Ch.101Hold My Hand

“Come forth, Inari!”

As Katsuo rushed toward her, Kurumi summoned a fox monster the size of a house from the shadows.

“Grrrr!”

“The guardian monster Inari…”

In the blink of an eye, all I could see was a terrible mouth filled with jagged teeth.

However, without even a moment to panic, Katsuo immediately threw his head back and kicked Inari’s jaw shut as it tried to bite him.

“But, you’re too slow.”

“…! Inari! Divide!”

“Grrrr!”

“Grrrrrr!”

“Grrrr! Grrrr!”

Katsuo was toying with the A-rank fox monster like it was nothing.

Unable to stand by any longer, Kurumi immediately divided Inari into eight separate beasts.

“Bite him! Inari.”

The more she divided Inari, the weaker each one became.

She tried to surround and subdue Katsuo with eight beasts, the most stable number for maintaining strength.

But Kurumi’s strategy proved futile as…

“Hnngh…!”

Thud!

Crack!

Rip!

Katsuo tore, kicked, stomped, and bit each attacking beast to pieces, killing them all.

“He hasn’t even summoned anything yet…?”

Both Kurumi and Asuna, who was watching from behind, were shocked by the sight.

It was hard to believe he was a Beast Hunter.

His physical abilities were so incredible he could easily pass for a Fighter Hunter.

“This isn’t enough to kill me.”

“…!”

“Bring out Amaterasu, Kitsune Kurumi. Otherwise, I’ll kill you.”

“Tch! Come forth, Yukihime!”

As Inari returned to the shadows, completely beaten to a pulp.

Seeing Katsuo still walking toward her unharmed, Kurumi summoned her next monster from the shadows—a humanoid creature covered in white.

She summoned Yukihime, who resembled the Japanese yokai “Yuki-onna” with her white kimono and snow-white hair, to continue her counterattack.

“Freeze Katsuo, Yukihime.”

Following her master’s command, Yukihime immediately released a cold wind from her mouth.

Soon, the entire opposite side of the territory where Katsuo stood was covered in ice, freezing over like a severe ice age.

“Haaah…”

Katsuo exhaled a visible breath and completely froze in place.

“D-did you kill him, sister?”

“No… I’ve just barely managed to seal him away.”

Her plan was to keep him sealed like this until everything was over, then release him after she became the head of the Kitsune family to talk things through.

With that thought, Sophia sealed Katsuo in the ice pillar.

However, just as she turned away with a sigh of relief…

Crack… Crack.

“Huh?”

“The ice is cracking…”

As if saying “not yet,” cracks began to form in the ice pillar.

“I am…”

“Impossible!”

“Not… dead yet… Kurumi!”

Crash!

Even a Fighter Hunter, known for having the strongest physical abilities among Hunters, couldn’t display such monstrous strength.

Katsuo broke free from Yukihime’s seal and simply brushed off the ice crystals from his body, appearing completely unharmed.

“Kitsune Kurumi. There’s only one way you can stop me.”

“Brother Katsuo!”

“Kill me. Use me as a stepping stone to become not just the weak head of the family, but the true head of the Kitsune family.”

“Why do I have to kill you?!”

Kurumi couldn’t fully control Amaterasu.

She had only made it so that it wouldn’t kill her.

It was still impossible to control the monster worshipped as the Japanese sun god at will, which meant that if she summoned Amaterasu now, there would be no “moderation” anymore.

In other words, if this fight continued, she would have no choice but to kill Katsuo.

“Here I come…”

“Don’t come…”

“No, I’m coming. So if you don’t want to die, kill me! Kitsune Kurumi!!”

What could have made this man like this?

Katsuo charged toward her relentlessly, as if he wanted to die.

Knowing that no other guardian monster could stop him, she had no choice.

“Damn it…!”

So fairy tales don’t save everyone after all.

With that thought, Kurumi reluctantly began to summon the National Disaster-Level monster once worshipped as Japan’s sun god from the shadows to protect herself.

She was about to summon Amaterasu when…

“Wait a second!”

“?!”

“Shinwoo?”

“Katsuo! Just take this first!!”

Shinwoo, drenched in sweat from who knows where, came running between the two fighters.

With those words, something mysterious fell in front of Katsuo.

“That’s…”

“A headband?”

It was a short, red children’s headband that looked worn and dusty, as if it had been tucked away in a corner for a long time.

And upon seeing it…

Thud.

“B-Brother Katsuo?!”

Kitsune Katsuo collapsed to his knees in shock.

Kurumi was startled and looked at him, wondering what had happened.

Drop… Drop drop…

“Brother…!”

“Is he… crying?”

Tears began to flow from the eyes of the man who had always looked at the world with an expressionless face, like an emotionless statue.

“H-how did you find this?”

“In your family head’s castle. I snuck into the underground treasure vault and barely managed to bring it out.”

“For a civilian to enter the family vault without permission… You don’t value your life much…”

“That goes both ways, you know.”

Katsuo nodded quietly at my words, as if agreeing.

Meanwhile, Asuna and Kurumi, who were listening to our conversation, looked completely dumbfounded.

