Volume 2 Chapter 18 Battle Of Shizugatake 6️⃣： When The Twilight Passes
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Alright, I think it’s time to settle dis. If ya tell me everythin’ ya know ’bout Umeda straight out, I’ll make sure ya die without too much pain, okay?”
”──Hah.”
The oni’s eyes, which had been blank, suddenly lit up at Naoshi’s words.
”So, there’s still something I can do.”
”Oh, ya wanna talk?”
”No way! I won’t let you have your way.”
”Fine den, suffer and die.”
The oni laughed mockingly, and Naoshi’s response was harsh.
”Ugh…!”
Yoshitada fell to his knees from the heat and pain in his legs.
Seeing the blood pouring out, he realized it was from a kick wrapped in spirit energy.
”Ey, I meant to cut ya cleanly, but things ain’t goin’ as planned.”
As he said this, Naoshi stepped on the wound with his foot.
”Ugh, aah!”
”Ugh.”
Just as Naoshi was about to stomp down harder, Yoshitada swung his remaining arm to push him away.
As an ayakashi, the oni had a strong ability to heal.
While he couldn’t grow back both arms instantly, he managed to stand up despite his leg injury.
”Y’know what? Ya’re tougher than I thought. Should I hurt ya a bit more?”
”You really are a twisted guy!”
”How rude! I ain’t got no mercy for ayakashi.”
Thunder rumbled.
A flash of light and shock fell behind Naoshi again.
””””Ugh…!””””
The 4 people behind who were maintaining the lightning protection talisman groaned.
Even if they avoided a direct hit, they couldn’t escape the shock, light, and sound damage.
”Looks like ya still got some energy left──ah, yeah. Since we’re at it, let’s try dis too.”
Saying this, Naoshi closed his eyes and sharpened his senses.
The red sky was obvious, but considering its nature, the ground beneath him was also part of the barrier.
He searched for its shape, and it was indeed large and wide.
But it wasn’t endless──he grasped it.
”──Well, I guess dis’ll do.”
”What are you…”
Ignoring Yoshitada’s confused look, Naoshi gathered spirit energy.
Lightning burst out from his body, branching out like a fountain or a cage, exploding around him.
When it reached its peak, he clapped his hands together and pressed it to the ground.
”Break──!”
With a powerful shout, the lightning shot up into the sky.
It sounded like multiple layers of glass shattering at once, and the sky split open.
”Oh…!”
The connected world unraveled and separated.
The red color was wiped away, revealing a clear blue sky for a moment.
But it quickly turned into the dark blue of the night that should be there.
In an instant, the quiet winter night returned to the top of Shizugatake, just like yesterday.
”──I didn’t think it’d work dis good. I should’ve tried it sooner, ya know?
”This is insane. Nao-nii, are you really human?”
Naoshi chuckled at Suzuri’s sarcastic praise.
”Yaa know nothin’, if ya say dat about me. Da real deal’s way beyond dis.”
”You’re joking, right…?”
Suzuri trembled at Naoshi’s serious tone, which was not a false modesty.
Naoshi’s smile was not about being satisfied or proud; it was filled with joy from improving himself and moving forward.
The oni let out a self-deprecating laugh and slowly sat down on the ground.
”It must be my misfortune to be born in the same era as you, a mere mortal.”
He crossed his legs and sighed lazily.
This was the power he gained by giving up his humanity.
Yet, to be so easily outmatched made him painfully aware of the difference in their abilities.
”Whaddaya mean, ya think I’m all about talent?──Well, since ya accepted ya fate, I’ll let ya get away with it dis time.”
Naoshi stood in front of the oni, forming a knife hand.
He took a step closer to Yoshitada, who was sulking with a careless attitude.
”I’ll ask ya again, gonna put da information out dere? How ’bout ya act like an exorcist at least once before ya go?”
”What’s the point of talking to someone who’s become an oni? Just kill me; I’ll wait for you in hell.”
