Volume 2, 4: ??? @ The One Who Covers Up a God(4/5)
“Okay, good! Any member of Hyakki Yakou that puts the bloodline first will work to protect your life no matter what. In other words, they will do whatever they can to stop the hydrogen sulfide plan so you will not be killed. But the members of the Australian witch’s group mixed into the 100 officers will not care about that. The ones who insist on continuing with the plan are our enemies. Have all of them restrained!!”
I heard a low rumbling noise.
It did not belong to a gasoline engine. It was the engine sound effect added to electric cars as a safety measure.
It came from my grandfather’s light truck, but my uncle was the one sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Hey! The truck’s ready!!”
“Understood. Everyone get in!! The witch’s group will have noticed the young lady floating down. She is the leader of Japan’s largest Youkai organization. Plus, she has plenty of information from ancient books. I don’t know where the witch’s group is hiding in the village, but they will jump at the chance to take her hostage. They will definitely want some of Hyakki Yakou’s documents as supplementary material for their project to control a god!!”
I was worried, so I spoke up without thinking.
“Hey!! What exactly is a witch!?”
“Instead of using a Package that builds a Youkai’s power into a system, they bring a portion of a demon’s power into themselves. While a Youkai might be able to handle one, a witch’s powers are incredibly effective against humans. And as much of an oddity as I may be, I have not left the category of a ‘human’. In a direct fight, we would probably be fairly evenly matched.”
As I said before, my uncle was sitting in the light truck’s driver’s seat. The twintailed girl was in the passenger seat. Those were the only two seats, so Hishigami Mai and I climbed into the back of the truck.
“Okay, let’s end this. Let’s crush the witch’s group that will have gotten greedy and gathered at the young lady’s landing spot!!”
Part 16 (Jinnai Shinobu)
My uncle drove the electric truck down the narrow farm road with rice paddies on either side. The twintailed girl in the passenger seat followed the path of the parachute with binoculars.
“Oh, dear. ...She’s being blown away! She’s going to end up on the mountain at this rate, detective!!”
“That’s better than landing on a private farm. If she gets caught on one of the high voltage nets to keep out intruders, it’s all over.”
It was all I could manage to hunker down enough so as not to be thrown out of the truck as it bounced around.
Hishigami Mai seemed perfectly calm next to me. She hummed while pulling a handgun with a suppressor out from the chest of her yukata.
“Hey, can we really handle this entire witch’s group at once like this?”
“Leave it to me. If I am right, they will almost certainly fall for this trap. They are an annoying force to handle head on, but as long as...you do not...face them...head...on...”
“?”
I frowned as I started having difficulty hearing her.
I then smelled a sweet aroma.
And just as the light truck turned onto the mountain road to pursue the parachute...
I suddenly lost all feeling from my surroundings.
The next thing I knew, I was wrapped in some kind of fog. I looked around while standing. And then something else occurred to me. Why was I standing? I had been hunkered down in the back of the truck to make sure I was not thrown out.
Where was I?
Had I been dragged out of that truck racing along well above the speed limit?
Who had managed that without harming me at all?
“It is a simple magic circle. It is not even worth calling a barrier,” said a female voice. “Now, if you were able to predict I would head toward an even better target if one appeared, why did you not realize I would change my target again if one even more important than Hyakki Yakou’s leader showed up?
Eh?
You can’t mean...
“This was all to attack me!?”
I was not given enough time to take action based on the caution welling up in my chest.
Something moved with tremendous speed, ripped apart the thick fog, and forcefully grabbed my collar.
Yes. This “something” had a hand and five fingers with which to grab at me.
“Gah...ghhh...!?”
I was lifted up. My legs dangled down in midair. It may have just been the excessive thickness of the fog, but that motion was all it took for the ground to disappear from view below me.
However, the sight that lay before me was so strange that I did not particularly care about being lifted up.
What had grabbed me was a giant tree.
However, it had countless arms stretching out in place of branches, hands blooming in place of flowers, long, narrow legs wriggling along the ground in place of roots, and smooth woman’s skin in place of bark.
Someone was leaning up against the creepy trunk that curved like a woman’s waist.
This person was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman wearing a simple shirt, a miniskirt, and a raincoat despite the weather. The look in her eyes was hidden by the wide brim of her hat. The various individual items could be bought anywhere, but the silhouette they all created together reminded me of an existence I had seen in picture books.
