagination, though.
Just as I was hoping everything was settled, Hishigami Mai told us something unbelievable.
“What!? You had her give the go ahead for a project to slaughter everyone in the village!?”
“Don’t get so upset. This is a trap. We can’t fight back until we uncover the enemy. We must be defeated if we want to eliminate every enemy from this Intellectual Village, right? You just have to turn a blind eye to the slight risks involved.”
“So who is this enemy?”
“A witch strongly influenced by western methods. Probably an Australian one.”
“Why would someone like that do this? Is she trying to steal brand name fruit seeds from the Intellectual Village?”
“What they want is something more occult,” replied Hishigami Mai offhandedly.
She then grabbed the remote control for the television at one end of the Japanese-style living room and turned it on. She changed the channel to an afternoon talk show.
“Australia’s circular farms are having a large effect on the grains market, but recent cyclones and an outbreak of locusts has caused serious damage to their wheat crop. This has caused unrest to spread through the futures market and...”
“Come to think of it, they were talking about this on the quiz show rerun the Yuki Onna was watching. What about it?” I asked.
“Natural disasters and outbreaks of pests are stereotypical forms for divine punishment. Even Japan’s ancient documents record several such incidents. With these incidents causing great damage in Australia, it is not too surprising that some have decided to put together a countermeasure.”
“What does that have to do with Japan?”
“Australia is part of the new world just like America. But that is technically just what the Europeans decided to call it after they destroyed the cultures that already existed there. This of course angered the native god of the slighted land. This situation could easily lead to natural disasters, but the Australian government that ignored the older culture for so long has no idea how to pacify this god. After all, they have no scriptures to act as a manual.” Hishigami Mai spun the TV remote around in her hand. “Akki Rasetsu, the organization I was dealing with, was looking for a method to control Youkai and gods. This Australian witch may have thought she could use that, but I think that was just a digression. Her true goal lies elsewhere.”
“...?”
“It’s simple. Witches worship demons to borrow their power. ...So what exactly are demons? There are two types: the pure species of demons and the altered forms of gods from other religions that have been registered as ‘evil gods’ by the world’s largest religion which uses the cross as its symbol. Witch rituals come from those old religions as well. In that case...”
Nothing she was saying really clicked in my mind.
The expression on my face must have made that clear.
Hishigami Mai winked and gave me a further hint.
“They are especially skilled at twisting polytheistic religions. And what structure is created by the gods of this country?”
“You don’t mean...”
“It’s a stereotypical situation. A witch that wishes to use a god for her own purposes would find Shinto or Buddhism to be almost irresistible. That said, the process of turning a god into a usable demon does weaken the god a fair bit.”
“So this witch’s group wants to reconstruct a god of this country into the form known as a ‘demon’? So this is just like a Package where people build a Youkai into a system that makes use of one of that Youkai’s properties?”
“Exactly. That is why they want to slaughter everyone in the Intellectual Village by disseminating hydrogen sulfide disguised as volcanic gases. The most common reason for the downfall of gods the world over is the destruction of the land they rule over. By devastating an area of land within Japan, the witch’s group can affect the god in that area.”
“...But is it really that easy?”
“Old gods will naturally change into fairies and Youkai with the passage of the era. And that is especially true for polytheistic gods. That is why gods are enshrined in large temples and shrines to ensure they do not change form. But regardless of how difficult the method is, these are still gods we are talking about. They are the largest pillars supporting their cultures. If they fall, it could even cause damage to diplomatic relations.” Hishigami Mai shrugged. “Once a god has been turned into a demon, it can be used to suppress the old god wreaking havoc in Australia out of anger. ...That will simply cause even more friction with the ancient culture, but the government only wants to protect the current system of society from further economic damage. They feel this is worth the risk. If they did not feel the situation was that dire, I doubt they would have ever contacted this witch in the first place.”
“That explains the government’s reasons. What about the witch?”
“The witch has something else to gain from this. And we can use that as a trap.”
Part 14 (Hishigami Mai)
This village would soon become a battlefield.
However, the flow of time in the thatch-roof house felt so slow you would never have guessed it. A Zashiki Warashi with excessively large breasts was flying a small toy modeled after an autogyro around the room to chase after a Yuki Onna who was running all over the place to avoid it. A Keseran Pasaran that looked like a white furball was floating around near the ceiling. It was curiously trying to approach the autogyro, but it could not keep up with the toy’s speed.
The scene made it seem ridiculous to bring up the terms “Hyakki Yakou” or “agent”.