”Hey, don’t decide my trip to hell fer yourself. Maybe dere’s still a chance fer a comeback from here.”
”Is this the only chance I have…?”
”Humans gotta be humble too, ya know.”
”…I see.”
Naoshi could tell that Suzuri really wanted to say something but held back.
When he raised his arm to end the conversation, the older man’s khakkhara staff started shaking again.
”What’s goin’ on? Did somethin’ happen that made da monster late for da parade? I hope it’s just an Intermediate Youkai.”
”No, this reaction feels more like an ayakashi──wait, could it be!?”
Before the man could finish his thought, the “gate” of the one hundred demon night parade, which had somehow drifted away during the fight, began to shake.
”──Cousin!”
”Yoshitada-samaa!”
Between the physical world and the spirit world, 2 girls with silver and black hair appeared through a strange path created by the one hundred demon night parade.
”Yoshitada-sama! I’m so glad…! You’re alive, you’re really alive…!”
As soon as she landed, the girl with black hair looked around and recognized the oni, her face twisting in shock.
”M-Mifuyu…? No way…”
Even though she had cut her long hair short to shoulder length, it was definitely Tono Mifuyu.
Ignoring everything else, the girl jumped into the oni’s chest.
The bloodied arms, missing from the elbows down, cautiously caught her.
”──Yoshitada-sama, your arms… This is terrible…”
”Why, how could this happen…?”
The silver-haired girl, who witnessed their reunion, let out a long sigh.
”Anyway, did we make it in time…?”
”Ako-sama, what a reckless thing to do! That was like a suicide mission!”
It’s no surprise that the older man raised his voice in panic.
Even using a stable spirit path with a technique is dangerous, so teleporting through a temporary one made by ayakashi is just asking for trouble.
”It wasn’t that reckless. I’m a snow woman, after all.”
As Ako said this, her hair looked less blue than usual, while her reddish-brown eyes seemed to glow even more red.
There is a powerful exorcist from the snow woman bloodline, the third generation Touma Yukinojo, but unlike him, Ako, being a “woman,” is closer to her “ancestor.”
Following the same path as ayakashi might be easier for her than for an ordinary person.
However, the more she used her powers as a snow woman, the more she risked drifting away from humanity.
”Ako-chan, if ya do somethin’ like dat again an’ act like dis, I’ll reeeeally get mad, ya hear me?!”
”──Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
Ako bowed her head sincerely at Naoshi’s low voice.
Even with her doll-like features, there was a hint of embarrassment on her face.
”What’s going on, Naoshi? Mifuyu was supposed to be dead──.”
While Yoshitada let Mifuyu tend to his wounds, he looked up at Naoshi.
His eyes had regained their clarity, but now they were filled with confusion.
”Ain’t I said dat? Ya just got mad an’ attacked me all by ya ownself.”
”Wha──.”
Naoshi replied curtly to Yoshitada’s confused question.
He didn’t try to clear up the misunderstanding at all──in fact, he seemed to encourage it, but that was the truth.
”It was mother’s doing. Thanks to her sloppy work.”
”…I see. So that’s how it was. What a foolish thing I did…”
With Ako’s addition, Yoshitada’s self-deprecating smile deepened.
Still, he straightened up as if he suddenly remembered something and bowed to his sister.
”Thank you for bringing Mifuyu back.”
”I did it because I thought it would help the Kazuramichi family. You don’t need to thank me.”
”Still, thank you. Sister.”
”…You should have figured it out if you thought about it. Mother might have hidden things from us, but she never destroyed them. She’s a kind person.”
Yoshitada’s eyes widened in surprise at his sister’s words, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.
”You’re right, Mom was like that. I should have realized it… I really didn’t see anything at all.”
”Yoshitada-sama, Ako-sama?”
Mifuyu sensed the tense atmosphere between the siblings and looked back and forth between them.
There was a calm and transparent sense of resignation in the air.
Driven by growing anxiety, the girl looks up at the highest-ranking person in the room.