Namely, a witch.
“Horrible, isn’t it? I’m sure you understand the general situation, but unlike European witches, we live in an environment that makes using traditional demons difficult. I had no choice but to take the methods used to turn old gods into evil gods and use them to turn a Japanese Youkai into a demon. That was enough to force some magic out of it.”
“This is...a Youkai...?”
I could feel my face stiffening as I looked at the grotesque tree before me. I had lived in this Intellectual Village for a long time, but I had never seen a monster like this. Nor had I ever heard of one from my grandparents.
But the blonde-haired, blue-eyed witch smoothly said, “Yes. Haven’t you heard of a Furutsubaki?”
“That’s a Japanese camellia tree that has built up great power over the years. They can transform into a girl, but they don’t turn into something this messed up!!”
“No, they don’t. Japanese Packages simply borrow the skills of Youkai, but Western witches distort the physical body of their object of worship into something else entirely. We give them a form much easier for a human to use.”
“You’re...kidding...”
“About what? What is needed to efficiently control an existence that exceeds humanity is not flexible negotiation skills or plentiful offerings. You need to remake their hardware into a form that must do what a human tells it to.”
An unpleasant feeling ran down my spine.
I had subconsciously decided Packages that assisted in crimes were horrible, but this went well beyond that. This was the same as deciding to give someone 20 eyeballs in order to more efficiently extract tears from them. Just how much suffering and humiliation did one endure while having one’s face and form twisted in order to wring out every last drop of power?
This was the symbol of a culture.
This was overwriting and covering up a paranormal existence.
Was this why witches had been shunned throughout history?
Even as that lifelike arm grabbed at my collar so tightly I had trouble breathing, I forced out a few words.
“Why are you...targeting me...?”
“I said I prepared this because I had no other choice, remember? It all comes down to that. I do not care about the economic damage the Australian government is so concerned about. I want to make a contract with a powerful being and borrow its power. I was originally planning to turn an old god into a demon and borrow that, but I found something much more interesting in this Intellectual Village. Something even more interesting than a manual on turning gods into demons or the leader of Hyakki Yakou.”
“You...don’t mean...”
I immediately thought of the secret base in the attic.
This witch was actually after...
“A Succubus. She is a traditional European demon. Compared to a forcibly distorted local god, she is much more certain and holds much less danger of causing any problems with my rituals. Would you choose the genuine item or an emulation? That is what this comes down to.”
“Then why didn’t you directly target our house? As soon as Hishigami Mai left, you could have easily abducted the Succubus!!”
“No, that wouldn’t work. Remember when that Succubus arrived? She used a delivery service, right?”
“How do you know that?”
“I have some of my people in the highest levels of Hyakki Yakou.”
I was not sure that totally explained it, but it was possible Hyakki Yakou really did know everything that had happened.
“The package label functioned as a sort of contract. The package was sent to Jinnai Shinobu, so the Succubus inside became your possession. But you could say that was the same as her taking you hostage. If anyone wants to damage or abduct the Succubus, they must first kill you. She predicted that Hyakki Yakou’s leader would be unable to eliminate the normal person who she owed a debt to thanks to the coup d’etat, so she used that condition as a shield.”
“...”
That goddamn demon!! I’m seriously going to punch her after this is over!!
“Anyway, you are in the way of any new contract with that Succubus, so I need you to die. I will retrieve the Succubus afterwards. And of course, I will slaughter anyone who gets in my way.”
Not good.
Not good, not good!!
I had been worried ever since someone like this entered the Intellectual Village, but now she was targeting my house.
But what could I do? That creepy “branch” was still holding me up in the air by my collar. Was there anything a normal high school boy armed with only his wits could hope to do against a witch who Hishigami Mai had said she would be evenly matched against?
Her eyes were covered by the wide brim of her hat, but the witch’s lips twisted into a smile.
“Oh, and do not think Hishigami Mai will come to save you. The magic circle isolates this space. I mixed in the oil of the Furutsubaki to pour demonic power into a ceremony that defines the scope of a temple using incense, but it should be enough. At the very least, no one will be able to break in for 12 hours and it has been made so no one will even notice anyway.”
“Wait...a second...”
“I didn’t really need to go this far to kill a single amateur, but I want to keep this information away from Hishigami Mai until I have secured the Succubus. I am not going to take my time and kill you over 12 hours, so do not worry.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I muttered. “If this is really so secure, then who is that behind you?”