What I saw before me was likely something I could never obtain as long as I immediately chose brute force as a means of resolving Youkai-related problems.
But then I spotted a familiar face among the Youkai.
The Youkai seemed to notice me as well and walked over. It was a white Nekomata that was overflowing with elegance.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’d rather know why you are here. Is this the territory of a former ace of Inga Ouhou?”
Inga Ouhou had been a revenge group with three Itako leading it. They would give form to the residual thoughts of the dead to hear their voices and punish their murderers. I believe the organization came about due to displeasure with the current laws that disallowed Youkai testimony or evidence obtained via paranormal means from use in court. ...But then the three Itako had started accepting money to freely alter what the dead told them. At that point, they became nothing more than an assassin group.
The Nekomata’s master had been killed due to that cheating despite being a top member of Inga Ouhou. When I had been sent in to resolve some issues Hyakki Yakou was having with them, the two of us had destroyed the entire organization in just over two weeks.
I was left with one primary question.
“You have enough power to destroy an entire organization, so are you not going to use that power to help Jinnai Shinobu-kun?”
“I try not to rely on my power too much. My direct power is no more than that of a Doberman. I merely have the added bonus of being able to transform into the person I bite to death.”
That was why she did not fight her enemies head on. Instead, she would sneak into a group of enemies and slowly cause more and more victims. Her strategy was perfect for destroying a large organization from within by spreading doubt and suspicion. I quite liked her means of fighting.
“But the strength of a Doberman seems reliable enough for a normal high school student who can only arm himself with a bat or box cutter. Plus, blades and handguns are not enough to kill you.”
“There was a recent commotion in which a small lost boy fell into a flood control reservoir. He is the kind of idiot who jumped right into the water to search for that boy, but he still had no intention of involving the Yuki Onna or myself.”
“...”
“But it does not seem he has some admirable goal in it such as preventing any danger from approaching his ‘family’. He has no problem running to the Zashiki Warashi for help. ...Basically, it is an issue of degree. If he asked a deadly Youkai like the Yuki Onna or me for help, things would get a bit messy. And once things get messy, there is no guarantee it can be neatly cleaned up.” Despite looking like a cat, the Nekomata formed an obvious smile as she spoke. “His reasons are nothing more than the irrational stubbornness of a child, but that does not mean it is always okay to make such a mess by sending in something like me. That is the way I see it. And so I will remain the cute pet that soothes the family. I will fool no one and I will kill no one. Understand?”
Having said that, the Nekomata walked off somewhere else. On her way, she chased after the light of a pen-shaped laser pointer Jinnai Shinobu was holding. She gave several cat punches to an empty wall.
Chehh...
I meaninglessly felt as if I had lost. I thought I had met a fellow killer for the first time in a while, but now I felt like I had spotted an old classmate pushing a stroller with her husband.
I grabbed a broom leaning against the wall, walked out into the hallway, and banged the handle against the ceiling partially to release my anger.
“Hey!! I know the Succubus from the European Security Force is up there!! If you want to live, start cooperating!!”
I then heard a lot of banging that was clearly not coming from the broom. It almost seemed like the attic was shaking.
You idiot. Did you really think Hyakki Yakou didn’t know you were here? The young lady has only been overlooking you out of respect for Jinnai Shinobu who did so much to quell Hyakki Yakou’s internal strife at that hotel in Fuuka Village.
The best thing to use against a western witch was a western demon.
With the final piece gathered, it was finally time to set the trap and settle this.
Part 15 (Jinnai Shinobu)
The final battle began smoothly.
It began with a comment by the glamorous Zashiki Warashi who was walking around using my smartphone as a music player as usual.
“Shinobu, you just got an email about an active volcano warning. Do you know what that means?”
“...That’s it!! That’s the camouflage warning on the notification network!!”
Even if it was only a decoy warning to make the hydrogen sulfide look like volcanic gases, it was a complete joke. They had obviously timed it so no one would make it out in time even with a car. And if we did move faster than expected, the SAS-style special forces would obviously do something to handle it.
Hishigami Mai brought her large satellite phone to her ear.
“This is going just as expected. Young lady, you’re flying right over us, right? Jump down at the last second before the hydrogen sulfide is disseminated!!”
I walked out to the thatch-roof house’s porch, put on my beach sandals, and walked out into the large yard. I looked up into the blue sky and spotted a large V-shaped passenger plane called a flying wing. Several smaller planes were flying around it to protect it.
Something was dropped from the flying wing.
At first I thought it was a bomb, but it was not. It was a girl wearing a kimono and a parachute.
Hishiga-->>