”Um, acting head──.”
”No way, ya already made ya request, ain’t gonna get a second chance, right?”
But the response she gets is cold and dismissive.
There’s a hint of irritation in their voice.
”I’m not blamin’ ya for not bein’ able to stop it, but anyway, there’s no choice but to kill an exorcist who turned into a demon.”
”But, but…!”
”Yoshitada-kun led a hundred demons night parade and caused chaos in Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai, and he fought against the main practitioners──So, Yoshitada-kun, do you have any choice other than to die and apologize?”
”None, that’s absolutely right.”
”Please, acting head, I beg you, can you let this go? I’ll do anything for that!”
”Mifuyu, it’s okay now. Thank you, just your feelings are enough──I appreciate how well you’ve served a guy like me.”
”Yoshitada-sama…! No, please! Don’t give up! Even if you become a demon, you haven’t killed anyone yet, right!?”
”That’s not the point, you should understand as an exorcist.”
”I don’t understand! If Yoshitada-sama dies, I’ll die here too…!”
”What are you saying…!”
”I really don’t want to be here, I’m not good with the ‘Place of Mourning’!”
Yoshitada’s first victim, Naoshi, who now holds the power of life and death, scratches his head, looking annoyed.
To protect him, Mifuyu tries to hide the demon with her small body, showing her determination without words.
”Just like with Umeda, why are you going this far?”
”Yoshitada-sama was kind to me!”
”And then?”
”I know I’m foolish and do stupid things. But Yoshitada-sama never raised a hand against me. You were the first person to treat me like that, so…!”
”Mifuyu, I…”
”Ugh, that’s quite something.”
Just that reason seems enough for her, and it’s both touching and a bit sad.
Seeing the bitter face of his cousin, it’s clear that he didn’t do it out of pure kindness.
But for her, that probably doesn’t matter at all.
People see what they want to see, and sometimes that becomes a kind of truth.
”──Ako-chan, dis girl your distant relative? From where?
”If you trace it back, she’s from the Igarashi family, a hidden child from 4 or 5 generations ago.”
”I see, dat makes sense. No wonder she looks similar, it’s in da blood.”
It’s understandable that he feels a resemblance to Ako.
The snow woman’s obsession and favoritism──this whole situation is really cursed by “blood.”
With that thought, Naoshi gave up on trying to convince her.
”Dis is a hassle, ain’t it? Fine, I’ll kill botha you two like ya want. Good fer ya, Yoshitada-kun, ya got a buddy in dis.”
Exorcists exist to protect people.
But the “people they should protect” do not include other exorcists.
The reason personal fights are officially banned is because of the long history of conflict between them.
”Wait, wait, Naoshi! I’m fine! But Mifuyu’s life──!”
The practitioners watching the scene, including Kazuramichi, kept their expressions neutral.
Even if it’s just a succession dispute, family members can’t intervene, and Naoshi’s attitude isn’t overly harsh considering how much Yoshitada has involved the public.
”She says she’s fine, so if you wanna stop it, ya gotta do somethin’ ’bout it.”
”If I could, I would! Please, Naoshi, just wait…! Mifuyu, let go, I’m begging you!”
”I won’t…! I can’t listen to that…!”
But for Yoshitada, who has lost both arms, it wasn’t easy.
He tried to shake off Mifuyu, who clung to him and shook her head, but using his oni strength against her fragile body could lead to him hurting her.
”Naoshi, no, Naoshi-san, it would be easy to just kill me!”
”I tink if ya really wanna die, then killin’ ya might be a kinda mercy. Ya’re such a carin’ person, and if I leave ya alone, it’d be a hassle fo’ someone like ya to change.”
Naoshi said this in a flat, boring voice, getting ready.
Yoshitada closed his eyes, not fully ready, and hugged his daughter with his arm that didn’t have hands.
He could hear the air sizzling.
”――――.”
But before the blow could land, 2 shining weapons were drawn.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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