“?”
The witch looked confused and turned around.
And she found...
Part 17 (Succubus)
Now then, time for the true protagonist to make an appearance.
Oh, nice. Not bad getting western black magic to run this well using a Japanese Youkai.
Then again, it’s a bit like seeing an American’s idea of a ninja boy.
The witch leaning up against the hideous tree frowned when she saw me.
“...How did you get here?”
“Is it really that surprising? Isolating a space using incense sounds good and all, but you basically used the exact same structure as a ceremonial ground for summoning a demon. None of this does a single thing to keep a demon out. I didn’t even have to try.”
“So you know what I am about to do?”
“Let’s just say I came here because I knew.”
My master, Jinnai Shinobu-chan, then began kicking his legs around and shouting while being held in midair by the Furutsubaki’s branch.
“Stop!! Don’t worry about me! Apparently she’s more powerful than Hishigami Mai!! You came to my house to escape from people like that, right? Then don’t try to fight her!!”
Oh?
I had not expected him to try to cover for me. It almost made me feel sorry for binding him with that contract as insurance against Hyakki Yakou.
However...
He seemed to have overlooked the fact that I had never said I was there to save him.
“So, Miss Witch. When do you plan on making this new contract?”
“Eh...?” said a surprised voice.
It did not belong to the witch; it was my master’s.
“As soon as I kill him.”
“Then I suggest you do so quickly. You should not underestimate Hyakki Yakou’s tracking skills. I do not know what route you plan to use, but you do not want your way back to Australia to be blocked, do you?”
“...You have no attachment to him?”
“This was just a temporary home. Blending into a culture that actually has witches should make things a lot easier. If I have a chance to leave the country, I need to take it. Especially now that Hyakki Yakou and Hishigami Mai have reached this village. That is what I truly think.”
My master looked so dumbfounded he may have forgotten he was dangling in midair and having trouble breathing.
As a demon, it was quite an exciting expression to see.
“What...? Eh? Why...?”
“Did you think we were family? Come on now, master. You may know I am Succubus, but you do not actually know my personal name.”
“That is an important factor in making contracts, so that is not surprising. A demon will not reveal her name unless she truly trusts someone,” added the witch as if to rub salt in the wound.
But...
“Miss Witch, Miss Witch. If you know your history of the witch hunts, you should be fairly suspicious of any wonderful opportunity that practically falls in your lap.”
“Your point?”
“I will prove to you that I am telling the truth. I will kill him myself.”
“...”
With the sound of a bat being swung, my master was thrown to my feet. He began coughing, but more confusion could be seen in his eyes than suffering.
But that did not change what I had to do.
“How about a riddle, master? Question 1: What is this in my hand?”
“An...ice pick?”
“I am glad your family likes its alcohol so much. I was surprised they drink both eastern and western varieties. Now, Question 2: What will happen if I stab it into your gut?”
“...”
Well, I doubt many people would be able to calmly answer that question.
Luckily, he was able to see the answer firsthand.
I stabbed it right in.
Part 18 (Jinnai Shinobu)
“Cough!? Cough!! Cough cough!! Cough cough cough!?”
“Now then. As there is no saving him, let’s hurry up and make this contract. Do you have everything prepared?”
The ice pick sticking out of my body seemed to cause my brain to numb over more than it did fill me with pain.
The difference between what I thought my body should look like and what I saw before my eyes caused a fundamental error in my thought process.
I’m going to die?
I’m going to die so simply and easily?
“Do not worry about that. More importantly, there is one piece of information I must know first: Your true name. To form a contract with you, I must know your personal name. Simply knowing you belong to the Succubus species is not enough.”
“Hm. About that,” said the Succubus with a troubled expression.
She was no longer looking at me. She was acting like I was not even there, like I was no longer human. The way I had been cast aside like a piece of rotting meat told me all too well what my fate would be.
“Unlike in Hollywood movies, demons are not free to be as evil as they wish. I cannot reveal my name in this situation. My contract with my temporary master, Jinnai Shinobu, still remains.”
“Even though you stabbed him in the gut?”
“Yes, even though.” The western European Succubus shrugged. “Making a contract with a demon is like walking across a dangerous tightrope. The slightest opening in your method of using the demon can easily lead to the demon killing you.”
“And that is what happened here?”