“Shinwoo, what is this…?”

“What did you give him that made my brother like this?”

“Oh, that?”

“This… belonged to my younger sister.”

Katsuo answered for me.

“Younger sister…?”

“Isn’t the youngest in the Kitsune family me, Brother?”

“Yes, Asuna. You are the youngest now. But until 15 years ago, there was another sibling younger than you.”

More precisely, my sister born into my family.

A genius child who was called a prodigy even among the World’s 10 Great Families from birth was still alive until then.

“There was such a child…? But none of us have ever heard about this.”

“Of course not. She was such a genius that the family decided to keep her existence a secret until her coming-of-age ceremony, planning to make her the next family head.”

“That can’t be…”

But who could have known it would become poison?

Katsuo’s younger sister, who didn’t even leave her name in the current Kitsune family history.

Kitsune Harumi.

That child began commanding monsters at age 3, and by 5, she was already skilled enough to handle all the Kitsune family’s guardian monsters.

But back then, Katsuo hated Harumi to death.

Because…

“I was just an ordinary person who wasn’t even born as a Beast Hunter.”

“…What?”

“What did you just say…”

“I am not a Beast Hunter. To be precise, I’m a regular person who wasn’t even born with the talent to be a Hunter.”

The next head of the Kitsune family.

The fact that he wasn’t even born with the talent to be any kind of Hunter, let alone a Beast Hunter, shocked Kurumi and Asuna who hadn’t known this.

“Still, I tried hard.”

“…!”

“It’s completely unnecessary now, but back then, I was a child desperate for adults’ praise. Even knowing I would become a sacrifice for Amaterasu, I trained my body to death just to be recognized.”

“What…”

“Brother Katsuo was going to be Amaterasu’s sacrifice?!”

A boy who wasn’t even born as a Hunter, worth less than an illegitimate child.

Naturally, Katsuo was originally destined to be sacrificed to Amaterasu instead of Kurumi, as he had no value for producing heirs.

But.

“Stop bullying my brother!”

“…!”

“Princess Harumi…!”

“If you keep bullying my brother, I won’t stand by and do nothing!”

Thanks to having the greatest genius in Kitsune family history as his sister, the sacrifice role naturally passed to Kurumi, the illegitimate child.

The current Katsuo would surely have thanked his sister for saving his life, but…

“I was too young back then.”

“Brother…”

“When my sister protected me from Amaterasu, all I felt was jealousy.”

It was humiliating.

It was unpleasant.

Despite his desperate efforts, he was still meant to be a sacrifice, while his sister lived comfortably, sucking on candy and receiving praise from adults.

He hated her so much that he wanted to kill her.

But if he had known she would really die… he would never have just ignored her.

“Harumi had an allergy that made her unable to eat peaches.”

“An allergy?”

“Yes, so to tease her, I deliberately peeled a peach and gave it to her. Since she was as strong as a professional Hunter and smart, I thought she would either push it away or take one bite and spit it out right away.”

But contrary to young Katsuo’s expectations…

“Thank you, Brother!”

Harumi ate the entire peach in front of him as if it was the most delicious food in the world.

She ate it so enthusiastically that juice stained her face.

At the time, Katsuo was even more infuriated by this sight.

He was simply displeased that she had eaten even the peach he had brought to annoy her, so he left Harumi’s room without looking back.

…Not realizing he had committed one of the worst acts of his life.

“Perhaps because even with professional Hunter-level skills, her body was still not even 10 years old.”

“……”

“That dawn, Harumi died after suffering severe allergic symptoms.”

“…!”

“Because of the peach I gave her.”

If it had made her sick, she could have spat it out while eating or vomited it out afterward.

But Harumi didn’t spit out the peach until the moment she died.

The reason was simply that it was the first gift her always prickly brother had made for her.

And after losing his sister, Katsuo realized.

That his mistake, his weakness, had taken away the only family member who had ever truly seen him for who he was.

That his arrogance had inflicted an incurable wound on himself.

“This headband belonged to my sister Harumi… Shinwoo. I want to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

“How did you know about my past and why did you throw this headband to me? What was your reason for giving me this headband?”

The story of Kitsune Katsuo’s past could naturally be discovered by thoroughly investigating the Kitsune family episodes.

However, Shinwoo wasn’t leisurely enough to explain such detailed settings.

The only thing he could tell him now was:

“The warmth you wanted to give Harumi, that you wished you had given her.”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you give even a little bit of that to Princess Kurumi, who still wants to remain your sister despite having a different mother?”

“My warmth… to Kurumi…?”

“Don’t regret it after losing her. Be good to her while she’s here. You’re doing the same stupid thing to your family that you regretted so much.”

“…!!”

Even if they weren’t born from the same mother, they share the same blood.

They’re family.

With those words from Shinwoo, Katsuo looked sadly at Kurumi.

In response, Kurumi once again reached out her hand instead of a weapon or monster, and earnestly pleaded.

Because after all, they were all family.

“Brother Katsuo.”

“…Yes.”

“I want to forgive you.”

“……Yes.”

“So, please…”

“Won’t you take my hand?”