“However, if a demon betrays their old master and reveals the information needed to create a new contract despite the old contract still existing, they will simply be breaking the old contract. I have no pretext for acting freely, so I will be unable to remain in this world if I disobey those rules.”
“That boy has been fatally wounded. Can’t we just wait until he dies?”
“The contract between a human and a demon does not end upon the human’s death. After all, the demon is usually trying to obtain the human’s soul after death.”
“Then how can I make the new contract? I need your name to perform the ritual.”
“It is simple.” The Succubus raised her index finger. “I am afraid of breaking my contract by teaching you my name. However, it is often shown in fairy tales that demons are weakened when a human learns their name against their wishes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I stabbed Jinnai Shinobu to act as bait. Some Youkai act automatically upon sensing danger to their family. Not that anything can be done now that he has been fatally wounded.”
Some sort of form slowly appeared beyond the extremely thick fog.
It was a glamorous female Zashiki Warashi with long black hair and a red yukata.
She held some small piece of paper in her hand.
It was the summer greeting postcard that had come by airmail.
The witch frowned.
“A demon like you is one thing, but how did this Japanese Youkai enter my magic circle?”
“My name is connected to me. If she travelled along the line connecting it to me, she can travel through this fog.”
The Zashiki Warashi looked different from normal.
I had never seen that good-for-nothing Youkai looking quite so expressionless.
“Where is Shinobu?”
“It is too late.”
“Then maybe I should just hold onto this.”
“We can just take it. Go ahead, Miss Witch.”
With the sound of a whip cracking, one of the Furutsubaki’s arm-like branches shot through the air and snatched the postcard from the Zashiki Warashi’s hand.
The witch looked down at the white, heavily-decorated writing.
What? But that’s...
“Hm. A simple numerical replacement.”
“So have you stolen a look at my name? Then let us get this contract over with. What will you do about the temple for the ceremony?”
“We can use this. Not the Furutsubaki itself though. It is said a wooden pestle or mallet can transform into a human form. A lot can be done with the oil of the tree.”
“Oh? So you didn’t just scatter it around as incense to create this ceremonial ground. You also drank it to remake your body.”
“What is needed to summon a demon and make a contract is a temple to draw a set flow of power into, a protective circle for the witch, and a summoning circle to call in and fix the target in place.”
“What were you going to use for that last one?”
“This.”
“A pocket watch?”
“It can also be used as machine oil.”
“This does not seem to have anything to do with time. Do its gears create a precise combination of circles that you pass the Youkai’s...no, the demon’s power through with the oil?” continued the Succubus.
I had no idea how dangerous the amount of blood I had lost was.
“Then let us begin.”
“Do we need a written contract?”
“No, with this much preparation, a verbal contract should be enough. And it would be a pain to calculate out all the values while writing it out in the alphabet. More importantly, are you sure you want to make a contract with me?”
“Why would I not?”
“A Succubus may be a traditional demon, but we are not all that powerful.”
“If I recklessly tried for something beyond my ability, I would simply destroy myself. You should know that better than anyone.”
“I see. Fine, then.”
“Then...”
“Yes, let’s get started.”
My consciousness wavered.
A ringing in my ears exploded in my head every so often like the crashing of waves. I could not hear their voices properly.
“...ng...w......ed.........f.........ri......b...............s...............h...............gh......s.........e......”
No obvious light or noise exploded out.
No pentagrams or hexagrams appeared.
It simply felt like the situation had begun to roll down a hill. I felt a “flow” that no one would be able to stop once it started. Some sinister power seemed to be pushing us in that direction.
“This is a story from 1403 in a small walled city that relied on trade,” said the Succubus suddenly. She was not looking at me. I could not tell if she was trying to speak to me. “My old master was a court scholar who produced high-class horses for royals and nobles. ...He had originally been a magician that more broadly worked with living creatures and their souls, but he was required to produce more obvious results in order to earn a living.” The Succubus spoke amid the fog, amid the ceremonial ground created by the witch. “My old master specialized in getting animals to breed. One day, the king came to him with a request. He wanted a means of treating infertility. Whether the king left behind an heir or not could directly influence the rise or fall of nations in that time, so it was a major issue.” The Succubus spoke amid that sweet aroma, amid the spell-chanting of that witch who had built a protective magic circle throughout her entire body by taking the oil of that Japanese camellia tree into her own body. “My old master tried every method available to him, but none of those ‘normal’ methods were of any use. He had nowhere left to turn. That was when he learned that an Incubus and a Succubus are actually the same existence and the Incubus attacks women using the sperm taken by the Succubus. He attempted to use that as a means of resolving the king’s troubles. ...And he was taken to be executed two weeks later.” The Succubus spoke as that dark ritual continued, as she claimed victory using that pocket watch given the power of the Furutsubaki in the form of machine oil. “Officially, he was blamed for borrowing the power of a demon, but...in reality, it had more to do with certain influential groups that did not want the king to have an heir. And so my old master was burned at the stake. I was unsure what to do, so as an emergency measure, I stored just his soul in my womb to prevent it from deteriorating.”
That was her reason. A simple high school student like me had no way of knowing if it was possible or not. Was it possible because she was a Succubus that ruled over dreams and mating? Or was it possible because of the skills and knowledge of this “old master” she spoke of?
However...
I still did not know what result this “reason” would produce.
That lack of knowledge disturbed me.
She had taken control of the international European agency known as the European Security Force, she had picked a fight with Hyakki Yakou, and now she was trying to make a comeback in Australia. To go that far, the Succubus had to have some sort of powerful vision for the future within her.
And one step of her plan was about to come to an end.
The contract between demon and witch was about to be completed.
“For the above reasons, the veil of great ignorance shall occasionally prove that the door of unknown possibilities stands open. By intentionally twisting the structure of a former goddess of fertility and the shrine maidens that followed her, I shall connect a twisted power to myself. The witch Marguerite Steinhols and the demon Tselika Wien Alpha Chelydia Lumidrier now enter into an honest connection that crosses this honest world.”
The instant she stood on that new stage, the Succubus narrowed her eyes with deep emotion.
She then muttered a few words to me where I lay collapsed on the ground.
“Well, it may be hopeless for a demon to hope to be right...but was this perhaps wrong of me?”
“...How should I know?” I spat back, but I was not sure if I actually managed to get the words out.
Dammit.
Normally after being betrayed and surprised like this, more resentful words would well up within me, but surprisingly, nothing came.
“That isn’t something you should ask me,” I said. “But if you felt any hesitation toward accepting this, maybe you should try a different method next time.”
I did not know how she had interpreted my words, but it seemed the Succubus smiled slightly.
And then...
The upper body of the witch who had given the name Marguerite Steinhols suddenly lurched forward.
“Gh...gh...?”
With her body doubled over, the witch brought her right hand to her mouth. A dark red liquid spilled from between her fingers.
“Wh-what? The ritual did not fail. I completed the contract with the demon. So what went wrong...!?”
“Hm, I wonder what it could have been?” said the Succubus.
The witch looked over at her and then her body froze in place. A smile filled with much more obvious evil than before could now be seen on the Succubus’s face.
It was as if she was looking at some prey she had caught in a trap.
“The ice pick... That’s it! The ice pick! Unlike a normal blade, the wound is small. You could easily stab it into him without hitting any organs or arteries!! That means you-...!!”
“Of course. I am my master’s pawn. Really, you should have noticed something was up when I left the ice pick inside him. I did that to make sure he did not bleed too much.”
“So you decided to stay with your temporary household. Ghbh!? But the contract was a success. Did you forget that I can now order you to finish off Jinnai Shinobu!?”
The witch swung her right hand and completed a complex and detailed motion with her fingers.
However...
“Nothing...happened?”
“Looks that way.”
“It can’t be... Was there some defect in the ritual? No, the ritual itself succeeded. I can feel I have entered into a contract with a demon!! So why do I have no connection with you!? What demon am I connected to!?”
“As you know, you need a demon’s true name to enter into a contract with it.” The Succubus clapped her hands together in front of her face and tilted her head. She continued speaking with that mocking gesture and a mocking smile. “But do you have any way to check if that is actually my name?”
“What...?”
Marguerite looked down at the postcard in her hand.
She was double checking the string of numbers on it representing a name.
But...
“Unlike the side with the picture, the side of the summer greeting postcard with the writing is heavily decorated, right?” The Zashiki Warashi finally spoke up to answer this simple question. “I covered it with quick-drying glue and sprayed flour on it. I then rewrote the original text but with the sender and receiver fields reversed. Surely you are smart enough to understand what that means.”
“You were tricked into th-->>